Insa-dong Tea and Jongno's Old Arcades

Tapgol Park, an arcade of instrument shops, the art street, Ssamzigil and a garden teahouse

14:00–17:15 + dinner · ≈1.1 km · ≈15 min walking · Easy · Jongno-gu · Start: Jongno 3-ga station · End: Anguk station

Start in Tapgol Park, where the 1919 declaration was read, walk up through Nakwon Arcade, the 1969 megastructure that still houses hundreds of instrument shops, then work up Insa-dong's art street to Ssamzigil's spiral of craft shops and a slow tea in a hanok garden before a dumpling dinner.

Your half day: 14:00 to 17:15

1. 14:00 Tapgol Park (15 min): Tapgol Park and its 15th-century marble pagoda.
2. 14:20 Nakwon Arcade (25 min): Walk up through the floors of instrument shops.
3. 14:50 Insa-dong (45 min): Insa-dong's galleries, brush, paper and tea shops.
4. 15:40 Ssamzigil (30 min): Ssamzigil's spiral ramp of craft shops.
5. 16:15 Kyung-In Museum of Fine Art (50 min): Tea in the hanok garden teahouse of the Kyung-In Museum of Fine Art.
   • Jeontong Dawon (전통다원): The hanok teahouse in the Kyung-In Museum's garden: jujube and five-flavour teas.
   • Shin Old Teahouse (신옛찻집): A dim, old-style teahouse in an Insa-dong alley.
6. 17:15 Dinner (60 min): Dinner back on Insa-dong.
   • Gaeseong Mandu Koong (개성만두 궁): Gaeseong-style dumplings in an eight-hour beef broth, in a hanok. Michelin Bib Gourmand.

Stops

1. Tapgol Park (탑골공원)
   Seoul's first modern park (1897), where the Declaration of Independence was read aloud on 1 March 1919. Its ten-storey marble pagoda of 1467 stands under a glass case.
2. Nakwon Arcade (낙원상가)
   A late-1960s megastructure built straight over a road: cars drive through the ground floor, a market sits underneath, the middle floors are Seoul's best-known musical-instrument market, an old cinema and a rooftop yard sit above, and apartments around a vertical courtyard fill the top. A rare surviving piece of Seoul's 'one building, a whole city' experiments from that era.
3. Insa-dong (인사동 문화의 거리)
   The street of galleries, antique dealers and brush, paper and tea shops; the alleys on either side hold the teahouses and restaurants.
4. Ssamzigil (쌈지길)
   A 2004 craft-shop building around a courtyard, with a gentle ramp that spirals up four floors past small studios to a roof garden.
5. Kyung-In Museum of Fine Art (경인미술관)
   A hanok compound off Insa-dong with small galleries and a garden teahouse, Jeontong Dawon, open into the evening.

Best time: Any afternoon; Insa-dong's main street is car-free on weekends. Some instrument shops close on Sundays.

Tips

• Paper (hanji) and brushes are cheapest in the side alleys, not on the main street.
• The red-brick Cheondogyo temple (1921) is two minutes from Anguk Station at the end.

Access

Insa-dong is flat. Ssamzigil's ramp is gentle and step-free; Nakwon Arcade's upper floors are by stairs and old lifts; the teahouse garden has steps.

All walks