6 November 2022
Our hotel in Jeju City for the next 3 nights is the Ocean Suites Jeju Hotel, located in the Tapdong area, next to the sea on the northern part of the city.
On our first evening in Jeju City, we took a slow walk southwards from our hotel to Jeju’s Dongmun Market (동문시장). Dongmun is Jeju Island’s largest and oldest permanent market.
Map of the Dongmun Market showing the various sections of the market spread over a few streets.
It is a street market, night market, traditional market, and seafood market, all combined in one place. The best time to go is in the evening where we intend to sample some of Jeju’s or Korea’s street food in the night market.
On the way to Dongmun, we walked through Chilsung-ro, the No.1 Fashion Street of Jeju. I was looking out for outdoor clothing shops as hiking is a popular South Korean pastime and there are many good local brands in addition to international ones like Northface.
Chilsungro Fashion Street is a series of open-air pedestrian-only road lined with boutiques and branded shops.
We also went by an underground shopping mall. We were pretty hungry so we skipped it for now, planning to check it out on our way back.
The first market that we came to at Dongmun Market was the Dongmun Fish Market.
Our travelling gang at the entrance to the Dongmun Fish Market.
I was actually surprised that there are stalls still operating at such a late hour in the day. Stalls were selling live fish, fresh seafood as well as dried seafood. Vendors called out to us in Korean as we amazed at the wide variety of exotic sea creatures on sale.
Stalls inside the clean and dry Dongmun Fish market.
Rows of silvery long and slim cutlass fish or hairtail fish on sale.
Many stalls were selling the hairtail fish, aptly named for the long hair-like tail. It is also called the cutlass fish due to its long, flat and slim shape, like a long sword. The Chinese name for this fish is the “belt fish”, for the same reason.
Known as Galchi locally, this fish is a popular Jeju cuisine. It is usually cooked in a hot kimchi stew or just simply grilled.
Exotic sea creatures like sea squirts, abalones, octopuses and other shell fishes.
The Penis Fish (Gaebul) that is typically eaten raw by South Koreans and served with a savory sauce made of sesame oil.
Sashimi or raw fish that is sliced, packed and ready to eat. We gave this a miss since we would be going on a Hallasan hike the next day and there are no toilets on the trail. Not a good time to get stomach upset.
The fish market is linked to the Dongmun Traditional Market where stalls are now offering local produce such as Jeju tangerines, souvenirs, tangerine related products like juices, chocolates, biscuits and candies.
Tangerines are one of the icons of Jeju Island, and there are many stalls selling fresh tangerine and tangerine related products.
Stall selling the famous Jeju Black Pig.
We finally came to the section of the market selling street food. The food section only starts serving at 6 PM.
It was good that there were 8 persons in our travelling group and we get to share and sample a wide variety of street food.
Grilled cuttlefish that does not taste as good as it looks.
These rice rolls were deep dried and then cut up into slices and served with mayonnaise, sweet sauce and kimchi.
Another kind of rice rolls.
One thing we quickly discovered in Jeju is that there is no trash bin along the street and strangely also none at a night market selling street food. We had to bring along a small plastic trash bag for our food and general waste.
After we had enough of the street food in Dongmun Market, we took a slow walk back to hotel.
On the way back, we went to check out the underground shopping mall. Jungang Underground Shopping Center is the only one of its kind in Jeju.
Map of the Jungang Underground Shopping Center.
While the nearby Chilsung-ro shopping street hosts mostly branded products, many shops in Jungang Underground Shopping Center sell no-brand items and half of the shops are closed by this time. So the mall was relatively empty.
We walked all the way from one end near the Dongmun Market to the other end where the Gwandeokjeong is located. Gwandeokjeong houses a complex of historic buildings featuring a museum on Jeju along with a pond, gardens & artifacts. By now, it was closed but the gate was beautifully lit at night.
Gwandeokjeong is one of the surviving historic buildings in Jeju, located in the city center.
From the Gwandeokjeong, we walked northwards, towards our hotel.
We made a stop at a Kyochon Chicken outlet for drinks and the famous Korean Fried Chicken to supplement what we ate at the Dongmun Market.
One of the must try food when visiting South Korea - Korean Fried Chicken with beer and soju.
Celebrating our first enjoyable day in Jeju. I was glad my itinerary for Day 1 turned out well and my travelling companions had a good time.
Our last stop for the day was the E-mart at Tapdong, located next to our hotel. The E-mart is a multi-storey hypermart selling grocery and all sorts of stuff for day-to-day needs. It is opened till 11.00 PM.
For us, our mission at E-mart was to buy our breakfast for the next day and drinks and stuff for our picnic lunch the next day when we would be hiking up the Yeongsil and Eorimok trails at Mount Hallasan.
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