Top things to do

This sprawling fabric market is now best known as Seoul’s busiest meokjagolmok (food alley), thanks to the 200 or so food stalls, kimchi and fresh-seafood vendors that have set up shop amid the silk, satin and linen…

Seoul's hippest cafe-bakery, Onion is the epitome of industrial-chic cool, set within a semiderelict concrete building that just begs to be photographed. Scenesters queue out the door to take their turn loading tray…

Hands down the most stunning converted changgo (warehouse) venue in 'Seoul's Brooklyn', Daelim Changgo is the ultimate synthesis of Seoul's obsessions for cafes, design, art and selfies. Choose from single-origin co…

Designed by the late Zaha Hadid, this neofuturistic cultural complex was commissioned to replace the Dongdaemun Stadium, built during Japanese rule in the 1920s. Dubbed the 'largest three-dimensional atypical struct…

Learn about the history and practice of traditional Korean medicine at this impressive facility styled to resemble Bojewon, a clinic from the early Joseon Dynasty strategically located here outside the City Walls to…

The tteokbokki at this raucous restaurant comes in bubbling saucepans as part of a witches brew of rice cakes, fish cake, instant ramen, veggies, egg and tofu in a volcanic sauce. It's pure, junky comfort food and g…

See what's coming next in Korean fashion at this fabulously well-designed boutique, which offers streetwear, gifts and bags on the ground floor and more formal styles upstairs. Even if you're not buying, the shop de…

Also known as Gyeongdong Market, Korea’s biggest Asian medicine market runs back for several blocks from the traditional gate on the main road and includes thousands of clinics, retailers, wholesalers and medicine m…

The bargaining never stops at this colossal retail and wholesale cluster, best visited at night when local buyers come clamouring for deals. The labyrinthine market buildings comprise some 30,000 retailers; only ser…

Cut through Dongdaemun’s commercial frenzy by heading to its leading fashion department store, which is full to the brim with domestic and foreign brands. Fifteen floors, above and below ground, are dedicated to clo…