Sunday, January 29, 2012

Shinsegae at Nangdaemun, Seoul

A must visit place in South Korea




Shinsegae is a South Korean department store franchise, along with several other businesses, headquartering in Seoul, South Korea. The name of Shinsegae literally means "New World" in Korean. Its flagship store in Centum City, Busan, is the world's largest department store, surpassing the Macy's department store in New York City in 2009. 

Shinsegae was originally part of Samsung Group, separated in the 1990s from the Samsung Group along with CJ Group (Food/Chemicals/Entertainment), Saehan Group (Electronic Media/Apparel/Textiles), and the Hansol Group (Paper/Telecom). It owns the brands Shinsegae and E-Mart, and is in direct competition with Lotte Shopping and Hyundai Department Store Group. Currently it is the largest retailer in South Korea. 

Shinsegae is also famous for its long history. The main branch of Shinsegae is the oldest department store in Korea. The main building of the store was opened in 1930 as the Gyeongseong branch of Mitsukoshi, a Japanese department store franchise. The store was acquired in 1945 by the late founder of Samsung group, Lee Byung-chull, and renamed Donghwa Department Store. After the Korean War (1950–1953) began, it was used for several years as a post exchange by the American army. In 1963, the store was given the name Shinsegae. The old building is currently used as a luxury hall.


Since I'm already all the way there, of course I'm gonna check it out right?! =D


But for me, it's not about shopping...I actually went all the way up to Shinsegae's building and found their awesome building park...quite interesting i would say




That's me, I look like a Hobit here! haha


 







Just check out the place, you won't regret
=)

5 comments:

Hilda Milda™ said...

Seems like a nice and quiet place to have some alone time (:

Henry Tan said...

why malaysia's tree takda that kind punya feel!

michleong said...

Your "hobbit" picture looks very nice :D lol

Kelvin -KtheBlogger- Tan said...

Seoul has nice scenery but somehow, it's not a place I feel going.

KtheBlogger.com

• Sharon Phang • said...

very beautiful architecture =D