Insa-dong Maru

Top choice in Gwanghwamun & Jongno-gu


Around 60 different Korean designer shops selling crafts, fashion and homewares are gathered at this slick complex. Spread over several levels, the complex surrounds a central rest area where a piano invites passers-by to give impromptu concerts.

Shops to look out for here include the monochrome accessories of 4T (www.4ourt.co.kr), and the handmade shoes of Le Cordonnier (www.ucnehandworks.co), where the master cobbler Yun Hongsik shares a space with his watch-designer daughter's brand Metal et Linnen (www.metaletlinnen.com).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Gwanghwamun & Jongno-gu attractions

1. Hwabong Gallery

0.03 MILES

Cutting-edge Korean art is usually on show in this basement space alongside permanent displays of the smallest book in the world (no more than a dot), and…

2. Sun Art Center

0.05 MILES

One of Seoul's longest running commercial-art galleries, in business since 1977, Sun Art specialises in early-20th-century Korean art and awards an annual…

3. Mokin Museum

0.07 MILES

Mokin are carved and painted wooden figures and decorative motifs that were used to decorate sangyeo (funeral carriages). Carved by village craftsmen,…

4. Cheondogyo Temple

0.11 MILES

Cheondogyo means 'Religion of the Heavenly Way', and this temple is the hall of worship for a home-grown faith containing Buddhist, Confucian and…

5. Jogye-sa

0.17 MILES

The focus of Jogye-sa is the grand wooden hall Daeungjeon, Seoul's largest Buddhist worship hall and the epicentre of Korean Buddhism. Completed in 1938,…

6. Central Buddhist Museum

0.18 MILES

Jogye-sa's museum has three galleries of antique woodblocks, symbol-filled paintings and other Buddhist artefacts. There's also a cafe and gift shop here.

7. Stone Pagoda of Wongak-sa

0.19 MILES

This 10-tier, 12m-high monument in Tapgol Park once graced Wongak-sa, a Buddhist temple that stood here but was destroyed in 1504 on the orders of the…

8. Unhyeongung

0.21 MILES

This palace has a modest, natural-wood design reflecting the austere tastes of Heungseon Daewongun (1820–98), King Gojong’s stern and conservative father…