Insadong: Tea Houses, Craft Shops and the Sunday Street

Insadong was the antiques quarter — the place where scrolls, calligraphy brushes, ceramics and old furniture changed hands, in a neighbourhood that had been home to the government offices of the Joseon court. A good deal of that trade is still here: galleries, brush and paper shops, ceramics studios, and the occasional dealer whose window has a single celadon bowl in it.

What has grown over the top is a souvenir economy, and on the main street it dominates. Cosmetics, keychains, machine-printed 'traditional' goods and the crowds that go with them fill Insadong-gil most afternoons.

The division is geographical and easy to use. Insadong-gil is the shop window; the alleys running east and west off it are where the district still does what it always did. Ssamziegil, the spiral shopping building halfway up, sits between the two — small independent makers arranged around a ramp that climbs four floors, and a reasonable place to buy something made by the person who sold it to you.

This is the reason to come. Several old tea houses survive in the alleys, in hanok buildings with wooden floors, low tables and a courtyard, and they serve infusions that most visitors have never had: omija, the five-flavour berry, served cold and startlingly sour; jujube tea, thick and sweet; citron; roasted barley; and dozens of medicinal blends.

A pot runs ₩8,000 to ₩12,000 and comes with a small rice sweet. You take your shoes off at the step in the older houses, sit on a cushion, and stay as long as you like — the business model assumes an hour.

The practical advice is to walk past the first two places you see on the main street and go down an alley instead. The difference in atmosphere between a tea room with a street window and one around a courtyard is the difference between the district's reputation and its reality.

On Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays Insadong-gil is closed to traffic and the character of the street changes: stalls appear down the middle selling street food and small crafts, buskers and traditional performers set up, and the crowd thickens considerably.

Whether that is an improvement depends on what you came for. For street food, atmosphere and a family afternoon, the weekend is better. For galleries, tea and buying anything considered, a weekday is better — some studios and dealers keep gallery hours and close on Mondays.

The Sunday guard procession from Gyeongbokgung ends here in the spring and autumn seasons, arriving in the afternoon along the pedestrianised street, which is the one weekend event worth timing a visit around.

Insadong runs between Anguk station on Line 3, Exit 6, and Jonggak on Line 1, Exit 3 — about six minutes' walk end to end, plus the alleys.

The district sits directly between the palace quarter and Jongno, which makes the standard route obvious: Gyeongbokgung in the morning, Bukchon on the way down, tea in Insadong at three, then Changdeokgung or Gwangjang Market depending on the hour.

Jogyesa, the head temple of Korean Buddhism, is five minutes west of the street and free to enter; in the weeks before Buddha's birthday its courtyard is hung with thousands of paper lanterns, which is the best free sight in central Seoul at that time of year. More on Seoul's temples.