Insadong

Why it matters

The name joins two old neighbourhoods, Gwanin-bang and Daesa-dong, and for some five hundred years this was a residential quarter of the capital, home to government officials in the shadow of the palaces. Under Japanese rule, as its old families were displaced, it became a place to trade antiques, and in the decades after the war it grew into the centre of Seoul's art and antiques trade. By one often-quoted estimate it once held some forty per cent of the country's antique shops and art galleries.

Today it is the city's most visited street for traditional Korean culture: galleries of painting and ceramics, shops of hanji paper and calligraphy materials, traditional restaurants and tea houses, all on a human scale. The Korea Tourism Organization notes that its streets are wider and easier to walk than those of nearby Ikseon-dong, and that buskers perform along them in the evenings and at weekends.

The signs, and the Starbucks

Insadong's most recognisable detail is its lettering. Shop signs here are written in Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, and that includes international brands. The Starbucks on Insadong-gil, which opened in 2001, was the first in Korea to put up its sign in Korean: local merchants had opposed an English sign as out of keeping with the street, and the company responded with Hangeul lettering and a traditional-style frontage. The sign was redesigned in 2018 and it is now a sight in its own right, photographed by visitors from Korea and abroad.

The choice of script matters in Korea. Hangeul was created at the court of King Sejong in the fifteenth century, at Gyeongbokgung, so that ordinary people could read and write their own language, and Koreans celebrate it with a national holiday, Hangeul Day, each October. On a street devoted to Korean tradition, a sign in Hangeul is a quiet statement of what the street is for.

It is a small thing, but it says something about the street. Insadong is a commercial street, full of souvenirs as well as art, and not everything sold here is old or handmade. What it has kept is a sense of itself: a place where Korean craft, script and taste are the point, not the decoration.

What it's like

Insadong-gil runs roughly north to south for several hundred metres, a paved street lined with trees, low buildings and shopfronts. At its busiest it is full: tour groups, families, couples in rented hanbok, stalls selling street snacks, and at weekends buskers and performers. The shops along the main street sell a mixture of the fine and the cheap, from celadon and lacquerware to fridge magnets.

The alleys are where it changes. Turn off the main street and the lanes narrow between old houses and small buildings, and the noise drops. Here are most of the traditional tea houses, some in hanok with courtyards, and small galleries, framers and restaurants. It is worth getting a little lost, and every alley leads back to the main street in a few minutes.

Ssamziegil, near the middle of the street, is the district's best-known building: a shopping complex opened in 2004, in which a continuous ramp spirals up around an open courtyard past small studios and design shops to a rooftop. It is a modern building made for the street's crafts, and walking it from bottom to top is a pleasure in itself.

In the evening the street changes again. The day's tour groups thin out, the lamps come on in the tea houses and restaurants, and on busy nights buskers play along the main street. It is a good time to eat: the alleys hold restaurants serving hanjeongsik, the traditional set meal of many small dishes, and simpler places for noodles and pancakes.

The seasons suit the street in different ways. Spring and autumn are the most comfortable for walking the alleys; in winter the tea houses come into their own, warm and steamy against the cold outside; and on a wet summer afternoon there are few better places in Seoul to wait out the rain than a tea house by a paper window.

Tea houses serve a range of traditional teas, most of them not made from tea leaves at all but from fruit, roots, flowers and grains, often with small traditional sweets alongside.

How to visit

Getting there

Take Line 3 to Anguk Station, which is at the northern end of Insadong-gil, a couple of minutes' walk away. From the southern end, Jonggak Station on Line 1 and Jongno 3-ga on Lines 1, 3 and 5 are both within walking distance, with Tapgol Park at the foot of the street.

Insadong-gil runs south-east from near Anguk Station on Yulgok-ro to the Jongno end by Tapgol Park. Jogyesa temple lies just to the west of the street, Ikseon-dong's hanok lanes a short walk to the east, and Bukchon and the palaces to the north across Yulgok-ro.

What to buy

The street's shops mix fine craft with souvenirs, and the best buys are the things Insadong has always sold.

For antiques in particular, go to an established dealer, ask about age and provenance, and keep the paperwork: Korea restricts the export of cultural property, and older items may need clearance to leave the country.

Jogyesa

A few steps west of Insadong-gil, Jogyesa is the head temple of the Jogye Order, Korea's largest Buddhist order, and the centre of Korean Buddhism in the capital. A temple on the site dates back to the late fourteenth century; the present one was rebuilt in 1910 and took its current name in 1954. It is free, open all year, and a working temple, so visitors should keep their voices low and not photograph people at prayer. Its courtyard is hung with lanterns for much of the year, and at the Buddha's Birthday it becomes the heart of Yeondeunghoe, the lantern festival inscribed by UNESCO in 2020, with a lantern parade through Jongno.

In the tea house

Many traditional tea houses have floor seating on cushions, and you take off your shoes before stepping up onto the floor. The custom is for each person to order a drink. Tea houses are places to talk quietly and stay a while; nobody will hurry you, and a pot of tea is often topped up with hot water.

Wearing hanbok

Many visitors to Insadong wear hanbok, rented by the hour from shops in the area, and the street makes a natural backdrop for it. The practical bonus is that visitors in hanbok are admitted free to the royal palaces nearby, including Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung, provided the outfit follows the palaces' rules. Allow for the long skirt on the steps of tea houses and temple halls.

Street snacks

Along the main street, stalls sell snacks made to be watched as much as eaten. The best known is kkultarae, sometimes called dragon's beard candy: a block of honey and malt stretched and folded by hand into thousands of fine threads, wrapped round nuts. Vendors often put on a show as they make it.

Access

Insadong-gil is paved and nearly level, and easy with a wheelchair or pushchair outside the busiest hours. The alleys are narrower and some tea houses are up steps or on floor seating, so ask before you go in.

Making the most of it

Nearby

At the southern end of Insadong-gil, Tapgol Park holds a ten-storey stone pagoda and the pavilion where the Korean Declaration of Independence was read on 1 March 1919. East, Ikseon-dong's narrow hanok lanes are full of cafés and small restaurants. Just north of Anguk Station, Unhyeongung is the former residence of the Heungseon Daewongun, where King Gojong grew up, and further east lies Jongmyo Shrine, the royal ancestral shrine. North across Yulgok-ro, Bukchon Hanok Village climbs the ridge between the palaces. For food of a different kind, Gwangjang Market is a short ride east. For the rest of the city, start with our Seoul guide.