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Insa-dong, Korean Culture Street
Comparable to London's Covent Garden, or New York's Greenwich Village, Insa-dong cultural street is a must visit destination for tourists.
Insa-dong comprises of galleries, craft shops, restaurants, and coffee houses. There are also stalls, Korean fortune tellers who can interpret your astrological chart, portrait artists, and calligraphy artists who will paint your name in Hangeul.
The galleries display local artists work: drawings, paintings, pottery, and sculpture. They are free to enter and usually sell the craftwork on display. Craft shops sell traditional Korean products such as shoes, string bags, fans, mulberry paper, calligraphy brushes, and Korean pottery alongside souvenirs such as key rings. Vendors on the street also sell many of these products as well as scarves, bags, and jewelry. There are two stores selling traditional Korean attire called "Hanbok." Other stores sell items of clothing such as dresses and sweaters.
The many restaurants cater for most tastes with especially many Korean and Japanese eateries. Menus are often printed in English, and waiters generally speak a little English too. The decor in these restaurants is as attractive as the food. Most restaurants are styled on traditional Korean houses; made solely of wood and filled with many of the products that are for sale on the street such as intricately detailed paper and wooden lanterns.
Coffee shops and Tea Houses have also been furnished with great care. They have cleverly been designed to make you feel as if you are sitting in someone¡¯s living room, and the delicious teas such as Citroen are enough to warm you even on the coldest day.
Look out for the stall making Honey and Nut Candies. The show that the three chefs put on is definitely worth watching. They take a lump of honey and stretch it into a string which they join at the ends to make a circle. This is then folded several more times until eventually thousands on cotton-thick threads of honey are made. This is then used to parcel a nut mixture. As the sweets are being made they give a running commentary in Korean, English, and Japanese!
Insa-dong has that magical feel that any touristy area does when you are in a new country. It makes for a great day out. The best day to visit is on a Sunday when the street is closed to traffic between 10am and 10pm.
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