Tongin Market

Tongin is a modest covered market in Seochon, west of Gyeongbokgung, dating from the colonial period and serving the neighbourhood ever since. What made it known is a scheme introduced in 2012: at a customer centre in the middle you exchange cash for yeopjeon, brass tokens modelled on old coins, and receive an empty compartmented lunch tray. You then walk the aisles and pay in tokens at participating stalls - tteokbokki, jeon, fried things, gimbap, braised dishes - filling the tray as you go, and eat it at a communal seating area upstairs. Rice and soup are bought with tokens too. It works well, it is cheap, and it gets people spending at small stalls rather than at one restaurant. The catch is that it runs limited hours, closes on Mondays and on the third Sunday of the month, and the tokens sell out on busy days. The rest of the market operates normally.

What you actually see

• The token desk - cash exchanged for brass yeopjeon and a tray.
• The lunchbox circuit - filling the tray stall by stall.
• The upstairs seating - the communal area where you eat it.
• The ordinary market - the neighbourhood aisles around it.

When to go

Lunchtime on a weekday. It is closed Mondays and the third Sunday of the month, and the token scheme runs limited hours - tokens can run out at busy times.

Honest expectations

The scheme is small and the participating stalls are a subset of the market. Weekends and holidays are crowded and tokens sell out. It is a lunch, not a destination - an hour.

Nearby

Seochon's alleys are around it; Gyeongbokgung and the Park No-soo gallery are close.