Seoul's 7 Underground Shopping Arcades: 2.8km of Mall Without a Single Drop of Rain

Walking around Seoul at two in the afternoon in August is punishment. Heat rises off the asphalt and slaps your calves. Ten minutes in, your shirt is glued to your back. Yet Seoulites are weirdly unfazed by this. Because they can just go underground.

Beneath Seoul’s downtown core, pedestrian corridors lined with shops spread out like a spiderweb. Hundreds of stores cling to both walls of passageways that sit outside the subway turnstiles — meaning you don’t need a ticket to get in. People just walk through them. Too practical to be a mall, too noisy to be a hallway. It’s a type of space you only really see in Seoul.

A quick distinction will save you confusion later. Seoul’s underground retail spaces are split between two managing authorities. The underground pedestrian arcades — dug for public passage — are run by the Seoul Facilities Corporation. The retail concourses inside subway paid areas belong to Seoul Metro. All seven arcades below are the former: outside the turnstiles, no ticket required.

🏬 7 Underground Shopping Arcades Connected Directly to Subway Stations (as of August 2026)

The Downtown Spine — City Hall Plaza & Euljiro

Can you really cross the entire city center without going outside?

You absolutely can. Starting from Euljiro 1(il)-ga Station on Line 2, passing through Euljiro 3(sam)-ga and Euljiro 4(sa)-ga, all the way to Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station — that’s 2.8km of unbroken underground walkway. If you add the City Hall stretch to the west, you can walk from the front steps of Seoul City Hall to right beneath the Dongdaemun Design Plaza without a single street-level traffic light. Locals sometimes call this route “Seoul-araet-gil” — the Seoul Lower Road.

Walk it and you’ll feel the personality shift block by block. Between City Hall Station and Euljiro 1(il)-ga, there are piano stairs that play notes as you step on them and trick-art photo zones — tourists are thick here. Past Euljiro 1(il)-ga, the mood turns lived-in fast. Hiking gear and sportswear, wallets and belts, nameless household miscellany stretch on endlessly, and the shopkeepers are more invested in their radios than in you. Around Euljiro 3(sam)-ga, a design project space called “Euljiro-sai” kicks in and the vibe shifts again.

Above ground, Euljiro is famous for its printing alley and lighting-and-tile shops. Underground, it’s all clothes and sundries. Same address, completely different inventory.

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What makes City Hall Plaza different?

It’s small. Fifty-three stores, 4,871㎡ — about a quarter of Euljiro’s size. But the location is unbeatable. It sits between City Hall Station (Lines 1 and 2), directly beneath Seoul Plaza, which means it sits right on the footpath connecting City Hall, Deoksugung Palace, and the Seoul Metropolitan Library. The tenant mix — office supplies, clothing and accessories, some food and drink — tells you exactly who this place was built for. Not tourists. People who work nearby.

One thing to watch: Euljiro and City Hall Plaza are closed on Sundays and national holidays. A Sunday afternoon in the Euljiro underground with every shutter down is a strangely unnerving sight. The corridors themselves stay open, so you can still walk through fine. But if you want to actually shop, skip Sunday.

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Gangnam Station — The Busiest Underground, The Youngest Merchandise

What’s Gangnam Station Underground like?

12,315㎡, 212 stores. It runs north-south underneath Gangnam-daero, a long slice through the ground. It’s directly connected to Gangnam Station (Line 2), and if you follow the corridor far enough, a good stretch of it continues toward Sinnonhyeon.

The merchandise is exactly one thing: young casual. Clothes a twenty-something would wear out on a Saturday night, and cosmetics. It’s not that they sell the same stuff as the big brand flagships above ground for less — they sell different stuff entirely. Unbranded clothes, seasonal inventory that gets rotated out every few months, whatever silhouette is trending this week. Come here hunting for genuine designer goods or a coat you’ll wear for five years and you’ll leave empty-handed. But a t-shirt you’ll wear for the three days you’re in Seoul? An accessory to toss in your luggage? This is exactly where you want to be.

One practical edge: the corridor is open 24 hours, year-round. Gangnam stays up late, and plenty of people use these tunnels to get around well past midnight. The shops close at ten. The walkway never does.

