Korea Postage Stamp Museum: Where To Teach Kids About Old School Mail

If you’ve visited Myeongdong a bit, chances are you’ve walked right by the big Korean Post Office. It sort of seems out of place to find something so necessary for local life in such a busy and touristy area. Step inside and you can also find the small but very interesting Korea Postage Stamp Museum (우표박물관) which holds more than 6,000 stamps, envelopes, and postcards.

If you’ve got kids in Korea or just want to have something to do in Myeongdong to take a break from the shopping hustle and bustle, here’s one spot you can add to your list. An hour is all you need, but it’s a nice break from the streets above and educational too!

Korea Postage Stamp Museum (우표박물관), Myeongdong, Seoul, Korea

Where to take kids to teach them about our old school snail mail and the cool stamps we got to use for it:

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How To Get There

Address: 70 Sogong-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul (서울특별시 중구 소공로 70)

Directions: It’s a five minute walk out of Myeongdong Station, exit 5. Or, you can take a 10 minute walk from Euljiro 1-ga Station, exit 6. When you spot the main Seoul Post Office, you’ve found the right spot. The museum is in the basement of the building.

Basic Info

Hours: Tuesday – Sunday: 9:00am ~ 6:00pm

Admission: Free

What To Know

In Korea, the first stamp was issued in 1884, which was also when the modern postal service system was introduced. There are some really beautiful stamps to see and some humorous ones too and a lot of others in between that have been created since that first.

Kids these days probably don’t even know what stamps are and that’s just why you should visit and support the Korea Postage Stamp Museum. Entire stories can be told through a postage stamp and that is just what you and your kids can learn with a visit.

If you’re taking kids: There is a stamp course throughout the museum for kids. Grab a pamphlet at the front and help them find the stations to stamp, learn, and answer the questions along the way. It’s one fun thing to do with kids in Seoul.

What To See

While this isn’t a huge museum, it is packed with great information. Here’s what you can see in each area of the museum.

Postal Service History Gallery

Look for the world’s first postage stamp along with Korea’s first postage stamp. There’s a quick chronology detailing the Korean postal service and the high-tech post offices of the future. There’s also a display with the changing appearance of postmen and mailboxes in Korea as well as mailboxes from around the world.

Hands On Postage Stamp Experience Gallery

Learn about world cultural heritage, Nobel laureates, and the world of dinosaurs… all through stamps. You can also see the stamps with scenic Korean views and famous sites around the world. How many of the places do you recognize? There are unique stamps from around the world, animation characters, sights of nature and ecology, and embossed stamps, and more.

Some of the unique stamps that have been printed in Korea are photochromic stamps which show hidden letters when exposed to ultraviolet light. There are perforated stamps with special patterns highlighting the design. There are even scented stamps printed with ink that contains fragrance capsules.

There are stations for hands on stamp coloring and designing and plenty of little spots for the kids to touch things, use things, and move things.

Postage Stamp Information Gallery

Learn step-by-step how stamps are printed and why people are collecting them. There’s a computer where you can color a pre-designed stamp. It’s here that you can also write yourself a letter and mail it in the “Slow Postbox”. Letters that are mailed here can only be sent within Korea and you’ll receive it a year after you send it. There’s a fantastic gallery here Korean stamps by decade too. Pull out the collections and have a look at the beautiful pictures.

Another fun thing to do in this section is write a letter to a Korean mailman. The instructions say that if you have a problem or a question, ask, and a mailman will respond to you with a letter in the mail.

Looking for something fun to do in Seoul? Something fun to do with kids in Myeongdong? Check out this little museum and let them relish in how we used to send mail and letters.

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