Times Square Mall - All your shopping needs under one roof!

Here in Korea I've noticed a bit of a trend starting to emerge. They seem to like naming things after famous American hot spots. Yeouido is referred to as Korea's Manhattan, there's Rodeo after the famous Rodeo Drive and there is Times Square a mall in the south west of Seoul.

Although they don't really bare much resemblance to their namesakes they are all great places worth visiting.

I only found out about Times Square by chance. A friend of mine posted a picture of it on Facebook. To me it looked like it could have been a picture from her home town in America. I was pretty excited to visit when I found out it was actually here in Seoul. I love the design of the mall, it has a galleried centre with a glass ceiling so it's really light and airy. For some reason I never feel like I'm in Korea when I shop here, I think it's partly due to the layout being unlike anywhere else I've been here.

Times Square Mall

There's a lot of stores you'll have probably heard of here even if you've not been in Korea long. On the ground floor you can find Mango, Zara, Steve Madden, Nine West and Bean Pole.

Going up

On the second floor there's lots of smaller shops like an Apple Store, Kyobo book store, Swarovski, 7 For All Mankind, GAP, The Body Shop, Muji, The North Face and a few more Korean brands. There's also a store called Francfranc which is full of cute trinkets and soft furnishings for your apartment, I love it!

The third floor somehow packs in even more stores including Accessorize, Levi's, Puma, Guess, Nike. There's quite a few of the Korean stores on this floor too like ABC-Mart (a shoe store), Eblin (Lingerie), Who.A.U (A similar style to American Eagle and Hollister), Giordano (Clothes) and the cosmetic stores Etude House and Olive Young. Up here there is also another home furnishing store called Modern House. This one sells a wider variety of home items including some furniture, cookware and soft furnishings. It's very reasonably priced too. Another of my favourites to browse!


At the top of Times Square on a busy Saturday.

When you get tired of shopping and need to re-fuel there are plenty of options. Of course there is all the usual coffee places and fast food outlets. If you're in need of a proper meal though there's plenty of places to choose from too. Don't miss the basement area where there's On The Border (a fairly decent Mexican restaurant), Bulgogi Brothers, Kraze Burger and Saboten to name just a few. There's also an E-Mart down there too. I told you this place has everything under one roof!

Times Square, like most malls in Korea, also houses a movie complex, this one is a CGV. The special thing about this movie theatre though is that it has a 4D theatre. The seats move (quite a bit too - forwards, backwards, sideways, vibrations - you name it, they do it!), air will be blown in your face and your ankles might be whipped (not as painful as it sounds!).

Word of warning here though...I made the mistake of seeing Kung Fu Panda here....Eurgh! By the time the movie was finished I felt like I'd taken a beating and at one point  I nearly lost my drink due to a bad timing with a forward tipping movement. It wasn't the most relaxing movie experience I've had but it did add another dimension that's for sure!

I'm not too sure what the Starium is but I'm lead to believe it's a really wide screen. So wide that it won a world record according to the signs. I've not watched a movie in there yet but I want to try and check it out sometime soon.

So now you know about Times Square you'll need to know..... how to find it!

Times Square is located closest to Yeongdeungpo station on line 1.  You should go out of Exit 3 and walk across the main road down the street opposite. You'll pass a Family Mart and then Shinsagae Department Store. Times Square is right after that. Alternatively if it's raining I think you can actually access the mall underground directly from the subway station. I haven't tried this myself so you'll have to look for signs. Either way it's pretty difficult to miss since it's HUGE!

Just in case you're not too sure though I've made you a map to help! ^^

View Times Square Mall in a larger map

Times Square is open from 10.30 until 22.00 although CGV is open until about 02.00/03.00 along with a pub that's on the 5th floor.

You can check out more (in English) about Times Square Mall here :)

As always feel free to ask me any questions or leave me a comment to let me know what you think of the mall if you visit. Don't blame me if you spend all you're money though!

Heavy Rain ~ AGAIN!

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!

So I thought the rainy season was done and dusted for this year. It had seemed long enough anyway but after a few days of sun a huge storm has hit Seoul.

I'd been visiting the National Museum of Korea yesterday and was lucky enough to have an umbrella with me when the rain began. Although the umbrella wasn't much use in the end because as you might already know when it rains here, it pours! I got well and truly soaked. Pretty much my head to toe was wet. It wasn't my prettiest moment I have to say.

Then this morning I was actually woken up by the thunder it was so loud. It seems to have been raining throughout the night and from what I read on the Internet this morning this rainy season has broken some records.

Seoul has received over 838mm (33inches) this July and about 400mm of that has fallen yesterday.

Cheonggyecheon - A stream in Seoul's centre. 
The picture was taken this morning (Wed 27 July). It's usually about 4/5 feet wide and
runs between those small trees which you can see partially submerged in the picture.

Now usually I get pretty excited about a spot of rain and some moderate flooding. I love to wade through flooded riversides in my wellington boots and when I was a child my dad always took us (my brothers and I) to look at flood waters stretching out across farms in the English countryside. It's quite a sight and reminds you of your own tiny insignificant size against the power and sheer scale of the world and nature around you.

Sadly this rain, here in Korea, has had some terrible consequences. Ten Koreans have died this morning in a mudslide this morning in an area called Chuncheon approximately an hour and a half from Seoul.

Here in the city there's been hundreds of reports of flooding and some of the subway lines have been closed. The Han River, which runs through the centre of the city has broken its banks and the Olympic Highway (major road here) has been blocked because of the flood waters.

I'm not working today so the next problem is what to do when the weather throws up road blocks (literally) like this?!!

Well, I think I'm heading to the dry safety of a mall. There's two I'd really recommend to you. I really like Times Square Mall, located near Yeongdeungpo station. Take Exit 3 and walk across the main road down the street opposite. You'll pass a Family Mart and then Shinsagae Department Store. Times Square is right after that. You can't miss it. Really!

The other Mall is Coex. Coex is all underground. I think I once heard it's the largest underground mall in Asia or maybe it was the world?! I forget....either way, it's big and you can you pass the day easily there. Go to Samseong Station and follow all the signs.

Both malls have big cinemas (movie theatre) complexes, Uniqlo, Zara, ABC Mart, Accesorize, plenty of restaurants and an abundance of coffee shops of course!

You can check out Times Square Mall here :)

Have a nice, if a little soggy, day!