์๋ ํ์ธ์
(hello) ๐๐ผ
With not being able to freely travel internationally for over a year and half nowโฆwe are all slowly going mad, if we havenโt already ๐ So a day trip to Korea town in Shanghai was a nice lil escape and I felt like I was whisked away to one of my favorite places in the world, Korea ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ท๐บ๐ป

Korea town in Shanghai is a bit outta the way if you live across the river in Pudong. Soooo it took around 45 minutes to get there by car ๐ otherwise itโs over an hour on the metro. The stop closest to the area we were in is Ziteng Rd or Longbai Xincun both on line 10.
There are several plazas and areas over here. Honestly if you arrive and just walk around youโre bound to find cute cafes, hip markets and Korean style everything. If you wanna just head to the area I would put in Hongquan Lu into didi and go from there. Iโll leave what we did exactly down below. Youโve been warnedโฆitโs mostly food!! ๐๐๐ฅฉ๐ฅฌ
We first stopped at Seoul Plaza Mansion and had lunch at ้ฟๅงจๆฑค้ฅญ้ข้ฆ(่นๆณ่ทฏๅบ) 2F. (Wechat translation Auntie Tang Fan Noodle Shop (Hongquan Road Branch)) Here we ordered Korean style stew ๐ฒ And it was mm mmmmmm good!

Hereโs the thing about Korean food. It comes with allllllll the sides dishes or banchan ๋ฐ์ฐฌ in Korean. We are talking kimchi (duh) radish, chives, garlic, onion, green peppers, and many sauces. Your table will be full!
My spicy tofu stew or sundubu-jjigae ์๋๋ถ์ฐ๊ฐ came with a big side of rice, ๐ seaweed and greens. It was delicious and Iโm craving it as I type ๐ Iโve read you can have the soup as is, or put in spoonfuls of rice as you go. The waiter insisted on translating for me โthis food is stinkyโ did this stop me? No, no it did not. It was stinkin good!! ๐

After lunch we stayed in this plaza and did a little shop. There were more clothes and fashion in this plaza but nothing that caught my eye. I did buy a makeup cushion from Clio which I highly recommend ๐๐ผ we stumbled upon a Korean super market called K mart ๐ where I found Dr. Pepper ๐ so yes, I for sure bought it along with some cheese crackers I used to get all the time living in Hong Kong. ๐ฌ
Snack break!!! So because we were in Korea Town we HAD to get the cheese corndogs that are so popular. So itโs a sausage dipped in batter with cheese, topped with ramen noodle sprinkles and sugar on top. Look, that sounds weird but omg, I loved it! ๐๐ ็งๅๅฃซ็ญ็ๆฃ(ไบไบญๅคฉๅฐๅบ) (Wechat translation -Dr. Qiu hot dog stick (Jingting heaven and earth shop)) this place was right on ground level in front of Jingting Tiangdi complex.

After this we took a 10ish minute stroll to find a bookstore we had seen online. This bookstore is actually the lobby of a hotel called Atour Hotel. Itโs attached to Aegean Shopping Mall. We spent some time here just sitting and enjoying the peace but also reenacting scenes from Beauty and the Beast ๐ ๐ญ

We couldnโt go to Korea Town without eating Korean BBQ! And there were soooo many options to chose from. We honestly just found one that had people waiting outside knowing that it should be good and the place we chose did not disappoint! The service was amazing and quick. As soon as we ordered by scanning their QR code, our banchan ๋ฐ์ฐฌ (side dishes arrived), hot coal was placed under our grill, a server came and poured a stream of egg and cheesy corn that surrounded our grill which honestly is genius ๐๐ผ a worker also helped us cook our meat ๐ฅฉ the place we had our meats was ๅ็ ็ๆๅ็็ค่ (้ฉๅฝ่กๅบ) 3F (wechat translation Sun Yuk Cooked Wagyu Beef Roast (Korea Street Shop)) at Jingting Tian Plaza back at the street we had started at!
Ok so with Korean BBQ it can be a bit overwhelming ๐คฏ I like to make lil tacos with the lettuce ๐ฅฌ they give us. Dip the meat into the sauces and add some kimchi and itโs ๐๐ผ we also ordered a kimchi pancake which was delicious also! ๐
Last but not leastโฆ.dessert. Yes, we ate more food! In the same shopping center we found this cute dessert cafe Luo Cake้ฉๅผ็ๅยท่็ณยทๅๅก 3F (wechat translation Korean Dessert ยท Cake ยท Coffee)) we ordered the mango bing soo, ๋น์which is pretty much shaved ice with fresh mango and ice cream on top and of course like every other meal we had it was ๐๐ผ

I absolutely recommend making the trek out here if youโre in Shanghai! Especially if you love everything Korean like me!! ๐
random tips ๐๐ผ๐๐ผ
- All the Chinese names of these places are findable on didi if you copy paste them (I tried ๐๐ผ)
- For some reasonโฆwe were hot everywhere we went. Even inside the plazas/shopping centers. Sooo keep that mind when picking something to wear. ๐ฅต
- Since we are still in a pandemic. Most places required a mask and green QR code so have those handy. ๐ฑ
- Thereโs also a night market which looked like fun! A long row of tents and pop up restaurants/cafes. By 5:45pm they were all opening up.