Day 12 South Korea Family Travel Journal: Shopping at Bupyeong Underground Market with Kids | 부평 지하 시장 어린이들과 함께

The twins baptism is fast approaching, and since they are getting baptized in Korea we thought it would be special to incorporate as much of the Korean culture as possible. We’d been browsing the stores as we went about our adventures, but we needed to dedicate some time to really finding some dress clothes for both kids. The plan for today was for the little girls to have a Daddy Daughter Day, and I was going to take the twins around to the local children’s clothing stores. Shopping at Bupyeong

Day 12 South Korea Family Travel Journal
Bupyeong Market

What ended up happening was we were in a fancy mall and a boy’s plain dress shirt cost just ₩88,000. The girls got just enough time to have a hamburger and an ice cream before the twins and I were done looking for clothes. It’s not that I didn’t want to spend the money on the kids, it’s that no child’s shirt should ever cost nearly $100. Plus, there were no white dresses – all we could find were cotton sun dresses.

We’d heard about a place called Bupyeong – an underground shopping mall near the city center. Having no idea what else to do, or where else to go, we decided we might as well give it a try.

부평지하상가
Bupyeong Underground Market
지하7 Bupyeong-daero, Bupyeong 1(il)-dong
Bupyeong-gu, Incheon
Phone: 032-523-9991
24 Hours

This place is nuts! It’s a well organized maze of interconnected aisles that weave back and forth this way and that with vendors filling every single nook and cranny. They sold wares from shoes to jewelry to clothing to food to ties to household goods. Mannequins were dressed in not just horse head masks, but rabbit masks and chicken heads.

Bupyeong is a really neat cultural experience. Not only in relation to the type of goods sold, but the people who gather here as well. Our family enjoyed discovering and exploring everything at the culture street and underground market. Though, like most of Korea, they do not like kids touching anything. They want to touch your kids, but they don’t want your kids to touch their stuff.

We found the perfect dress shopping at Bupyeong with the kids! The dress is knee length with a three layered skirt. The bodice is fitted with an undershirt, and the entire dress is covered in a layer of lace with embroidered flowers. The sleeves are full lace. It is the most exquisite and beautiful little girl’s dress, and is perfect for the occasion. Except, it’s pink. Honestly, I was fine with pink but Pie really wants a white dress.

We kept looking. We got lost a handful of times, stopped for food, doubled back around a few times, went up and down stairs, and wanted to stop at every vendor! We found Pie some adorable light pink dress shoes with some gold bows that are gorgeous. But, we still didn’t have a dress.  

This is the first ordinance she’ll make with our Heavenly Father and I can tell tell how important this is to her. She wants to wear white. I can’t begrudge the fact that she has been looking forward to this day and has a very specific idea in her mind how she wants to celebrate it. In the end what matters is that she remembers the covenants she makes, regardless of the dress.

If the pink dress were white it would have been perfect, she and I could both agree on that. But, it wasn’t, and wishing it was isn’t helping the situation even one little bit. I think I am going to go back to Bupyeong with the kids and buy the pink dress though. I have three girls that will be able to wear it over the next few years, even though it won’t be for a baptism. Plus, it’ll be a good reminder that Pie made her own choices for her special baptism day and is choosing to follow Christ and live a life dedicated to something bigger than herself.

I was also able to find a boys Korean style white tunic and linen pants for Widmore, plus socks of course, and he feels just as special as Pie in finding special clothes for his special day. We also found a tie for Gabriel with Korean letters on it, which is just too fun and commemorative.

There is a lot more to discover shopping at Bupyeong with the kids and we plan to come back here for most things we need. The prices were awesome and they had everything you could ever need, including groceries. It’s a straight shot on the subway, so it makes more sense to go here as much as anywhere else.