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GoTo Mall — The Endgame of Seoul Underground Shopping

Why does everyone name Express Bus Terminal as number one?

The numbers do the talking. 31,566㎡, 620 stores. That’s 1.5 times larger than the runner-up, Euljiro (20,334㎡), and more than one-fifth of all stores across the 25 underground pedestrian arcades managed by Seoul Facilities Corporation — packed into a single location.

The layout is simple: two parallel corridors stretch out in twin straight lines, shops hugging both sides. The problem is those two lines are absurdly long. Getting from one end to the other takes real time, and somewhere in the middle your sense of direction dissolves. Women’s clothing at the start, then accessories, interior decor, kitchenware, and finally flowers at the end. Memorize that sequence and you’ll always have a rough idea where you are.

It sits on a three-line transfer station (Lines 3, 7, and 9), so the accessibility is almost unfair. The nationwide express bus terminal, Shinsegae Department Store’s Gangnam branch, and one of Seoul’s biggest wholesale flower markets — all connected through this one underground.

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Yeongdeungpo — Phones and Clothes on the Same Level

Why is Yeongdeungpo’s underground split into three?

Yeongdeungpo’s underground shopping isn’t one single thing. Yeongdeungpo Station Underground (80 stores), Yeongdeungpo Rotary Underground (133 stores), and Yeongdeungpo Market Underground (78 stores) each operate under different management. Combined, that’s 291 stores — more than Gangnam Station — but you can’t walk through all three in one continuous loop.

The one with the strongest identity is Yeongdeungpo Station Underground. It’s attached directly to Yeongdeungpo Station (Line 1) and the railway concourse, and it’s packed with mobile phone shops. For ages, this has been one of the go-to spots in Seoul for buying telecom gear at a discount. The catch: plan structures and contract terms here get complicated fast, and if you don’t know the Korean carrier landscape, this is not the place to spontaneously sign a two-year deal. A SIM card, accessories, or a used handset is more realistic.

The Yeongdeungpo Rotary side is a more standard clothes-and-sundries arcade. It’s sandwiched between Shinsegae Department Store and Lotte Department Store, so the natural flow — check the price upstairs, come down and buy it underground — happens without anyone planning it. This is how people have been shopping in this neighborhood for nearly half a century.

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Hoehyeon — Where They Sell Time, Not Merchandise

Can I buy something here that I can’t find anywhere else?

Yes. Hoehyeon Underground Shopping Arcade is the single best place in Seoul to browse used vinyl.

When the Hoehyeon underpass was dug in 1977 and shops moved in, one used record store opened, and then audio equipment stores followed. The Bank of Korea and Seoul Central Post Office are nearby, so shops dealing in old currency and stamps showed up too. Half a century later, here we are. There’s a shop still operating today with 300,000 records in storage and 50,000 laid out on the floor.

With 225 stores across 9,031㎡, it’s not small on paper, but it feels much tighter. The corridors are narrow and every shop’s inventory spills out into the walkway. Myeongdong Station Exit 5 feeds directly into it via escalator, and the opposite end connects to Shinsegae Department Store’s main branch and Namdaemun Market. If you’re walking from Myeongdong to Namdaemun, cutting through here instead of going above ground is significantly more pleasant.

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Jamsil Station — The One You Walk Through on the Way to Lotte World

Is it worth going out of your way for?

No. But if you’re in Jamsil anyway, you can’t really avoid it.

8,446㎡, 139 stores. From outside the turnstiles of Jamsil Station (Lines 2 and 8), the arcade fans out toward Lotte Department Store, Lotte World, and Lotte World Tower. The inventory is mostly budget clothing with some phone shops mixed in. The contrast is almost funny when you remember that one floor up sits Lotte World Mall, packed with ultra-luxury brands. In practice, this level draws students and families.

The closing schedule is unusual. Unlike other arcades that shut down on Sundays, Jamsil closes on the first and third Monday of each month — a deliberate choice to capture weekend foot traffic.

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The Practical Stuff — What, and for How Much

What’s the price range like?

The whole reason these arcades exist is price. It’s not that the same item costs less than above ground — it’s that goods at price points the street-level shops don’t even touch end up here.

💰 Typical Price Ranges by Item (Summer 2026, asking price before haggling)