COEX: The World's Largest Underground Mall

Written by Kyle about Korea, Republic of. Feelin' normal

The World's Largest Undeground Mall! It sounds exciting at first, but then you realize 2 things: 1) There probably aren't that many malls underground and 2) it's a mall.

It reminds me of The World's Largest Sitting Bronze Buddah on Lantau island in Hong Kong. Granted, it's an impressive statue, but then someone told me that there were larger sitting buddahs in the world, they were just made out of something else that wasn't bronze. And there are really large reclining buddahs. The one in Hong Kong, was large, sitting, and bronze, therefore it gets the distinction. So, if you're looking for large, bronze buddahs, Hong Kong is the place, and if you prefer to do subterranian shopping, go to COEX Mall in Seoul.

The first thing that struck me about COEX was that it looked kind of like any other mall, except that I can't read the map. After about 5 minutes, though, the same thought hit me that usually hits me in Korean public spaces: "There's a crap ton of people here!" I'm slowly getting used to it, but it's still jarring to be litterally running into people everywhere that you step.

Most of the mall is pretty, well, mall-ish, but we did find a couple of unique things that we probably wouldn't find back home. First, we found a video arcade. Video arcades by themselves are not remarkable things, but there were a couple of quintessentially Korean things, starting with the crowd watching someone play a video game. Most Korean people under 30 play video games like they're training to be a pro. That would be funny, but there are actually video game playing leagues where games are broadcast on national TV. Apparently, this guy was really awesome at whatever game he was playing because he had a crowd of about 30 people glued to what he was doing:

Also in the arcade, we found some 1-2 people karaoke booths that were completely taken, or we would have done it. It's no secret that people here love karoake, and at 500 won a song (less than 50 cents), it's a surefire way to spend some time getting close to your significant other while wailing out the latest K-Pop song.

And most awesomely, we found a sort of circus game where you pay money to shoot rubber pellets at stuffed animals. I don't have anything against spongebob, but for some reason, it was fun pointing a gun at his yellow head.

Outside of the arcade, we found the perfect place for "we're a boring married couple, but not so boring that we don't want to leave the house" couples like us. It's a cafe where you pay a small hourly fee to play board games. They also serve drinks and some limited food, but the real treat is getting schooled in Boggle by my wife.

Last but not least, what would a mall be without a movie theater? They don't exactly get the cream-of-the-crop American movies here (read as: mindless aciton flicks) but any movie is better than no movie. We first tried to buy tickets to the show via the ticket dispensing machines outside of the theater, but we could only get so far in the Korean menu options before we gave up and went to a live person. We easily got our tickets there and headed to the theater, only to be informed by the attendant that our movie started in over 2 hours! We still haven't gotten used to the 24 hour system, so we bought tickets to a 22:30 show, even though it was only 20:15. Do'h! Fortunately, Korean businesses are great about returns and they gave us our money back for the tickets so that we wouldn't have to wander around the mall for another 2 hours.

All, in all, COEX is a mall and it is what it is. But for rainy days (or for a really nice bomb shelter), it's a good place to pass the time.

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June 24, 2009 Greg Wesson: In the same vein as the reclining, bronze Budha thing, Toronto's PATH network, with 371,600 square metres of retail space, is considered by Guinness to be the largest underground shopping complex in the world. COEX is apparently only 85,000 square metres, which makes it the largest underground shopping complex in Asia, but not the world.

Hows that for arcane!

Greg

June 25, 2009 Kyle: That's true. I was so excited by the awesome mall-ness that I misinformed our readers. In any case, "world's largest" makes for a better title :)

June 25, 2009 Bessie the wife: I'm glad you're forthcoming that I schooled you in Boggle. :)

June 26, 2009 Rose P.: I live in Toronto and have gone into the underground PATH network many times and still get lost because it's so huge. It's situated in our business section in downtown Toronto. It's like a city below the city. I just read the other day they are extending it and making it even bigger. It's interesting to know that Korea has one like it too.

June 26, 2009 DADDIO: Thanks for all of the mall details! All I want to know is what is above it out in the sunshine? Why did they dig it underground? Does it flood in rain storms? And....... Where did they put all of the rocks and dirt from the digging??? I'll bet they mounded it all up into a new ski hill for more recreation nearby the mall.............. I hope you get to see a movie once you learn to tell time!!!

June 28, 2009 Bessie: The movie time mix-up was pretty sad, and totally my fault. I'm terrible with the 24-hour clock, and always mix up 20 & 22 hours. Some day Kyle will get to see the new Star Wars movie!

June 29, 2009 mumsie: My mind is getting a little Boggled. Let's see... It seems that you've expanded your Horizons with a new experience, but had to go Below Grade to do it? Really! And then you had to Ditch the flick? Truly the Pits. Is this on the Up & Up? Level with me. Oh dear. I'm getting confused. Is there a way outta this? LOL

July 04, 2009 Bessie: goofball!!

July 03, 2009 Donna: This is like a weird dream I once had. kewl!

July 03, 2009 Linda: My question is the same as Dad's......what is above the mall?.....housing, a park, streets? If you see a film in Korea is it in Korean with English subtitles? In winter, when your outside options are more limited, maybe you could join one of those video game clubs....good exercise....for thumbs! Can't wait for your return so we call all Boggle!

July 04, 2009 Bessie: The Co-Ex Mall is part of this large complex with a convention center and underneath large World Trade Center towers and an Intercontinental Hotel. So it's very happening part of town not far from the baseball stadium.

The movies here are either in English with Korean subtitles or dubbed with Korean, which wouldn't be very fun for us! They also have a pretty large film industry & there are loads of popular Korean movies. Right now there's a bloody thriller out now about 5 murdering school girls - little to close to life for us!