buying ginseng and other korean souvenir items

does anyone know which shops sell genuine, authentic ginseng and approximately how much they cost? what other souvenir items do people usually buy from korea?

our tour group itinerary includes a visit to a ginseng shop and amethyst factory and from what i gather from other people, these are usually rip-offs with marked-up prices.

appreciate your suggestions. many thanks.

buying ginseng and other korean souvenir items

your best place may well be Insa-dong. Not cheapest, but plenty of stalls who speak enough English. Ginseng, you name it, all in one place

buying ginseng and other korean souvenir items

Let me give you some useful site of Insam(we call it insam in Korea not ginseng).

www.kgc.or.kr/new_eng/company/contact.html

www.ginsengmall.co.kr/鈥?/a>

www.insam-mall.com/front/php/category.php鈥?/a>

Some are written in Korean, but you can click around.

Korean Souvenir samples.

shopofkorea.com/index.php鈥?/a>

www.urisalim.com/FrontStore/iStartPage.phtml

Please click around.

Any more questions are welcomed.

I am curious that is it possible to take raw Insam to your country?

Actually, You can try your luck buying souvenirs at Namdaemoon market. I think I saw same silk padded pouch selling at Namdaemoon about 1000 won to 2000 won cheaper, plus you can bargain there.

As per ';Insam'; products, be very careful to buy them at reputable store to ensure you get genuine products.

Thank you all so much for the info and also for the web links!! I think we鈥檙e gonna break our wallets buying all those souvenir stuff LOL there are so many to choose from! We will be going to Namdaemun and Dongdaemun, I just hope we can find them there at a good price :)

Seoulhyena, re raw insam, I really don鈥檛 know. I鈥檓 guessing that it鈥檚 allowed because most, if not all, of the group tours here have visits to ginseng store in the itinerary. Any tips on how to check if the product is genuine? Actually we might not have time to look for the stores, are these available at the markets too? We were thinking of buying the powder form, by the way.

Also, I鈥檓 thinking of buying some snack food that is unique to korea...something like biscuits or fruit preserves or what we call ';junk food'; here haha...Any suggestions on what is local or specialty of korea?