Busan Chinatown (Shanghai Street)

Cross the square in front of Busan Station to the far side of the main road and you step into lanes hung with red lanterns and Chinese signboards. This is Busan Chinatown, also called Shanghai Street, where Chinese residents began to settle after the Qing dynasty opened a consulate here in 1884. In 140 years Qing merchants, American soldiers and Russian sailors have all passed through, so every lane carries a layer of Busan's modern history.

History: from Cheonggwan Street to Shanghai Street

When the Qing consulate opened in Choryang in August 1884, locals called the area "Cheonggwan" (Qing quarter), in contrast to the "Waegwan", the Japanese settlement around Yongdusan. Chinese shop-houses grew up around the consulate, selling silk, cloth, mirrors and embroidered shoes imported from Shanghai and elsewhere, and much of the bridal finery of the Yeongnam region was bought here. Records show 338 Chinese residents just before Japan annexed Korea. At the time, east of the street, where Busan Station now stands, was still a beach of white sand and pines, not yet reclaimed.

After liberation and the Korean War, US forces were stationed in Busan. When the great fire in front of Busan Station in November 1953 destroyed the bar district in Jungang-dong, part of this street turned into "Texas Street", catering to American servicemen. In the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian sailors and small traders arrived and Russian signs filled the street.

Busan and Shanghai became sister cities in 1993, and in 1998 they agreed to create a street symbolising the other city. About 600 m of the district was redecorated in Chinese style, and the two cities jointly built the Shanghai Gate, 15.7 m wide and 11.1 m high. In 2007 the area was designated a Chinatown Special Zone.

What to see

• Shanghai Gate and paifang arches: a Chinese-style gate marks the entrance, and further dragon-decorated arches stand inside the district.
• Chinese restaurant lanes: long-established restaurants and dumpling shops run by ethnic Chinese families. Dumplings are the speciality, and queues form at mealtimes.
• The Chinese school: the Chinese middle and high school in the middle of the district, near the old consulate site, is still the heart of the community.
• Street details: dragon lamp posts and stone lanterns, a monument themed on the Peking opera "Farewell My Concubine" and traditional Chinese patterns set into the paving.

The community today

Busan's Chinese population, around 10,000 in the 1970s, had fallen to roughly 1,000 by the early 2000s. Yet with more visitors coming for Chinese food and shops, a street that once turned into a Russian market is again becoming a Chinese one.

Tripto tips

• Getting there: right across from Busan Station (KTX and Metro Line 1), ideal for filling time before a train.
• Time needed: 30 minutes to an hour for a walk, about 1.5 hours with a meal.
• Opening times: the street is open at all hours, but restaurant hours vary; popular dumpling shops sometimes close early when they sell out.
• Festival: the Busan Chinatown Culture Festival, which began in 2004 as the Shanghai Street festival, is held every autumn; in 2023 and 2024 it ran for three days in October.
• Combine with: Choryang Ibagu-gil and the 168 Stairs are within walking distance, part of a walk through Busan's old town.