3 Cities in One Day: From Sokcho to Yongin to Seoul

After spending half of the day in Seoraksan National Park, the group left Sokcho-si to go to Everland Theme Park and in the afternoon Dongdaemun Market.  Everland Theme Park is quite far from Seoraksan area, it took about 2,5 hours by bus.  So, to kill time, Emily and the Tour Leader decided to play some games, from trivia about South Korea to Bingo.  Trivia was a good idea, because then they’d knew if the tourists really listened of everything they had explained.  Everybody enjoyed it and the prize was kinda cute too! They made sure everybody got the prize :)

This is how we got down to Zoo-topia, European Adventure, Magic Land & American Adventure Area.  On the background is the famous wooden roller coaser, T-Express.

This is the prize! Apparently, they bought it in Teseum (Teddy Bear Museum in Jeju Island).

1. Everland Theme Park (에버랜드)

Situated in Everland Resort, Yongin, Gyeonggi-do Province, Everland is Korea’s largest theme park.  It is owned by Samsung group.  My my, Samsung has business in every market, doesn’t it? Electronics, gadgets, house appliances and theme park too?!!  The theme park is divided into 5 areas, Zoo-topia, Global Fair, European Adventure, American Adventure and Magic Land.

Emily took us to Zoo-topia area and European Adventure to see the flower exhibition.  Zoo-topia spans an area over 15,000 meters square and exhibits 2,000 animals of 201 species, she took us to the zoo safari.  The line took us 1 hour!! Well, yeah! This is what I don’t like about theme park, you stand in line for hours only for one attraction, Gaaawwwddd!  In this safari ride we were only taken to see big cats and bears, of course there are a lot more to see, but the others were like “Enough enough!” Haha.  It’s animals, they are mostly the same in every zoo, except for one there is this Liger – hybrid of Lion & Tiger! How sick is that?!! It did look like a combo between the two.  I didn’t take the picture because I was rather shocked that time.

After the safari ride, Emily took us to European Adventure area to see the flower exhibition.  Well, basically only to take some pictures and see the flowers.  It was nice though, it’s just so many people, making it really hard to get a clear shot.

Anyways, what attracted me the most in Zoo-topia is the Panda World.  It’s a new attraction in 2016.  People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping gave a pair of giant pandas as a symbol of friendship between Korea and China.  I always always want to see panda! I told my parents this, but then they were already too tired, because we had to take quite some walks from the flower garden to the panda world.  The park is huge!! We lost! Yeah, we were given map, but it’s hell confusing, and  I forgot to mention earlier that we took cable car to go down to Zoo-topia.

If I wanted to get in any rides in Everland, it’d be the T-Express, it’s the biggest wooden roller coaster in Korea.  It looks tempting, but yeah, the queue line is 90 minutes minimum.  And we were only given 3 hours in this park.  You know, you need at least all day long in this park, the queue is crazy.  I bet DisneySea in Japan is crazier.    

For more info about this park please visit http://www.everland.com/web/multi/english/everland/main.html

Eventhough I’m not a huge fan of theme park anymore (I used to be), I still think this park is awesome, it has a lot of attractions, for each attraction the queue line is 30 minutes minimum, which is not bad.  But the more popular the attraction, the longer the line, yeah you know that.  The Park has a pair of real pandas, which I didn’t get to see. Sucks. But I still had a good time here.  It’s 7 p.m. and we had to go back to the bus to go our next destination Dongdaemun Market.

So worn out, I just want some hug

2. Dongdaemun Market (동대문시장)

Dongdaemun Market or Tongdaemun  is one of Korea’s major markets specializing in wholesale clothing and traditional market. The market is super large, it has more than 20 shopping malls, it’s open 24 hours.  The newest fashion trends are usually debuted in this market.  It is home to largest clothing suppliers in Korea and a lot of aspiring designers come here to show off their skills.  The price range is very varied, some affordable, some quite pricey. 

Took it from Dongdaemun.com

I didn’t explore all of them one by one, I was already very worn out from hiking and theme park thing and it’s 9 p.m. already. Dongdaemun Market is situated in Jongno-gu, Seoul.  So, Emily took us to one of the mall in Dongdaemun Market, it’s Doota Tower.  Doota Tower is 5-Floor shopping mall.  It’s full of trendy fashion items from young designers, cafes and restaurants.  

Doota

Doota (두산타워) is advertised for selling chic and unique clothing at reasonable prices.  Well, reasonable, yeah maybe, but they don’t come cheap.  I personally, I like the quality of the fabric, I just don’t really like the designs, it’s not that they’re bad or anything, it’s just not my taste.  Also,  it can’t be compared to everybody’s brand such Zara, H&M, Forever 21 etc.  In my mind, those are the affordable, reasonable clothing stores, the prices are in align with the quality.  But there are still plenty of other stores and shopping malls in Dongdaemun Market, Emily just chose the expensive one, I’m sure the other block has better offer.