This is Screening Day, a summer video festival held at the plaza of Ssamzie Street in Insa-dong on a Saturday in August. The summer night offered respite from the midday heat for those who came down to see screenings of animation films.

(male) I can see Korean tradition at work and many people, including foreigners, can enjoy this. This plaza doesn’t belong to any one specific person, but to us all. I wish it would remain as a cultural venue where people can see animation films, enjoy cocktails, and indulge in many cultural events.
(female) Ssamzie Street is open to everyone. The place is very inviting to families, couples, and foreign visitors.

Traditional, open, and inviting…these words describe what Ssamzie Street means to those who visit Insa-dong. Here’s Mr. Jeong Jae-ho정재호, Vice President of Ssamzie Street to tell us more about its unique characteristics.

Ssamzie Street is a multicultural space where tradition and modernity coexist. I feel that Korean traditional art and products should evolve through modern interpretations to keep up with the changes in time and environment. Ssamzie Street is the nation’s first and largest arts and crafts shopping mall, opened to promote traditional craftsmanship and the local design industry. The mall houses a variety of arts and crafts shops and designer studios, which also serve as a channel of cultural communication between artists and consumers.

Insa-dong is Seoul’s signature cultural avenue. The mere one-kilometer stretch of small shops, art galleries, and restaurants and tea houses showcases the diversity of Korean heritage. Always crowded with Koreans and foreigners, the neighborhood is one of the most charming tourist destinations in Seoul. Ssamzie Street, of course, is an indispensable part of Insa-dong’s appeal. So today let’s explore this fusion center of the old and the modern.

Ssamzie Street of Insa-dong is located to your left on the main street, about 150 meters south from Anguk Station Exit 6 of subway line 3. Though the name may be Ssamzie “Street,” it’s actually a small plaza surrounded by four stories of shops and studios. The place doesn’t exactly have an entryway to speak of, because it suddenly appears before your eyes as you wander through the alleyways.

As we get immersed further and further in the material world, people tend to long for narrow, nostalgic back alleys. The entire Insa-dong neighborhood is built on those alleys with wistful memories, which inspired the unique street culture and shopping mall of Ssamzie Street. The building here is not an artificial structure, but a creative work of art designed to serve as a crossroad of communication. I think anyone visiting here can feel that purpose.

Ssamzie Street may look like a four-story building from the outside, but it’s actually composed of streets as its name would indicate. There is an empty space in the middle of the square lot and four floors of stores and workshops are built protectively around it. Perhaps that’s why when you enter the central plaza in the middle of Ssamzie Street, you feel as if you’re being embraced or watched over.

(male 1) It feels like a bird’s nest here. The whole place is very cozy and nice-looking. I think it was a great idea to build it like this.
(male 2) The word Ssamzie refers to something precious that you keep inside a pouch or a pocket. So “Ssamzie Street” may mean that the street embraces and nurtures our traditional culture.
(female 1) This building is amusing and appealing. It’s a modern building, but opened up in the middle like a traditional Korean house to allow us to see the sky.

Think of Ssamzie Street as a long inclined stretch going around the plaza in the middle. So to use the term “floor,” as in first or second floor seems inappropriate here. Rather, each stack is called the first step road, the second step road, and so on. Each floor, for the lack of a better word, has a theme which is represented by the shops run there.

The first floor is composed of local artists’ shops. The mainstay of the second floor is traditional craft items and that of the third floor is modern apparels and accessories. The top floor houses a garden and a coffee shop, and the basement has restaurants and galleries, as well as do-it-yourself workshops.

Some 80 shops are located within the enclave of Ssamzie Street. But being a part of Ssamzie Street is not an honor granted to just any old shop. Only shops and products that well represent the cultural harmony of tradition and modernity as intended by the founders of Ssamzie Street are allowed to do business in this eclectic district.

It’s hard to point out the similarities, because each shop is so unique. But they all sell hand-made goods featuring fine craftsmanship and unique designs. You will find one-of-a-kind things at Ssamzie Street.

Let’s visit one of the craft shops. Among some 30 shops of finely crafted items, we stop at a boutique where a waft of delightful fragrance tickles our noses.

