Insadong, Samcheong-dong, Seochon: Three Neighbourhoods, One Afternoon

Customers would walk out of Gyeongbokgung and then walk back into our shop. “Where do we go now?” On the map, Insadong, Samcheong-dong and Seochon all sit at roughly the same distance from the palace gate, and from the names alone you cannot tell what makes one different from another.

They are quite different. This article lays out the differences and how to string them together in one day.

The difference in one table

	Insadong	Samcheong-dong	Seochon
Location	Southeast of the palace	North along the east wall	Beyond the west wall
Character	Traditional craft shopping street	Galleries and cafes	Residential + market and alleys
Terrain	Flat	Uphill	Gentle, steeper further in
Nearest station	Anguk exit 6	Anguk exit 1 / Gyeongbokgung on foot	Gyeongbokgung exit 2
Tourist density	High	High	Moderate
Photo character	Signage, shopfronts, roof tiles	Stone walls, hill lanes, the museum	Alleys, the market, everyday life

Insadong — a street held together by regulation

Insadong was designated a traditional culture street in 1988 and became the first cultural district in the country in 2002. That fact defines the street.

A cultural district has encouraged business types. Antiques, galleries, craft stores, framing shops, brush-and-ink stores. Along the car-free section alone there are 19 antique shops, 7 framing shops, 25 craft stores, 3 brush-and-ink stores and 17 galleries. The shop mix is the result of deliberate policy, not organic drift. (Though Jongno-gu began holding public briefings in late 2025 about relaxing those regulations. The mix may shift.)

One thing travellers get wrong. The Insadong car-free street is not weekends-only. The 340-metre stretch of Insadong-gil is vehicle-free every day from 10:00 to 22:00. It started as Sunday-only in 1997, added Saturdays in 2003 and weekdays in 2011.

Key points:

• Ssamziegil — Insadong-gil 44. A spiral courtyard building. 10:30–20:30, open year-round (individual shops may vary).
• Annyeong Insadong — Insadong-gil 49. Three minutes from Anguk Station. 10:00–22:00.
• Jogyesa Temple — the head temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. Ujeongguk-ro 55.
• Unhyeongung Palace — 100 metres from Anguk Station exit 4. Free, closed Mondays. Open until 21:00 on Fridays from April to November.

There are more car-free streets nearby. Gamgodang-gil (480 m, Saturdays and Sundays 10:00–22:00) and Seosulla-gil (600 m, same hours) run along Jongmyo’s western wall. The walk along the shrine wall on Seosulla-gil feels nothing like Insadong’s main street, and there are far fewer people.

Samcheong-dong — the road that climbs along the wall

The axis runs north from the palace’s eastern watchtower along Samcheong-ro. At the entrance sits the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul.

• MMCA Seoul: Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri, Sun 10:00–18:00. Wed and Sat until 21:00. Closed January 1, Lunar New Year and Chuseok. Ticketed exhibitions 2,000 won each, combined ticket 5,000 won. Free on Wed and Sat from 18:00 to 21:00, and on the last Wednesday of each month (Culture Day).
• The National Folk Museum sits inside Gyeongbokgung and is free. March to October 09:00–18:00, November to February 09:00–17:00. Open until 20:00 on Saturdays from March to October.
• Jeongdok Library — Bukchon-ro 5-gil 48. Known as a cherry blossom photo spot. Closed first and third Wednesdays.

Samcheong-dong’s commercial landscape shifted noticeably over the ten years I worked nearby. After the drop in Chinese group tourism, vacancies rose. Rising rents pushed out older businesses, a cycle that repeated. There are still good cafes and galleries, but if you arrive expecting the Samcheong-dong of a decade ago, it may feel different.

There is a hill. The further you go along Samcheong-ro, the steeper it gets. The stone-step lanes of Bukchon’s eight scenic viewpoints branch off from here. If you are in hanbok with heeled shoes, this is the hardest stretch.

Seochon — the one that is not a tourist zone

Seochon (the west side of Gyeongbokgung, also called Sejong Village) sits between the palace’s west wall and Inwangsan. What sets it apart from the other two is that people still live here. A laundry and a hardware store sit next to a cafe.

