The Biggest Electronics Market in the East

Hoping for better weather was certainly optimistic as we're forecast for heavy showers all week. To escape the rain on Sunday Ian and I headed to Yongsan: host of the largest electronics market in Asia.

The market is apparently spread over several buildings, each containing hundreds of shops selling anything with a plug. However I'm only yet to explore the iPark Mall, the huge building just by the subway station. With several floors of cameras, computers, games, TVs, MP3 players, mobile phones and any accessories you can think of, plus clothes, stationery, jewellery, other usual department store peripheries and a multi-screen cinema, I don't see why I'd really need to venture outside of this safe haven of commercialisation.

Outraged by my poor sound quality when attempting to watch DVDs on my computer, Ian went in search of some new speakers. Unfortunately we've decided it's a PC fault, but he's still come away with a nice low-cost pair of speakers.

Even though bartering is a supposed must, it seems as though if you ask one seller for a price, you'll be kept a close eye on by all neighbouring stall holders, ready to pounce with a similar quote. It's difficult to tell if the sellers are actually in competition with one another, or if they're all just out to rip off unsuspecting foreigners. Still, whether fair or not, compared to our Western counter-shops it seems you can usually pick up an electronic bargain or two here.