During spring to autumn, there is a regular night market which is hosted by Seoul metropolitan government. There are 5 different places for the night market and they are usually opened on Friday and weekend. DDP, Yeouido, Banpo and Cheongyestream. There are seasonal market during holiday season.
This is the official homepage of the night market (English available)
Seoul has a good reputation with street food. I personally don't eat street food that much somehow but I heard foreign friends talk about street food many times. Bamdokkaebi night market is basically made up with street food, event and hand made market.
When the street market opens, no vehicle can enter the street. There are 4 subways stations near by so I recommend you no to bring your own car here. This is a super crowded area even on just normal days.
Bamdokkaebi night market opens 17:00~22:00 on Saturday, 16:00~21:00 on Sunday in Cheonggye stream area.
Cheonggye stream area
I went to DDP one too but I personally prefer Cheonggye stream one. It's center of Seoul, easy to reach out other attractions from the market. Cheonggye stream is a pleasant place to take a walk along side of the stream. The path is well maintained. People take a seat under bridges, spend time their. Some are often playing guitar, some are eating chicken which I think as a Korean national food, some are drinking beer.
Me and my boyfriend took a bicycle and rode along side the whole Cheonggye stream. We parked our bicycles and had some street foods, spent time on the side of the stream, came back. Bicycle roads are well made near Cheonggye stream and it's often faster than driving your own car.
During Buddha's birthday season, lanterns are turned on both side of the streets because there is an old Buddhist temple which name is Jogyesa. It looks quite pretty at night and riding a bicycle following the lane is fun. The bicycle road is well made, some parts are clearly distinguished with car road so it's less dangerous.
Street Food
Street food on this night market are not that heavy and easy to carry. Most of them accpet credit or debit cards. However some doesn't have card reader, some said card reader doesn't work (Why???) so only cash is available. I barely carry cash in my purse so if any places don't accept cards, I just give up.
Some Korean merchants have tendency not to accept cards which is really seriously very annoying. Usually the reason they don't accept cards is they don't want to reveal their whole income clearly to elude taxation.
Well, most of street food vendors in this night market accept cards. Menu is usually meat, meat, shrimp, something sweet like ice cream, crepe, or meat. Beef, pork, chicken, lamb menu are here and there. Skewed meat, steak type is the most common one. I always feel that Korea is a hard place to live for vegetarians.
There are standing tables and tables with chairs here and there. You can freely use them. There are convenient stores in area so maybe some drinks will be nice too. However, you can't bring food down to the Cheonggye stream path. The sign says it's to maintain the stream area clean.
Even though the market itself closes down at 9 p.m and 10 p.m. some vendors close down earlier than that if their ingredients are out. Vendors are all food trucks so this is quite common near 9 p.m. If you want to eat something and there is already a long line, it might be gone after you roam a round. I would buy the food first and roam around later in that case.
Waste basket area is at the end of the night market road. There are recycling bins so you can just throw the garbage there when you leave the market.
Hand made Market
This market supports small business. Usually young business people doing handcrafts sell their product on this market. Items are generally small handcrafts. Plaster air fresheners, purse with traditional color and patterns, engraved fountain pens, dry flowers, hairbands etc.. I have never bought crafts here. They seemed bit expensive to me under name of handcraft. Still it's fun to look around.
Events
Some artists come and perform sometimes. Usually musicians, covering traditional instrument player, music band working on youtube or clubs. The official event schedules are on the website.
I personally found out that individual performers provide better fun sometimes. I once saw a guy making a giant bubbles and provide bubble show on the bridge. Those performers don't use the official stage provided by the market organizer but use the other open public spaces.
This area is close with other attractions in Seoul. It would be a nice one day trip course in the evening after you look around other attractions near by. Enjoy street food and sit on the stream, rest a bit.
If you find any errors, have updated information or want to add some comments, feel free to let me know (Last update: 2019. 5. 20.)
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