Tongin Market — the brass-token lunchbox

The most famous thing in Seochon is the Tongin Market lunchbox. The system is unusual enough to need explanation.

Step	What to do
1	Buy brass tokens on the 2nd floor of the lunchbox cafe — 500 won per token
2	Take the token map and fill your tray at participating stalls
3	Eat on the 3rd floor
4	Unused tokens are refundable

Tokens are 500 won each. A lot of online posts say 1,000 won — that is a confusion with rice and soup, which cost 1,000 won each. 5,000 won gets you 10 tokens. 10,000 won gets you 20 tokens and a lunchbox tray.

Check the hours and the days it closes.

• Mon–Fri 11:00–16:00 (token sales until 15:00)
• Sat–Sun 11:00–17:00 (token sales until 16:00)
• Closed: every Tuesday + the third Sunday of each month

Gyeongbokgung also closes on Tuesdays. If you come to this neighbourhood on a Tuesday, both are shut.

What else is there

• Suseong-dong Valley — The gorge below Inwangsan that the painter Gyeomjae Jeong Seon depicted. The single-block granite bridge Girin-gyo is the only remaining example inside the old city walls of a bridge in its original location and form. The apartments that once covered the site were demolished, the valley was restored using the painting as reference, and it opened to the public in 2012. Free, always open.
• Inwangsan Jarak-gil — 2.5 km, about 1 hour 30 minutes on foot. Passes Sajikdan, Hwanghakjeong and the Yun Dong-ju poet’s hill.
• Park No-soo Art Museum — The painter Park No-soo’s former home, now a Jongno-gu museum. Tue–Sun 10:00–18:00, closed Mondays. 3,000 won, but hanbok wearers get 50% off. You take your shoes off to enter. Maximum 15 people at a time, and no photography inside.
• Yi Sang’s House — Part of the site where the poet Yi Sang lived. Free entry, Gyeongbokgung Station exit 2. Opening hours vary between sources — confirm before you go.
• Sejong Village Food Culture Street — Jihamun-ro 1-gil, 160 m. Car-free daily 11:00–22:00.

Two cautions. The white pine of Tongui-dong is gone. A windstorm brought it down in 1990. It was delisted in 1993 and felled. Only the site and a successor tree remain. And Blue House tours were suspended on August 1, 2025. If you are planning a route through the north end of Seochon, adjust for this.

Linking all three in one day

Walking distances, approximate, from map measurements.

Section	Distance	Time
Anguk Station → Ssamziegil	about 350 m	5 min
Ssamziegil → Samcheong-dong start (MMCA)	about 870 m	12 min
Samcheong-dong cafe street → Gwanghwamun	about 1,300 m	17 min
Gwanghwamun → Tongin Market	about 930 m	12 min
Gyeongbokgung Station → Tongin Market	about 690 m	9 min
Tongin Market → Suseong-dong Valley	about 910 m	12 min (uphill, feels like 15)

If you are spending a day in hanbok, here is the order I recommend.

The direction rule is simple: uphill first, flat ground last. Samcheong-dong and Bukchon climb. Insadong is flat. Do not build an itinerary that sends tired legs uphill.

If you want to include Seochon, do not cram it into the same day as Samcheong-dong and Bukchon. The two sit on opposite sides of the palace — the round trip is long. Seochon works better as a morning walk or on a separate morning.

If you only have half a day, a more compressed route is in a separate article: a half-day hanbok course.

Practical advice for doing this in hanbok

• Shoes. If your route includes Samcheong-dong or Bukchon, forget the embroidered shoes. There is a reason rental shops tell you to keep your trainers on.
• Eating. Some seating works in hanbok and some does not. Floor seating and soup-based dishes are harder. I have written about this separately: eating in hanbok near Gyeongbokgung.
• Count backwards from the return time. If you have a four-hour rental, the route above is tight. If you want to include Bukchon, consider a full-day rental.
• The Park No-soo Art Museum 50% hanbok discount is one example of a hanbok-wearer benefit in the area. It is worth asking at ticket desks.

Times, prices and closing days here are current as of publication and may change. Small venues in Seochon, in particular, change their hours often.

Compare 28 hanbok shops at Gyeongbokgung →