Shopping in Yongsan

Shopping in Yongsan is a Korean experience that should not be missed! There are 9 floors and I would have to guess that the whole complex would be the size of half a dozen football fields. It's so big that the sides are referred to as the "South side" or the "East side"...I briefly entertained the idea of locating the sign that said "West side" just because I thought it would be amusing. My point is...think of the biggest shopping center you have ever seen - this is bigger. The area is known for electronics, even outside there are other shopping areas, both indoor and out, all of which are dedicated entirely to electronics - and everything is ridiculously cheap! To give you an example, last month I visited with the intention of getting a new phone (not on contract) and a PS3, I ended up buying the PS3, an HD cable, an extra controller, the new COD black ops, and the new Grand Turismo, and the whole lot cost me about $400 Australian. For those of you who don't know your games... $45 is fairly cheap for a brand new game that would cost about $120 in Australia. Ok...so it's huge, its dedicated to electronics and everything is really cheap. The biggest issues are trying to limit yourself (to not buy ridiculous amounts), trying to find the right area's for things, and trying to avoid pushy Korean camera sales men. The last one might sound easy but it's actually the most difficult. Even when you avoid eye contact they still talk to you, and their English is generally excellent so there is no way out by saying you just don't understand, and they are super keen! This weekend I went to get a new camera (my camera was 7 years old and has been held together with a band-aid since august 2009) and possibly a video camera. We shopped around for a while - I new I wanted the updated model of my current camera because it was so reliable - and in my opinion for a little point and shoot digital camera you really can't go wrong with a canon. I didn't realise at the time that there would be 5 or 6 models to choose from all of varying price! Of ourse you also have to take into consideration that the entire floor was just for cameras and video cameras... we are talking hundreds of little shops all selling cameras. There is a serious amount of choice! Eventually I decided on the model, and the place I wanted to buy it, the guy I bought it from seemed to be really honest and up front. I asked his opinion when I was choosing between the touch screen and another model and even though the touch screen would have made him more money he recommended the other model because there is less risk of the screen breaking - so he earned my trust! He discounted it substantially then I mentioned I was after a video camera too...this is where the bargaining really began - I ended up with a super fancy little canon cam corder, the new camera (which is also fancy) a video camera bag, a waterproof camera case and a regular camera case, a 16G memory card for the video camera, and a 4G memory card for the camera and the whole lot cost me about $600 Australian... I was so proud of my bargaining - he knocked about 350,000 won off the price! After my crucial purchases were made we decided to have a wander around (and visit the pet shop to look at toys for my pooch... I promise I will write up a blog about my puppy soon!) and generally just see what else was in the building. I was amazed when we discovered the entire top floor was dedicated to mobile phones, which are called hand phones here, I mean there were like 60 dealers in the one place...there just cant be that many different phones and plans etc...how do they ever make any money?!

In any case...if you are visiting Korea Yongsan is a must see!