Yongsan Electronic Market (AKA Digital Specialty Store AKA just ‘Yongsan’ to some) is known as the electronic shopping capital of Seoul. With seven floors worth of shopping for the electronic gadget / accessory, it should go without saying that a geek like me had to journey to the area.

A special note to tourists: you will be approached by people selling their wares. They can sniff a tourist from a mile away, and usually have enough English skills to attract your attention. They’re not overly aggressive, and most will actually be helpful in finding what you need – or want to sell you. Don’t buy at the first price – there’s almost always some flexibility to the price after you show some hesitancy. In the end, though, most prices end up being better than you think.

The afternoon started at Yongsan subway station, which connects you to an almost-endless variety of shopping in one big building. One. Huge. Building. Beyond the Electronics Market, the I’Park Mall offers entire floors of “prestige living goods”, wedding wares, “luxury & furniture”, sports, musical instruments, books, and several floors worth of clothes. Another three days in living in the building wouldn’t give you enough time to see it all. Another week around the rest of the several-square-block area could easily be spent exploring. The good news is that with some focus, you can satiate your interest in shopping or browsing for your favorite product(s) – and likely walk out with a few things under your arm.

A very long Christmas… decoration… of sorts. It’s at least several stories long – look at the picture like you’re going down the escalator and looking down.

Take your first step onto the 3rd floor of the Market – the floor you arrive on from the subway; the lower levels are either parking or the E-mart – into a world of cameras. Big ones, small ones, professional ones, point-and-shoot ones, pink ones for the women, and on and on.

The 4th floor offers more cameras, along with a broad mixture of electronics and appliances for the home.

GPS systems are quite popular here – especially since many streets don’t necessarily have names OR make finding a place easy.

Big screen TV’s anyone? Also note the MP3 signs – there’s a whole world beyond the iPod.

The rice cooker and steam mop selection leaves the foreigner going ‘what’s the difference?’

A couple other fairly common sights – the foreground has some mats laid on the floor for one to sleep on as opposed to a mattress (the heating system here is called ondol, or hot water running through the floor, which creates heat – meaning closer to the floor means warmer).

The 5th and 6th floors offer computers of every shape and size, from bleeding-edge new to budget computers a little behind the times.

Instead of showing each and every computer for sale, many booths showed pages of specs for their offerings. It goes without saying that shopping at this level requires a high level of computer knowledge, but you’ll know exactly what you’re getting and at what price you’re getting it at.

Other places, of course, offer a more traditional ‘try-it-before-you-buy-it’ experience. When you’re talking about some of the tiniest computers around, you need that more than the specs on the machine anyway. The ‘netbook’ / ‘sub-notebook’ machines pictured make a laptop look fat, to say the least.

The 7th floor has the games – Nintendo and Sony are the essential players here.

A couple places offered the chance to try out the Wii if you were so inclined (or were seriously interested in buying one). Most booths offer the same selection of newly-released games for current systems; a few specialize in older games or systems.

The 8th floor is dubbed ‘Mobile Communications’ – in other words, phones. Lots. and. lots. of. phones. Quite a few empty places on this floor, and not the most tourist friendly since most of these phones only work in the Korean market.

The 9th floor (not pictured) is called the ‘e-Sports Stadium’ – essentially a couple of large rooms with many computers and more wires than are sold at your local big-box retailer. A Starcraft tournament of some kind was going on (think World of Warcraft in space – it’s huge in almost any PC bang, or room), which meant lots of teenagers and twentysomethings with too much time on their hands filled the computer rooms or hung out in the lobby waiting for their friends or turn.

Ooooh, pretty… Yes I’ll freely admit to being easily amused by all the pretty Christmas lights – especially the 8th floor view.

I just had to go down to see at ground level.

That’s me, of course 🙂

Come to Yongsan if you need virtually anything that plugs in. (As a commenter mentioned, there’s plenty of other buildings nearby. You will have to ask prices and negotiate or shop around – both fairly easy to do if you’re a price-conscious shopper. Don’t be surprised if more than one place quotes you the same price on the same thing – their wholesale costs are very similar, and walking the length and breadth of the building to save a few bucks will exhaust you. Go shopping!