New Eye Clinic in Haeundae New Town (Highly Recommended)

I'm posting to highly recommend "Eye Taylor" for getting your vision checked, getting glasses made, or getting contacts. It is located right next to Tom N' Tom's coffee shop right at the Line 2 subway Jangsan Station exit #14.  Make sure you ask for the director, Choi Yong-Jun (pronounced /Chweh Yohng-Joon/).  He speaks some English and is very passionate about helping out foreigners and Koreans alike.

Phone#: 051-702-8911

The rest of this post contains my personal experiences with eye doctors/clinics/eye care shops in Korea including the above mentioned, so you can stop reading if you aren't interested.

I've been living in Busan, SK for 8 years now and have had a problem with seeing double in my left eye only.  I've been to two eye doctors, several stores that sell glasses/contacts, and even a hospital to determine the root of the problem, but nobody seemed to be able to figure out what the problem was.  One of my Korean friends recently recommended this new store, and I went to an actual eye doctor first to get a perscription before heading to Eye Taylor, so that I was armed with some fore-knowledge due to 8 years of headaches dealing with medical health care providers.  (My Korean wife came along to help with translation.)

I knew right away this place was different because, besides being a normal store that sells eye glasses, the director had some patients doing vision therapy to correct a lazy eye and double vision.  Usually doctors in Korea try to rush you in and out, but this director spent an hour with me, met me again on his day off, had me come in again for 2.5 hour checkup and detailed explanation of the problem, and wants to do a follow-up next week to make sure everything is going ok.  Keep in mind that I have a bit of a unique problem and all of these extensive tests and dedication are a breath of fresh air in a rush-rush Korean society.

I'm a PhD candidate, so I came back the third day armed with medical research papers, which he and I went over together to confirm that his diagnosis and the latest research on the problem matched up.  He did extensive testing and explained everything in detail to my wife (in Korean) which she translated.  He did speak English to me too, but the translation was faster.

In the end, he didn't even charge me at all for the entire exhaustive eye exam with a battery of tests, sample contacts, and complimentary tea and coffee.  I was only charged for the frames, contacts, and lenses for my glasses (which he discounted in the end below the regular price). 

I've had a lot of experiences with doctors and other health care providers through the years in Korea, and I can say that I've NEVER seen anybody so dedicated to helping somebody fix a vision problem than this person.  And I must stress, the exam was FREE for me.  I asked him why he was giving me such great service, time, and energy, and he said that he thinks that people in life should do their best to help each other to make a better society and world through positive relationships.  Wow...  Most people want to get the almighty dollar out of you and send you on your way, but this blew my mind.

So if you need glasses or contacts, this is the guy you need to see.  I recommend taking somebody to help you translate, but if you don't, you can probably get by with basic English and optometry terminology.

I hope this post about my difficulties helps you out.  Thanks for reading...

--- Shard Obsidia
[saobsidia at hotmail dot com]

Re: New Eye Clinic in Haeundae New Town (Highly Recommended)

UPDATE:  Just finished all of my checkups and tests, and I received my new glasses and contact lenses.  GREAT service and even got a few free gifts including a nice size desk mirror.  I can't say enough good things about this place.  I must stress that you need to ask for Mr. Choi, Yong-Jun (최용준) because he is the one who handled it all.

I found another Eye Taylor as well, just down a little ways from Starbucks located in Primus near Jangsan Subway Station but make sure you go to the one next to Tom N' Tom's coffee shop in that new building kitty-corner from Starbucks. (See my directions in the first post.)
 

Re: New Eye Clinic in Haeundae New Town (Highly Recommended)

I thought I should add that I was just at the Eye Taylor in Jangsan and they really were amazing. There was a second fellow there who spoke English rather well. They were really helpful and I walked out after a pretty long eye exam with some new lenses (not the frames) for 35,000Won.