Find Anything at Dongmyo Flea Market (Hwanghakdong), Seoul, South Korea

The Seocho Flea Market may be the best due to the multitude of households setting up, but Dongmyo certainly is worth some of your time. I've seen this market referred to by different names: Dongmyo, Dongdaemun, and Hwanghakdong. Note that this is not Dongdaemun Night Market, which is a very popular collection of shopping malls.

 This market is quite spread out, and merges with the Seoul Folk Flea Market to make for one massive collection of old junk. It goes up and down many side streets in the Dongmyo area, and includes several people setting up on the sidewalk along the main drag as well.

 There's a core area to this flea market that appears to open every day, with dedicated sellers generally carrying specific goods that they keep tucked away in garage-like sheds along the street. But on the weekends it spreads and attracts the part-timers with things to move. And that's where you get all kinds of strange goods for sale.

 Almost everything under the sun is sold here, under the sun. Clothes, tools, household appliances, souvenirs, and anything else you could imagine is sold on the busiest days. I've seen imported food, fake and real branded goods, jewelry, makeup, CDs and cassettes, strange electronic goods, kitchen goods, and strange things that couldn't possibly ever sell. It is in this market that I found my baseball jerseys and saw many more things I wish I could have brought home with me.

I liked this guy's look that I just had to post both images. He's obviously a full-time seller. Your best bet to visit the flea market on a Saturday is to go to Dongmyo Station, and take exit four. You should see some people set up right there, and just weave your way up and down streets with dealers. Making your way east toward Dongmyo Shrine, you'll reach the main core of regular sellers, and the center of the market around the shrine. The weekends offer the most selection, and the biggest crowds. But even in the winter, on cold, wet, snowy days, there will still be people set up selling their wares.

On good days, you can continue following the lineup of dealers and other sellers east all the way to Sinseol-dong Station, and the Seoul Folk Flea Market. I'll have a full post devoted to that market in the future, which has a permanent indoor space as well as a decent collection of outdoor sellers on the weekend. It seems that the unofficial/official line between the two markets is Nangye-ro, a major north-south road.