Insa-dong, Cultural Street
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A celebration of Korea's traditional arts, crafts, and culture.
It's the distance of road from Anguk-dong rotary, through Insa-dong rotary, to street of Jongno 2-ga.
In Insa-dong street, which is characteristic village of antiquity and time-worn object, the originality is created by keeping the old thing. Tourists who want to experience simultaneously Korean traditional culture and modern culture, should visit necessarily this region. for their course of trip in Korea.
Region where there are full of cultural fragrance
Even today, people who want to feel Korean culture as it is, take a step towards Insa-dong. Around 40,000~50,000 people visit Insa-dong street during weekday, and 100,000 people visit it during weekends. Among these people who visit Insa-dong street on Sunday, about 5,000 people are foreigners.
In Insa-dong street, there are many places to visit, including Dongmungwan, bookstore which has time honored tradition. And there are 50 places where merchants exhibit Antiques & Works, such as antiquities and earthen ware made in Korea, as well as traditional industrial arts, ancient furniture.
Besides, people find small articles of utility and household porcelain. In Insa-dong you can find the charm of tradition.. But it is not limited to the tradition, and the tradition is grafted on to the modern culture. So, it becomes one of the famous place where anybody can visit without being burdened.
Original things to see and to eat
In Insa-dong there is some romantic aspect which is out of ordinary. People takes pleasure in touching and seeing and experiencing near, ancient objects of Korean products. Even though it is small street where one finish going around at the end of 30 minutes, the ancient traditional objects are installed in each lane of the street. If one enters in the lane of the street, Insa-dong, one can find about 40 galleries where one can appreciate photograph and art objects without paying the fee. So, one can smell the fragrance of Korean ancient culture as much as one likes.
Probably due to the Korean tradition which remains in this street, In Insdong, there are a lot of Korean traditional typical restaurants where one tastes Korean traditional tea and Korean traditional tasteful food. Since there are a lot of coffee shops or restaurants in the edifice of Korean traditional house innovated or not, with large garden, one feels an atmosphere which is out of ordinary.
Street without cars
The festivals held on the street, each Sunday, is one of the Insa-dong's charm which one should not miss. Each sunday, there is organization concerning street without cars, and the market as well as the events are held in that place in which a lot of people work together. So, one takes pleasure in participating in it.
On this day, since a troupe playing Korean traditional music with Korean folk dance, turning on the street gives zest to people, it seems like that there is an atmosphere of festivity in the house. Seeing the scene that we can see on TV or Korean Folk Village ( the village constructed for the purpose of preservation and exhibition of Korean folk customs, collecting Korean folk customs data), one takes more pleasure.
Children, lovers, and friends fabricate directly pottery near this place.
And one can find in the market on the street, ancient articles such as household goods, and textbooks which are published in the 1970'- 1980', etc. One is aware of rare books that are no longer published In this market on the street, one is aware of university student selling accessories, and foreigners selling objets on the street to earn their travel expense.
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