Searching for Seoul in Koreatown
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The second floor features fashionable Korean brand clothes for women and chldren, as well as traditional Korean dresses, called Hanbok.
But though Kim is glad to chat, many Koreans are reluctant to speak with strangers. The community tends to be rather insular.
The Chinese community is also enjoying the convenience of Korean restaurants, food stands, fashion stores, beauty spas and supermarkets.
Zhu Yunfeng, who lives nearby, has witnessed the growth of Koreatown and is a frequent visitor for dining or shopping.
"It looks very foreign and posh," he says.
"Chic apartments, supermarkets with imported food, diversified entertainment, rich Korean dining experiences - all these are major attractions to the local Chinese," he says.
But Zhu says that the closer he gets to the Korean community, the more he realizes there's little interaction between it and the local Chinese community.
But back to Ms Kim and the Jingting Seoul Plaza shopping center, a landmark, magnet and community center.
On its first floor is Galleria Discount Mart, where 80 percent of the products are Korean; the second floor targets women and children; the third to ninth floors house entertainment venues, such as golf, KTV, a gym, traditional art and music schools.
At Dynasty Golf Club on the third floor, teachers help everyone and students range in age from 6 to 80 years. Next to the club is a yoga center.
On the same floor, a very popular KTV with 15 rooms may well have more Korean songs than any other KTV in the city, according to members of the staff. It's equipped with a Korean song order system.
It uses a floor heating system adapted from the traditional Korean ondol heating that used heat from cooking fires.
Nowadays, the plaza are filled with customers. But when it opened in 2007 the area was "horrible" and "run down," Kim says. It was hard to do business.
There were few customers and outside at night it was quiet and dark. There were no street lamps.
"The community has slowly grown and now the plaza has become a community hub through many years of efforts," says Kim.
Just take the Metro Line 10 and you're in South Korea.
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