5 Best Places to Go Shopping in Pyeongchang

Jinbu Traditional Market is a traditional fifth-day market where you can feel the hospitality of a rural community. It is also famous as the setting of Lee Hyoseok's short storey “When Buckwheat Flowers Bloom.” When the market is open, long rows of stalls form starting from the entrance, selling daily necessities, clothes, vegetables, mushrooms, and other foods.

In particular, a variety of fresh vegetables hard to find in large supermarkets or department stores in the city attract many customers who want to buy vegetables of high quality. The market also provides various medicinal herbs and nuts at affordable prices, and merchants here often generously throw in extras for free. At the market, you can taste representative local foods of Pyeongchang, such as pan-fried millet rice cakes (susu bukkumi), mung bean pancakes (nokdujeon), thistle rice (gondeurebap), and spicy noodle soup (jangkalguksu). Pancakes made with highland cabbage (baechujeon), which have a clean and savoury taste, and freshly steamed corn are also popular snacks. Stop by this market to buy quality vegetables and local foods.

Bau Farmers Mall is a food speciality farmers' market where you can purchase and experience agricultural and livestock specialities and processed products produced in Gangwon-do. It is a space intended to increase the value of agricultural products and create additional income for farmers. The interior is decorated like a stylish cafe to provide a space where farmers can have a leisurely time.

The first floor houses a spacious hall where local specialities and foods are displayed and sold. The retired tiller and the safe and door used in the offices of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation are displayed at the corners of the shop, to add a nostalgic feeling to the space. There is also a small cafe where you can take a break. How about spending some relaxing time in the rest area on the 2nd floor, looking out at tranquil sunlit scenery and the ridge of Daegwallyeong Pass through the large windows. If you sign up for a cooking experience programme, you can learn to make some local dishes of Gangwon-do.

Pyeongchang Olympic Market is a traditional market that went through renovation on the occasion of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. It is a place to taste local foods of Pyeongchang and get a glimpse into the lives of locals. It is a market with a friendly atmosphere where you can feel the warm hospitality of a rural community.

The market operates as a permanent market, but when the local fifth-day market is open, there are many more attractions. Like other markets in Pyeongchang, the market mainly sells vegetables directly from the producers, medicinal herbs, fruits, and miscellaneous goods, but the highlight is the various foods made with buckwheat, a speciality of Pyeongchang. At the Memil Buchim (Buckwheat Pancake) Alley, you can watch merchants pan-fry thinly sliced napa cabbage and chives on top of an iron pot lid. These golden-brown pancakes are not only tasty, but also reasonably priced, which makes them very accessible. Corn starch noodles (olchaengi guksu) and buckwheat jelly salad (memilmuk) are some of the foods that can make a hearty, satisfying meal with these pancakes.