Myeongdong Underground Shopping Center

명동 지하쇼핑센터

An underground arcade of 61 shops linking the Lotte Department Store main branch to Myeongdong's main street. The passage stays open around the clock even when the shops do not. Myeongdong has a second arcade with a near-identical name: the one attached to Myeongdong Station is the Myeongdong Station Underground Shopping Center, a separate 70-shop arcade under Toegye-ro.

Language

Place information

Korean name: 명동 지하쇼핑센터
Address: Jiha 72 Namdaemun-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul
Nearest station: Euljiro 1-ga Station (을지로입구역, Line 2) (Exit 7)
Opening hours: 09:00–22:00
Closed: Open year-round
Hours notes: These are the shops' hours. The passage itself is open 24 hours, so you can walk through after they close.
Area: 3,838 m²

Nearby

People walking a shopping street packed with cosmetics-store signs

Myeongdong Shopping Street

Central Seoul's best-known shopping district for cosmetics, fashion and tax-refund shopping. Treat it as a neighborhood rather than a single mall because individual stores keep their own hours.

The 1930 Shinsegae main store building — now named The Reserve — with its corner clock and SHINSEGAE lettering, and the Mesa tower behind

Shinsegae Department Store Main Store

One address, four buildings, and the names changed in 2025 — so a page that still says "main building and annexe" is describing a layout that no longer exists. The reason to come without a shopping budget is on the fourth floor of The Heritage: a free museum of Korean retail history inside a 1935 bank.

Myeongdong Cathedral

It publishes no visiting hours, because it is a parish rather than an attraction — what it publishes is a Mass timetable. The one clock that does cover the site belongs to 1898 Plaza, the archdiocese-run arcade under the approach, open 09:00 to 22:00 every day but two.

A bowl of kalguksu topped with dumplings, with the house spicy kimchi alongside

Myeongdong Kyoja

A kalguksu house open since 1966. The menu runs to four dishes and it takes no reservations. The main branch moved to Toegye-ro in 2026 and now stands in front of exit 8 of Myeongdong Station.

Stories about this place

Four Indoor Shopping Places in Seoul: Myeongdong Underground, Nakwon Arcade, AK Plaza Hongdae and Starfield COEX
For a wet day or an evening indoors in Seoul: Myeongdong Underground, Nakwon Arcade, AK Plaza Hongdae and Starfield COEX compared on what they sell, who each suits, when each closes and which station to use. "Closed" means something different at all four, which also decides the order if you visit more than one.

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