Wednesday 2 July 2014

Seoul & Jeju Day 10: Namiseon Island, Petite France, Dongdaemun

Day 10 
Namiseon Island > Petite France > Dongdaemun 

Remember the famous Korean Hit Drama "Winter Sonata"? It causes the second Korean wave throughout Asia. The series yielded more than US$27 billion when taking into account the profit contributed to tourism. 

And we were heading there today! The number of visitors to Namiseon grew 3 times since the series was aired. 



There are a few ways travelling to Namiseon Island.

1. Shuttle Bus - Ferry
Bus departs from either Insadong (Subway: Jonggak Station) or Jamsil Station (Subway: Jamsil Station). Bus will depart from Seoul at around 9.30am, and depart from Namiseon Island at 4pm. A round way ticket including entrance fee costs 23,000 won. Please note that advanced reservation is required for this option. We went to Nami Island Seoul Centre at Insadong to reserve the tickets 2 days before our trip to Namiseon but they were fully booked. Come on! It was a weekday!!! For those who want to opt for this option, you might want to consider telephone booking +8227531247 to reserve your tickets early!


2. Subway - Taxi or Gapyeong Tour Bus - Ferry
Take the subway and alight at Gapyeong Station (Exit 1) of KyeongChung Line. Subway cost about 2,000 won one way. After alightling at Gapyeong, you can choose to take either Gapyeong tour bus (5,000won) or taxi (5,000won) to the ferry wharf. The tour bus includes several stops including Nami Island, Petite France, Morning Calm and the nearest subway station. You can hop on and off at every stop using a single ticket. 


3. ITX - Taxi or Gapyeong Tour Bus - Ferry
Take subway to either Seoul or Cheongyanni station and purchase the ticket for ITX. ITX is a faster and more comfortable way of transporting to Gapyeong compare to normal subway.

 

Route of ITX is shown below: 

Seoul (Yongsan Station) → Cheongnyangni → Sangbong → Toegyewon → Sareung → Pyeongnaehopyeong → Maseok → Cheongpyeong → Gapyeong → Gangchon → Namchuncheon → Chuncheon

After alighting at Gapyeong, you can choose  to take either Gapyeong tour bus or taxi to the ferry wharf. 

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We chose to travel by ITX since we couldn't reserve a place for the shuttle bus. Seriously need more rest along the journey! Ticket purchase of ITX can be done using the ticketing machine!


A very comfortable ride to Namiseon Island...


 Beautiful view through the windows too!


Finally we were here at the ferry terminal! 



The Ferry is scheduled every 30minutes starting from 7:30am. Last Ferry departs from Nami Wharf at 21:45pm.


A short and sweet 5 minutes ferry ride. We were almost there...


Such a beautiful view upon arriving Nami Island. We were blessed with good weather today.


Namiseon Island was named after General Nami, who led a great victory against the rebels in the 13th year of the 7th king of Joseon Dynasty. He died at the age of 26. In 2001, Nami Island was renovated as an art and cultural park. In 2006, it declared independence as the Naminara Republic! Many sculptures and exhibits on the island are made from recycled products.


 They have their own flag, passport, bank and even CURRENCY & CITIZENSHIP!! 



Together with the chilling weather and colorful trees, it makes Nami Island a such lovely place to be.


A teddy bear stucked on the tree. I am not sure how he managed to get himself there...


Popular site of Winter Sonata's main characters' first kiss.


The island is great for relaxing. You can rent a bike or electric car to tour the island. We however thought that walking slowly on the forest path would be the best choice. There were too many people making it difficult to cycle around. 


Since 2001, Nami Island has become one of culture tourist attractions as the number of Asian tourists increases due to the success of Korean dramas, Winter Sonata. *power of media*



The incredibly tall and straight trees are perhaps one of the signature site on Naminara. The trees were transplanted since 1977 and grew to one of the most romantic lanes in Korea.


How could I missed taking romantic pictures with Jeff beneath the tall trees?


The famous bronze couple...


It took us about 2 hours to tour Nami Island at a leisure pace.  

Yippy! Back to the mainland~


Since we were taking the Gapyeong Tour Bus, we planned to stop at Petite France and Morning Calm. However, we only managed to do Petite France. Too exhausted over the past 9 days.


Petite France is a theme park with colorful buildings designed in European style. Entrance fee is 8,000 won. The location of Petite France is secluded. I guessed I won't find my way here if I were not taking the tour bus. 


There were little tourists and many shops were not opened. Maybe it was a weekday?! 

The concept of Petite France encapsulates ‘flowers, stars, and the Little Prince. Pretty paintings were all around the place.


The founder of Petite France is a Korean who liked "The Little Prince" so much. Here, you will be able to see many drawings, museum about this famous story.


There were also many interesting shops to wander around.


Again, Petite France is a filming location for famous Korean Dramas "My Love from the Star" & "Secret Garden". This place would be crowded with tourists sooner or later...



Photos and signatures of the actors and actresses of the dramas were exhibited there too!



Puppet show. Interesting one!



It was 3pm after we finished touring Petite France. Hesitating whether to tour Morning Calm, Jeff said "Let's do some shopping at Dongdaemun".

Dongdaemun is a true shopping paradise for clothing, from head to toe. Specializing in wholesale, the market have more than 20 shopping malls! Dongdaemun is divided into 2 sections, Section 1 (blue) and Section 2 (purple). 

Section 1 (Golden triangle) mainly consist of retail shops such as Doosan Tower, Migliore, Hello APM, which mostly deal with general customers and tourists at retail prices. These malls operate from 10.30am to 5am the next day! You can do your shopping all the way till midnight! Doosan is a higher end shopping mall selling branded and quality goods. If you are looking at something like "Platinum mall" in Bangkok, Migliore is the place for you. Most of the goods are inexpensive and most importantly they are "made in Korea"!

Section 2 sell goods both in wholesale and retail, but mainly selling in bulk. Since most shops deal with wholesalers, there are no dressing rooms. Refunds and exchanges are not guaranteed.



We were so mesmerized about doing our shopping until we totally forgot about taking photos!
 
We got our hands full after a few hours of shopping at Dongdaemun. *Sweat*

Let's go home~

Another mamak-stall-ing night with our friendly ajumma at Jongno-3-ga.









3 comments:

  1. Hi!

    How did you go to Dongdaemun from Gapyeong Terminal? :)

    Thanks in advance!

    ReplyDelete
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