Suwon Fort and Namun Market

If you happen to have enough time before you return back to India, just give a visit to this Suwon fort, Its not all that great, but you can click some pictures on top of it, a nice view of Suwon city from there, when I went there I forgot to take my camera along as it was a visit in hurry to get some traditional Korean items from the Namun Market, a small market place near the fort, where you get lot of traditional Korean Items for sale.

The fort is not very big, you need to climb lot of stairs before reaching the top, and on Top you won’t find anything that makes you feel worth that effort. A long wall built few centuries ago, and a wishing tree, it’s believed that whatever you wish will come true.

There is a museum also, which showcase the dresses and the weapons used by Koreans in war and by ancestors, but I could not visit that as it was already late. Getting there is very easy, take a taxi from Suwon and ask him to take to Namun Market. May be you better write it down on a paper in Korean and show him as most of them don’t understand English.

Yangson Electronics Market

This is one of the best place to buy any electronics items from Korea, place is very easily reachable from Suwon station, take the train to Seoul and get down in Yangson station, from the station just take the escalator up to get inside this big electronic mart.

There is wide variety of electronic items available here, I have not seen some of them before in my life, and they have electronic gadgets for every aspect of daily life. Most important thing is the price and the quality, you need to very careful about this here, Price is not fixed, it will go on reducing depending on the your skill of bargaining. Check in at least 4-5 shops before buying any items, otherwise at the end you may find that you have paid more than the price of the Gadget.

As I heard from someone in Korea, they believe that the electronic items, especially serviceable items produced for Korean domestic market are of cheaper quality than the International ones as service industry one of the biggest in Korea. So better not buy laptops and all in Korea. They sell products made in Japan, Korea and China and the quality is in the same order, so be careful while choosing any product, see where it is manufactured.

Namdaemun Market, Seoul

A crowded market place, with lots of retail shops where you can find almost everything you need from fancy items for your girlfriend to clothes. There are few Malls too, but you will enjoy more on the market side. You get yummy sea food too. It’s really a worth visit to this place, especially at the end of trip when you want to get some things for your near and dear ones, there is lot of choice here.

This place is called as Bombay of Korea, as some shopkeeper told me. You find clothes at very cheap price here; quality is not that great, but pretty good. Girls will definitely enjoy shopping here, for guys it’s not disappointing although. You get nice jackets for 5000 Wons! You can get here by train, either by getting down in Seoul station and walk a little distance, a 5 minutes walk, or get down in Hoehyeon station, whose exit enters market directly. There you start shopping. It takes about an hour from Suwon station to here.

More info can be found here
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