Myeongdong: Seoul's Shopping Street, Its Red-Hat Guides and the Cathedral on the Hill

A Street Built for Visitors

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Myeongdong is the part of Seoul that speaks to visitors first. Cosmetics shops line the main streets, stalls sell street food, and signs switch between Korean, English, Chinese and Japanese — we decode some of them in reading Korean street signs. It's busy, a little loud, and easy to get around on foot: look at the top right of the photo. The red sign says 진입금지 ("no entry") and the one below it 명동 차 없는 거리, 매일 10:00~23:00 — "Myeongdong car-free street, every day 10:00–23:00." From mid-morning until late at night, the main streets belong to pedestrians.

The small blue signs on the corners are street names. Korean road names come in three sizes: 대로 (daero) for wide boulevards, 로 (ro) for ordinary roads and 길 (gil) for smaller streets. A 길 usually borrows the name of a bigger road and adds a number that shows roughly where along it the side street branches off — so 명동8길 is "Myeongdong street 8." In a full address, the street name is followed by a building number, and that's what you type into a map app or show a taxi driver.

See also: From City Hall to Namdaemun Market

The Guides in Red Hats

If you see people in red hats and red shirts with a big i on the back, walk up to them. They're Seoul's roaming tourist guides — officially 움직이는 관광안내사, "moving tourist guides," and nicknamed 레드엔젤 (Red Angels). Run by the Seoul Tourism Association for the city since 2009, they work in the busiest tourist areas, such as Myeongdong and Namdaemun Market, and often in pairs. They speak English, Chinese and Japanese, and they're there to answer exactly the questions visitors have: where's this shop, which exit, which bus.

They'll happily answer in English, but a few words of Korean are a nice way to start — and the same lines work with anyone on the street. More in asking for directions in Korean.

For a sit-down question or a map, there are fixed tourist information centers too, like the booth above beside Cheonggyecheon. Seoul's big visitor center, the Seoul Tourism Plaza (서울관광플라자), is also on the Cheonggyecheon side, at Cheonggyecheon-ro 85, with a tourist information desk and a souvenir shop on the first floor.

다이소: A Whole Building, Nothing Over 5,000 Won

The tall blue tower with the red logo is 다이소 (Daiso), a Korean chain of budget household goods — and a favorite with visitors for cheap snacks, stationery, cosmetics and souvenirs. Every item comes in one of six prices: 500, 1,000, 1,500, 2,000, 3,000 or 5,000 won, and nothing costs more. When the Myeongdong Station store reopened in 2023, it took over the entire building, floors 1 to 12, with beauty, stationery, kitchenware, bathroom and hobby goods on separate floors.

Those six prices are also a quick drill in reading won out loud. Notice that 1,000 is just 천, not 일천 — see how to ask the price:

Shopping in Myeongdong: Sizes, Testers and Tax Refunds

Most of Myeongdong's shops are chain stores with fixed prices, so the Korean you need is less about bargaining and more about asking: for another size, a tester, a card payment or a tax refund. Look for TAX FREE or TAX REFUND signs. At those shops, foreign visitors can get back the tax included in the price on purchases of 15,000 won or more — have your passport ready at the till.

If bargaining is what you're after, a traditional market is the place: Namdaemun Market is a short walk west, and our walk from City Hall to Namdaemun Market shows how to read its hand-written sale signs. For more lines like these, see shopping phrases in Korean.

Street Food Korean

Food stalls are part of the Myeongdong scene. What's on offer changes with the season and the stall, but these are classic Korean street foods you'll see on signs all over the country:

For sit-down meals, the lines in ordering food in Korean work in any Myeongdong restaurant.

명동성당: The Cathedral on the Hill

At the top of the hill is 명동성당 (Myeongdong Cathedral), the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Seoul. It was designed by the French missionary priest Eugène Coste; the foundation stone was laid in 1892, and after Coste died in 1896, Father Poisnel finished the work. Completed on May 29, 1898, it was the first brick church in Korea and is a rare example of pure Gothic brick architecture here; it has been a Historic Site since 1977.

It also has a place in Korea's democratic history: during the June Democratic Struggle of 1987, protesters held a sit-in on its grounds from June 10 to June 15. It's still a working church with regular Masses, so keep your voice down inside.

Looking Up: N Seoul Tower

Myeongdong sits at the foot of 남산 (Namsan), and N Seoul Tower rises above the streets to the south — our Jongno walk has the tower's height and history. Road signs around here are good reading practice too: 사거리 (sageori) is a four-way intersection, 전방 (jeonbang) means "ahead," and 차로 (charo) is a traffic lane.

Related Knowledge

• Reading Korean street signs
• From City Hall to Namdaemun Market
• Shopping phrases in Korean
• Asking for directions in Korean
• Ordering food in Korean
• Taxi Korean phrases