Half-day trip to Jungang Traditional market (통영 중앙시장) and Dongpirang Mural village (동피랑마을) in Tongyeong City.
ภาษาไทย
Tongyeong is a well known local tourist destination, famous for the cable car which is the longest one in Korea, stretching a distance of 1,975 meters (1.2miles) And a MUST TRY “Luge”, this is the perfect way to experience Tongyeong on the ground!
Our day trip to Tongyeong for the easy day, we visited the Jung-ang Traditional market (통영 중앙시장 : Jungang Traditional Market), then Dongpirang Mural village(동피랑마을: Dongpirang Wall Painting Village). These two places are in the same area.
Tongyeong is just 20-25 mins drive away from where we live in Okpo, Geoje Island.
The Jungang market or Tongyeong market is a pretty similar market like other markets we have been in South Korea.
But if you are here during the winter, they have a lot of fresh oysters that make Tongyeong Market different than others!
They shuck the oysters for you, the big bag of fresh oysters is only 10,000won (~$10).
We’re here in February, it’s still cold…
The market is about a medium size compared to some others we have been to…
You can find various things such as fresh food, veggies (seaweeds), specialty local product, clothes, shoes and a lot more!
Not only fresh fish at markets, although many selections of dried seafood which we absolutely don’t know how to cook with…
Tongyeong has almost 400 years of history, worth a visit once you are here!
Must try here is a Chungmu Kimbap (충무김밥) which is mini rice rolled in seaweed with spicy squid and radish kimchi on the side.
The Tongyeong Gimbab or Chungmu Gimbab is unlike normal Gimbab (or Kimbab) that I have seen in South Korea!
But yes, we like to try different things.
The shop that we tried, it’s 5500won per person (~$5 each) and they will serve it on a food tray.
I think this is a SELF-SERVICE but the lady knew that we had no idea how to order. So she helped to set all up for us at the table.
Tim and I were NOT sure that we would like it! But we tried!
But well, it’s REALLY GOOD!!! The rice wrapped in seaweed was very warm and soft chewy when the squid wasn’t that smell fishy like what we thought
We enjoyed it and we had them all!!!
The shop that we tried by accident, it seems to be a very popular one. Many tourist bought a lot of food back home!
I’m sure to come back here for just for the Gimbab!
One of the MUST TRY at the Tongyeong market is the sweet bread (?!?)
This is the famous and a very popular local snack, Kkul-ppang ( 꿀빵 :Gool- Pang)
Literally meaning “honey bread”, it was first made in the early 1960s, a little after the Korean War.
I have seen this on youtube before we made the trip here. I was worried that we wouldn’t get to try because we didn’t know how to ask for it in Korean.
In fact, once you just walked through the market, they will hand the bread for you to try!
And as you walk you’ll get like a hundred of them, DON’T MISS TO TRY IT HERE!
I don’t think we had to buy any honey bread at all, we had enough of it just to walk around the market!
Fun Fact: it was originally made for sailors as a snack that can be stored for a long time without going bad even in the warm climate of Tongyeong.
The bread is very sticky because they covered with honey or maple syrup, also the original sweet bread is filled with sweetened red bean paste.
Nowadays, there are so many fillings and our favorite is the white cream – I’m not sure what the white cream is made of but it wasn’t that sweet like the red bean paste.
This is our favorite shop, they offer so many fillings and the one we like, the white cream.
We bought all white cream for one box (10 pieces of bread) at 13,000won and they gave us 1000won discount.
She said she remembered that we came back for her!
The Honey bread is a good combination with hot black coffee, I think!
And yes, there are so many coffee shops around this market and they are more decorative and offering a good view.
NEXT, MUST GO is the Dongpirang Mural Village(동피랑마을: Dongpirang Wall Painting Village).
We found the way to Dongpirang Mural Village (동피랑마을: Dongpirang Wall Painting Village) in front of the market.
There might be many ways to the village but this is the one we found.
It’s on the small hill, it’ll be a bit exhausting to walk around from corner to corner but it’s a good workout if you already had too much honey bread!
Dongpirang means “east cliff” in Korean. Tongyeong city wanted to restore the old village in this area.
In 2007, they held a nationwide mural contest called “Painting Dongpirang”. The mural becomes viral and it’s one of the must-see in Tonyeong city.
The murals are not eye-catching but they are so cute and give us a young fresh feeling. Wall paintings were done by talented local Korean artists.
This mural village is similar to Gamcheon Culture Village in Busan but is much smaller.
It’s a very “picturesque” place for great photos.
The Restroom sign that we think it’s funny….LOL
The mural village is also filled with cafes, restaurants, Hanbok (Korean traditional Costume) for rent, etc.
At the top of the hill…
Go up here and appreciate the scenery…
This village also overlooked the sea on the horizon, surrounded itself with small fishing towns.
I wouldn’t encourage making special plans to come all the way to Tongyeong city unless you live nearby like us (Geoje Island). It’s a perfect place for us to visit for the weekend.
We spent 2 hours today walking around the market, have a Gimbab for lunch and then visited the mural village. We also paid about 3300won for 2hrs parking.
Highly recommended to come here to try the Gimbab!!!
Traveled: 15 February 2020
Trips in Teongyeong: https://www.somethingjam.com/south-korea/tongyeong
Trips in Geoje: https://www.somethingjam.com/south-korea/geoje-island-south-korea
