Given a choice between hiking up a mountain or wandering around an airconditioned mall, I choose the latter. Any time of the day, any day of the week, any week of the year.
It’s not that I don’t like nature, but there’s a distinct advantage to having a clean toilet within easy reach. Bonus points if it includes automated Japanese-style bidets with heated seats.
Plus, you don’t have to worry about the weather, creepy bugs or my greatest fear, random snakes out for a stroll. I know that they don’t mean any harm and are just going about their daily lives, but they really freak me out.
As should be evident by now, I’m a city boy through and through. And one thing I look forward to, when travelling to major cities, is visiting their big and fancy malls.
The Hyundai Seoul
Recently opened in February 2021, The Hyundai Seoul is the city’s largest shopping mall. The closest subway station is Yeouido (Lines 5 & 9), which is a comfortable 500m walk away.
We visited during spring, where pretty little flowers in full bloom dotted the outer compound. I had assumed that there were carefully maintained by the management of the mall, but we saw similar displays throughout the city. So maybe they were an initiative of the local government.
The mall is impressively huge and houses eight massive floors, 12 if you count the carpark. It has an expansive atrium that’s located in the heart of the building, and reaches all the way up to the ceiling.
All the major international brands were represented, with stores occupying prime real estate on the ground and first floors. Fashion stores dominated the higher levels; women’s of course, with a smattering of kid’s and a few token ones for men.
The top floor consisted of fancy restaurants focusing on different local and international cuisine. For more wallet-friendly food, the first basement level features a food court and many familiar chain stores.
It’s a fairly standard layout for high-end malls throughout Asia, except for perhaps the huge-mongous atrium. When we visited, it featured an Attack on Titan-sized Heendy, the official mascot of Hyundai Department Stores.
The Wife took a particular liking to Heendy’s heinie, and took numerous shots from various angles. It was kind of cute, I guess, but I failed to see the attraction. Many visitors had the same idea though, a sign that maybe she was on to something.
For some reason, everything, everywhere, all at once was populated with hearts. I found it quite strange since it was May, and way past Valentine’s Day. But I suppose you can never have too much love in the world.
I had seen the atrium in many YouTube videos before, but the one that left me with the strongest impression was when LeeHi recorded a show there during the dark days of Covid.
She’s not the most famous of South Korean singers and isn’t part of a popular idol group. But she has a soulful and beautiful voice, with a petite frame that is diametrically opposite of how she actually sounds.
If you haven’t heard her song “Breathe” before, you might want to check it out. I don’t understand Korean, but I could viscerally feel the heartbreaking lyrics from her delivery. It was even more haunting when I heard it a second time, after finding out who wrote the song for her.
Anyway, I digress.
In her performance below, which unfortunately doesn’t include “Breathe”, the atrium provided the perfect backdrop for some wonderful cinematography. The panoramic shots really showed off its beautiful aesthetics and its sheer volume of space.
This video was the reason why I tagged The Hyundai Seoul as a “must visit” location. And when I finally got to see it in real life, I was not disappointed.
Starfield Coex
The other “must see” landmark on our itinerary was also inside a large mall, specifically the Starfield Coex in Gangnam. On hindsight, since it was on the same subway Line 9 as The Hyundai, we probably should have visited both on the same day.
The sprawling building is directly connected to not just one, but two subway stations on two separate lines: Bonguensa (Line 9) and Samseong (Line 2). Whichever station you alight from, just follow the very visible signs and you’ll get there in no time.
As you enter, you can’t help but notice a clearly marked pathway with distance markers, sporting motivational phrases like: “It’s okay, you’re doing great.”
I had an idea of where it would lead to, and followed it to its final destination. But the route was, unsurprisingly, not quick nor direct.
Along the way, we were continually distracted by various Korean fashion stores like Twee, Åland, Spao, 8 seconds and had to make pit stops along the way. And when I say “we”, I mean mainly The Wife.
Finally, we got to the main attraction: Starfield Library, or Byeolmadang Doseogwan (별마당도서관) — Byeol (별) meaning “Star”, Madang (마당) meaning “Field” and Doseogwan (도서관) meaning “Library”.
Like any other library in the world, it has books, lots of books. And those books are neatly arranged onto shelves and sorted by categories like Fiction, Economy, Business etc.
But unlike any other library, you can’t actually borrow any of the books.
You’re free to pick them off the shelves to read at your own leisure. But once you’re done or when the library closes, whichever comes first, you need to put them back.
And unlike any other library, or at least the ones I’ve been to, it’s just so pretty.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the Singapore National Library, but it seems boring and sterile compared to Starfield. There’s a reason why #starfieldlibrary has more 48,400 posts on Instagram and #singaporenationallibrary only has 500+.
Some other random facts about the Starfield Library that I found online:
- Shinsegae invested ₩6,000,000,000 (~S$6,000,000) to build the library, and spends ₩500,000,000 (~S$500,000) every year to maintain it
- The library occupies 2 storeys, covers a floor area of 2,800 square metres and has towering 13 metre-tall bookshelves
- It houses more than 50,000 books and 600 magazines, all available to the general public to read for free (but no borrowing)
If I lived in Seoul, I would probably spend quite a large amount of time hanging out there. I would have to learn how to read hangul first, of course.
Besides The Hyundai Seoul and Starfield Coex, we also spent time in the Lotte Department Store in Myeongdong and AK& in Hongdae.
Given my soft spot for malls, you might think that I’m a shopaholic, or at the very least, a window shopping fan. On the contrary, I don’t enjoy actual, or even window, shopping.
I prefer to wear my clothes until they physically disintegrate. When I have no choice but to replace them, I stick to multiple pieces of the same item, usually in the same colour.
So why do I like to spend time in malls when I’m on vacation overseas?
Maybe because I’m a city boy through and through, and there’s no better symbol of modern civilisation than a bright and shiny shopping centre.
Also, no chance of accidental snake encounters.
