Today, I’d like to write a blog post about the Ggum-dong-san Dongsim Shopping Center, located in a corner of the Dongdaemun Toy Market. When I was young, it wasn’t easy to freely browse or buy toys. Now that I’m an adult, I occasionally visit the Dongdaemun toy shopping district to look at toys and reminisce about my childhood memories. I had some free time on a weekday last week, so I visited this place for the first time in a while.
While browsing around the Dongdaemun Toy Market, I noticed a shop I hadn’t seen before, so I decided to go inside. To me, that place felt like I had traveled back in time to my childhood. That place is the Ggum-dong-san Dongsim Shopping Center. Let’s get started!
Information for Ggum-dong-san Dongsim Shopping Center
While the main street of the Dongdaemun Toy Market is full of the latest dolls and trendy toys, Ggum-dong-san Dongsim Shopping Center is a quiet sanctuary for those looking for the real “scent of memories.” The [official Visit Seoul website] also introduces this street as a major shopping district for stationery and toys, proving its long-standing reputation. Here is everything you need to know to find this hidden time machine:
- Location: 25-1, Jong-ro 52-gil, Jongno-gu, Seoul (Inside the inner alley of the Toy Market)
- How to Get There: To get here, you need to exit through Exit 4 of Dongdaemun Station on Subway Line 1 or Line 5. If you walk about 200 meters straight ahead, you will see a sign for the Changsin-dong Stationery and Toy Alley. It is located on a main road, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding the entrance. Just go in through the entrance and head towards the far end, and you will find the shop.
- Operating Hours: 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM (Daily)
Here is a tip from me!
Lately, this place has been featured frequently on TV and social media, so it has become very crowded. T_T
If you are planning to visit, it will be less crowded if you go on a weekday morning or during lunchtime!
If you are curious about Dongdaemun Toy Street, please refer to my post: [Dongdaemun Toy Market, a must-visit during a trip to Seoul with children].
The Real Korean Retro
The entrance to the Ggum-dong-san Dongsim Shopping Center is always open, so feel free to enter without any pressure. Rather than dealing in the latest toys, this place displays and sells toys and items from the 1980s and 1990s. What impressed me most when I visited was how neatly the store was organized. While you can sometimes see items displayed haphazardly or covered in dust in retro shops, everything here was neatly arranged, with each item displayed individually. It felt less like a store and more like a museum.
I spent about an hour here taking a trip down memory lane. I’ll share just the three things that left the biggest impression on me!
The first is the Del Monte orange juice glass bottle! If you ask why this item is surprising, it is because when I was young, every household in Seoul had this very glass bottle. It wasn’t that all Koreans liked orange juice, but rather that they frequently used this glass bottle as a water container. Back when I was young, water purifiers were rare, so most people boiled water to drink; the tea we drank most often back then was barley tea. It was surprising to be reminded of the memories of boiling barley tea, pouring it into this glass bottle, and refrigerating it to drink cold.
The second is the pencil sharpener that every student had when I was in elementary school. It was a train-shaped sharpener, and I was surprised to see it being sold in pristine, brand-new condition.
The third is that the snacks I used to buy at the stationery store in front of the school are still being sold. I will talk about this in more detail below.
Besides these items, a wide variety of nostalgic goods were being sold, including transforming pencil cases, old-fashioned erasers, traditional Korean paper cards (ddakji), spinning tops, and playing cards. Since many souvenirs symbolizing Korea are also available, I recommend purchasing them here if you are looking for a truly unique gift. The prices aren’t expensive either, which is a plus.
Nostalgic Snacks
As I mentioned earlier, when I was young, I used to stop by stationery stores with my friends to buy and eat “junk food.” The term “junk food” doesn’t imply that the snacks are bad or harmful to health; rather, it was given that name because they were cheap, offered a wide variety of products, and were sold at stationery stores in front of elementary schools.
Here, they were selling these nostalgic snacks in bundle packages. They were selling various snacks like Apollo (delicious sugar straws), Batdureong (corn snacks), and Kkyeodori (chocolate snacks) in bundles at affordable prices, so I bought a bundle to try. They weren’t as delicious as they were when I was a child, but it felt like I had traveled back in time.
Recommendation Here!
Korean convenience stores carry a wide variety of Korean snacks that make great souvenirs, but I think classic Korean snacks would also make excellent souvenirs. If you are looking for a unique gift that stands out from the crowd, I highly recommend buying some!
Today, I wrote a post about the Dreamland Dongsim Shopping Center located on Dongdaemun Toy Street. I believe anyone visiting Seoul will naturally stop by Dongdaemun. While browsing current fashion and items is enjoyable, I think seeing the items and snacks that were popular in Korea during the 1980s and 1990s is also a fun part of the trip. If you are looking for a travel route or plan that is different from others, I highly recommend visiting.
If you are curious about souvenirs to commemorate your trip to Korea, please refer to my [3 of the best Seoul souvenirs 2026 that I personally found and recommend].
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