We make hand-made soaps with Oriental herbs. We opened here in Ssamzie Street about three months ago. The shop used to be in Busan, but we moved here because we wanted to advertise our products to more foreigners. This soap in a bamboo container would make a great gift. Also, this red ginseng soap is good for everyday use, because red ginseng fights aging and oxidization to keep your skin looking younger.

Shoppers find a wide array of unusual products as they climb the winding stairs. Before they realize it, they’re already on the second floor, devoted to traditional craft items. These intricate handmade goods provide shoppers with visual delights, while their ears are treated to the pleasure of beautiful music.

The sound leads to a shop selling music boxes. The wound-up music boxes entice shoppers with their distinct sounds. A music box in the shape of a Korean porcelain urn playing Arirang is most popular among foreign tourists.

Our music boxes won the President’s Award at the 2008 National Tourist Souvenir Contest. Korean businessmen like our products, because they’re great as gifts to foreign buyers. There are 80 music pieces to choose from. We can put the music of your choice in a music box on the spot and you can have your music box within 30 minutes. The ceramic music box is produced in Korea and the music selection is comprised of traditional Korean folk songs like Arirang or music pieces performed with traditional Korean instruments. It’s a great way to let foreigners know more about Korean music. I think people like our products, because they’re handmade and uniquely designed.

On the next floor there are fashion apparel and accessory stores. Professional fashion designers run these stores and all of the accessories sold here are made individually by hand. Artists and shop owners proudly claim that you can’t find anything like this anywhere else.

There are so many pretty things here. The items here are so Korean. I think it’d be easy to find beautiful and one-of-a-kind gifts here.

On a hot summer day a fan shop on the third floor naturally becomes shoppers’ favorite.

(Taiwanese male) This is so Korean and so pretty.
(female) They’re beautiful. There are so many traditional Korean designs. The fans are so colorful and use mostly Korean traditional patterns.

Fanning themselves with their recent purchases, shoppers resume peeking into stores and trying on accessories. They stop in front of a seal store to have their own seals carved as mementos of the Ssamzie Street tour.

(Japanese female) I wanted to have one because it’s so cute. I had fun looking around this place.
(male) I bought gifts for my parent’s wedding anniversary and my sister’s birthday. I came with a friend, because he needed a book seal. I saw how wonderful it was and thought of my sister, who also reads a lot. So I bought one for her, too. I liked the font on the seal, because it was not something typical, but very uncommon.

Shoppers can find respite at the sky garden on the top floor. They can also look down on the alleys of Insa-dong from this small, roofless enclosure of greenery. It’s refreshing to enjoy a cup of tea and rest your tired legs, while looking up at the clear blue sky from time to time.

(female) It’s going to be autumn soon. I think this place is going to be prettier in the fall. Korea’s autumn is always beautiful with the sparkling blue sky.

It feels as if you’re in a maze when you walk up the inclined path lined with its numerous shops.

(female) Ssamzie Street looks like a maze. It also feels very Korean. The whole atmosphere is very different here, because both foreign and Korean elements exist here.

Perhaps that’s what draws people to Ssamzie Streets – a place where traditional and modern cultures exist side by side, a place where you can find one-of-a-kind items, and a place that satisfies all your senses.

I looked around Insa-dong and Ssamzie Street and ate delicious food with my friend. I could see Korean heritage at Ssamzie Street and had a great time experiencing both traditional Korean culture and modern culture.

I had fun shopping. There are lots of things that were very different from what I’m used to seeing in other places. There is not another place like this in other parts of Seoul, which is why I come here often. Even if I don’t buy anything, I see that there are many items that combine distinct Korean features with foreign ones. I want to tell other people about such crossover items.

As its architect Choi Mun-kyu최문규 claims, the Ssamzie Street tour takes place on a seemingly endless stretch of road. True to his words, the leisurely winding path that circles the plaza in tiers appears to have no beginning and no end. Ssamzie Street is a unique place in Insa-dong where people can take relaxing strolls to take in all the distinctive features of traditional and modern cultures in Korea.