Namdaemun Market

Right next to Sungnyemun Gate, about 10,000 shops are crammed into a maze of alleys. Namdaemun Market traces its origins to 1414, when the royal court built shops near the gate and leased them to merchants, making it Seoul's best-known traditional market with some 600 years of history. Locals like to say you can find "everything here except a cat's horn".

History: a market that kept rising from the ashes

Records show that in 1414, under King Taejong, the court built shops near the south gate and rented them to traders. After the Seonhyecheong tax office was set up in 1608, a private wholesale market grew here. In 1897 traders gathered in a former government granary and began selling all day long; this market is seen as the direct predecessor of today's Namdaemun Market.

In 1922, under Japanese rule, a Japanese company took over its management, and after liberation the merchants rebuilt it themselves. The market was reduced to ruins in the Korean War and hit by major fires in 1953, 1968, 1975 and 1977, yet it was rebuilt each time.

What to see

• Specialised arcades: some 1,700 kinds of goods are sold, from children's clothes, fashion and accessories to kitchenware and tableware, imported food, ginseng, flowers, cameras and watches. Shops selling the same things are grouped together, which makes comparing easy.
• Food alleys: the hairtail fish (galchi) alley and the kalguksu noodle alley are famous, and vegetable-filled hotteok pancakes, oxtail soup and North Korean-style cold noodles are market classics.
• Farm produce and ginseng: shops selling ginseng and dried seafood have their own section, handy for souvenirs.
• The market itself: about 300,000 people visit every day, around 10,000 of them from abroad. Motorbikes and handcarts weaving through the crowds are part of the show.

Good to know

Namdaemun is both a retail and a wholesale market, so besides locals and tourists it draws shopkeepers from all over Korea and traders from China, Japan, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and beyond. Around 50,000 people work in the market, merchants included.

A market that drew foreign traders

While Joseon kept its doors closed, both customers and merchants were mostly Korean. After the Treaty of Ganghwa opened Korea's ports in 1876, foreign traders arrived quickly: the number of Chinese merchants in Seoul rose from 99 in 1883 to 1,254 in 1893. Another major fire struck in 1911, yet by 1916 the market handled about half of all market sales in the city.

Figures for its size vary. The merchants' association speaks of about 10,172 shops on some 66,000 m², while a 2016 survey by the Seoul Institute counted about 5,200 shops on 64,612 m².

Tripto tips

• Getting there: 5 minutes on foot from Hoehyeon (Namdaemun Market) Station, Exits 5, 6 and 7 on subway Line 4, or about 5 minutes from Seoul Station.
• Opening hours: these and closing days vary by arcade and shop, so check in advance if you are heading for a particular one.
• Time: allow 1–2 hours for browsing and a meal.
• Payment: small stalls and old restaurants sometimes prefer cash. If you buy several items, a polite request for a discount is fine.
• Combine it with: Sungnyemun Gate, Myeong-dong and Namsan are all within walking distance.