Last weekend, I had a chance to visit Gangneung. Gangneung is a seaside city located in Gangwon-do Province, on the east coast of Korea. Gangneung is famous for its beautiful beaches, BTS photoshoots, and K-Drama Goblin shooting locations. However, I want to share a unique experience I had when visiting Gangneung. I stumbled upon the Jinro Pop-Up Store in Anmok Beach and I had the best experience ever! Keep note that you must over 20 in Korean age to enter, because this pop-up is all about soju.
This store consists of two floors. On the first floor, you can take pictures with the mascot Jinro’s toad Dukkeob. There is also an exhibition of various types of drinks produced by Jinro from the cheapest to the expensive and exclusive ones. You can take pictures at the photo booth and play games. This store is all shades of blue. I recommend that if you plan to go, dress up to match!
First, I took a picture with the Jinro mascot. And then, I looked up at the bed where there was the mascot doll Jinro, a pillow, and a blanket. It’s really cute!! Then, I move to the drinking table to drink soju with Dukkeob. Don’t forget to always take photos!
I think the second floor is more interesting than the first floor. Here you can buy some souvenirs that they only sell in the pop-up store.
Uniquely, they don’t sell any drinks here. There are magnets, stickers, soju glasses, bags, clothes, and many more. Also, there are postcards that you can take for free. But, that’s not the most interesting part.
The most unique and interesting thing here is that you can take a picture in the photobooth for free and create a soju drinking license. It’s so unique, right? And it’s all free! You only need to follow Jinro’s official Instagram account and answer the quiz that’s super easy.
When we visited on the weekend, the store was almost full. So, we had to wait for a little while to get access to the photo booth and soju ID drinking license. But, it was worth it! Because you can have the same drinking ID license as IU!
The staff were friendly and spoke English. Because we didn’t understand Korean, one of the staff members told us the answer to the quiz. We also had a nice conversation while waiting for the photo booth. I took a lot of pictures because everything was cute! They showed a lot of Dukkeob characters everywhere. Overall, I loved the vibe!
In total, I spent about one hour enjoying the store. The place is not too big, but there is a lot that you can see. So, I really recommend you visit this cute pop-up store when you visit Gangneung. Especially if you are a big fan of soju. There are some souvenirs that you can only buy in this store. But, what I love the most is that they give customers an experience to get to know more about Jinro and didn’t just push buying products.
Jinro Pop-Up Gangneung (두껍상회 강릉) Address: 287-90 Gyeonso-dong, Gangneung-si, Gangwon-do Korean Address: 강원 강릉시 창해로14번길 20-1 Operating Hours:12:00 PM - 09:00 PM
If you are new to soju, Click Here to learn more about Korea’s most popular alcoholic beverage. The culture around the drink is very unique!
