Alongside storefronts with Mandarin names, tea eggs bubbling in soy sauce in rice cookers are sold next to some stalls with youtiao (Chinese crullers). A few restaurant promoters stand outside exit 12 of Daerim Station with fliers for their respective venues. Red silk lanterns sway to what might be the music of Jay Chou, and real estate agencies post nearby rentals in Cantonese and Mandarin, but not in Korean at all. There are, after all, 20,000 Chinese people (including Chinese-born Koreans) in Daerim-dong alone. Many are from provinces bordering North Korea—Jilin, Heilongjiang and Liaoning—and occupy some of the dozens of businesses in the area. Unofficially known as Seoul's Chinatown (with Korea's official Chinatown still in Incheon), protests by nearby residents shut down the city’s attempt to legally deem Daerim-dong a “Chinatown” last autumn out of fear that this title might lower property values in the area. Regardless of its official or unofficial status, it remains a haven for authentic Chinese food lovers to seek out abai soondae (the type of soondae from Kaesong), xiao long bao and yang rou chuan (Beijing lamb skewers) coated in cumin served with wok-braised peanuts. Find the restaurant of your choice, top off your night with a couple of Tsingtaos and see Seoul in a new light on a full stomach of Chinese cuisine.
