A famous market for Koreans, but still relatively unknown for most foreigners in Daegu, is Gyodong Market. This is, perhaps, the most useful market for foreigners in this city, notably for its electronics market and black market. Seomun Market comes in a close 2nd, for its dirt cheap prices on clothing and household goods.
Gyodong Market is actually quite an expansive area of downtown, which roughly lies in the big area east of Jungangno Station, north of Kyobo bookstore, borders the east side of Migliore and stretches north to the street running along Daegu Station.
The area was originally known for its watches and jewelry market, which still exists today, but has grown to include clothing, electronics such as computers and cameras, as well as imported goods tucked away in the back streets selling US products such as chocolates and candies, deodorant and personal hygiene supplies, weightlifting supplements, etc…For the purposes of this article, we will discuss Gyodong Market in the 3 different areas.
[edit] Gyodong Jewelry Market
This street can be best reached from Daegu Station. Walking underground below the street and coming out up top on the other side, keep walking straight towards downtown. The jewelry market will be the next left.
[edit] Gyodong Electronics Market
This is a good area in Daegu to buy computers and electronic goods. In fact, you’ll likely be able to walk away with as good of a deal on electronics, as you might find in one of Seoul’s electronics markets, such as
Yongsan Electronics Market or
Techno Mart. Although not as big as Daegu's main electronics market,
Jeonjagwan, it still has some good prices. This area is also good for buying bootleg DVDs of movies that have just come out in theatres and are often better quality than what you can download from torrents, etc...Vendors will usually sell 3 DVDs for 10,000. You can also get accessories or repair work done on your electronics for cheap.
This area has really grown and is more spread out than the other sub-markets of Gyodong. One way to reach this area is walking down the west side of Migliore and heading north towards Daegu Station. You’ll eventually start to see the electronics in the windows. Making a right at the next street will take you to stores like Notebook Plaza and others, who specialize in laptops. For computer sales, the stores will often display their prices and specifications in the windows or on the street, but written in Korean. You’ll find the prices can be as low as 250-300,000 won for a refurbished desktop with CD-RW, but you should note that the prices usually do not include monitor.
To get to (노트복 프라자)Notebook plaza( it is a store, not a plaza) you have to travel past the military surplus booths until you get to the computer sections. Look for a giant IMAC sign. It is across the street. To the west is nonhyup bank, a Starbucks, and a store that says Sleepless in Seattle. Yeah, I know.
Another way to get here from Daegu Station, is if you are standing with your back to the station, go down the stairs to cross under the street to the other side. Take the left stairs up and once at the top, continue walking straight towards downtown.
From here you can go two ways:
- 1.Take your next left into Gyodong Market and walk straight past the black market vendors, camping gear, cameras, etc...go right at the next intersection and walk for 2-3 minutes and you'll start seeing computer stores on either side.
- 2.Take your second left, which should be onto a road with some light traffic. Walk straight past Dong-A Department Store and on the next block you'll start to see computer vendors.
[edit] Gyodong Black Market
This sub-market is known by locals as “Yankee Sijang” or “Yankee Market”. It can also be heard as “Gukje Sijang”, which means “International Market”. A great place to find some comforts of home that can't usually be found at E-mart, Home Plus, 7-11, etc…
This area is semi-visible from the main north-south street through Gyodong Market. The best way to reach this is by coming south from Daegu Station or north from the main downtown street of Dongseongro that leads to Bennigans. Depending on which way you take, look for the red and orange SK Telecom store. The black market alley will be opposite that store. Once walking in and on the left side, you will first see a black market vendor inside a sliding door, selling imported goods. If you turn left at the next small alley, you will also see another shop selling the same goods. However, the real find is, if you keep going down the main alleyway into this market. Maybe 50 feet after passing that first vendor, look on the right for a very narrow and dark alleyway with some shops in it. Walking in there, you will first see some vendors selling the same stuff, but keep going further in the dark alleyway for another 20 feet and you’ll come to an area with 4-5 vendors converged in one large space, who sell all kinds of stuff that the others don’t. They give you a hard time if you try to take pictures.
- See Also:Bongdeok Market
[edit] Prostitution
And what could a bootleg market be without an element of the oldest profession in the world? The north side of Gyodong Jewelry Market has 3 or 4 streets that lead to the busy road that runs along Daegu Station. After dark, if you walk along that side of the busy road, you will pass through pockets of streetwalkers that will try to drag you down the streets leading into Gyodong. In the backstreets of these side roads are cheap boarding houses that have small rooms and mattresses, set up for the trade. Usually, the women on the street that are trying to pull drivers over, are ajummas who run the boarding houses and have their own women waiting back in the rooms. Only the attractive ones or the hustling owners are usually out on the corners, so if you are a man and are into this, buyer beware, if you let yourself fall for the ajumma's promises of beauty behind door #3. As one might imagine, this is the cheapest area for prostitution in Daegu, where streetwalkers will whisper "40,000won" as you walk past, regardless if you are looking for it or not.
[edit] History
The name “Gyodong” refers to a village where the Daegu Confucian Academy was once located. The area of Gyodong Market was formerly used as a temporary camp for refugees during the Korean War. Locals used to sell goods that were bootlegged from the PXs on US bases. This tradition still occurs, but sees a blind-eye from authorities. Prior to 1972, the main road through Gyodong Market was no wider than a man’s outstretched arms, but was widened to as much as 3.5 metres across, once nearby Dong-A Department Store opened.
This area used to be predominately filled with female shoppers and was considered to be quite rare to see men shopping or eating from the street's many pojangmachas. Near the end of the 1970s, many male students from local high schools began to hang out in the area to eat and drink. In recent years, however, this area has become a popular place for migrant workers from local factories, notably Filipinos.
