In case you’re wondering what ‘dong’ means, the closest meaning would be ‘ward’ or ‘district’. Therefore, Insa-dong is ‘the district of Insa’ or ‘the ward of Insa’ – a local government unit servicing a given geographic area within a much larger city.

Welcome to Insa-dong – arguably one of Seoul’s most commonly visited touristy areas. Insa-dong aims to please – getting off the subway up to the beginning of the main street is easy, and finding the main street requires no grey matter whatsoever.

One of many shopping areas in Insa-dong. Notice how the floors gradually rise – making one long continuous path from ground level to 4th floor.

Although Insa-dong has the reputation for being touristy, the Sunday afternoon I visited on had very few foreigners when compared to Itaewon (the biggest tourist trap I’ve come across in Seoul thus far). Many Koreans were out to enjoy the sights and fresh air, although most of them passed right by the obvious souvenir stands in favor of the craft stores or restaurants.

If you weren’t from Korea, the souvenir stands had plenty to offer – although halfway through the main street you’ll realize most places are selling the same stuff at basically the same price. Of refreshing uniqueness was the amount – and quality – of more traditional crafts and arts. When I go back, I’ll update the blog with more pictures. Suffice it to say that you could go tacky with your souvenirs or very traditional – and not pay much more for the traditional ones.

Ever wanted to be on the cover of Bazaar or Esquire? Here’s your chance – no Photoshopping required!

A wonderfully talented creative sort bends wires into earrings, keychains, and some larger works:

While wandering about the main road (and some of the side roads), I came across a festival of some sorts:

[UPDATE 12 June 2008: Thanks to the anonymous commenter informing me of the festival’s name (Dong-Hak Culture and Art Festival) and some background information about the Dong-Hak revolution and Cheondoism]

The only brochure I could find was in Korean, so I didn’t worry about understanding what was happening too much. The singers was good – but the two old men in the lower left stole the show. At first, one of them approached the lady singing on-stage, but was quickly escorted down. The two then danced and sang along, essentially creating a spectacle / fool of themselves. I only wish I had a video to post of their antics.

All in all, Insa-dong is a fun afternoon. It’s easy to get into (Anguk subway station, line 3), easy to spend some money there, and easy to get some food. As a touristy place it rates well, although there isn’t a lot of variety of things to see (my only complaint).

Making rice cakes the old-fashioned way. Inside the large wood bowl is rice and other ingredients, then the hammer falls to force everything together. It makes quite a sound, and usually had a crowd gathered around whenever the hammer was working.

The storefront of a arts/ craft store, selling more traditional Korean goods than plastic touristy stuff.

Airplanes made out of soda cans and hung from string? Sure, why not?

Want to buy a Buddha? What about a little bitty Buddha? Or a big Buddha? (Say these last three sentences as fast as you can!)

Insa-dong, as I mentioned before, is one of Seoul’s primary tourist areas – and the foreigners were out in force when I went (14 June 2008). Today I was more interested in the art galleries I had heard about. Once you started looking beyond the main street and the almost-overwhelming number of souvenirs and traditional arts / crafts, the art galleries were all around you.

One large art gallery (Insa Art Center) on the main road – free admission, and six – six – floors of galleries. Each floor had a different exhibit – most of which were only on exhibition for a week.

The banners hanging outside the previous building.

The scene from a 5th floor resting area in the Insa Art Center (previous building)

Apologies for not having pictures of the actual art – no photography was allowed inside most of the galleries. I did, however, pick up a few printed materials and scanned some of them in. Here they are – with full credit to the authors for their wonderful work:

What you are looking at (above) is a representation of architect’s plans. From the handout I received, “The background of these arts is an architect’s plan of a modern city, and the curves flying on it are the marks of rhythm carved from feeling that the artist herself routes on the plans.”

From the handout I received, “Architect’s plans, for her, are perceived a clear communication method that designer transfer contents to engineers. In that perspective, subjective or sensuous factors should be removed from plans, and in order to avoid mistakes could be caused by subjective view of designer, author involved ‘bird-eye-view’ where designer’s position can be removed.”

A mixed-media artist, Andy Hahm seems to specialize in wonderfully mixed pieces. At times, several themes seem to be running at the same time – the picture of the face is common, for example. I only wish I could’ve taken pictures or give you, the reader, more of what I wonderfully experienced.

It’s still very touristy, but scratch below the surface and you’ll discover plenty of modern, local flavor.