Finding solace from the sunshine

After meandering the men's floors of Migliore and Doota (multi-storeyed fashion shopping malls) and the Korean take on high fashion, yet also largely finding exactly the same goods at every stall, we walked down the steps from the extensive Dongdaemun market to Cheonggyecheon: a man-made stream that, from City Hall, runs a full 5.7km due west of Seoul before reaching the Han River and eventually emptying itself in the sea on the west coast of Korea.

Under Pres Lee Myung-bak when he was mayor of Seoul, the stream was turned from a covered roadway to an attractive watery retreat from the cityscape. Dipping a toe in the fall of the fountains was a welcome relief from a hard day's shopping and an ever-increasingly forceful sun. The rains have stopped, but summer is by no means over.

Men's fashion


Cheonggye stream