Gwangjang Market’s covered aisles bring together fabric merchants, food stalls, and shoppers in a dense indoor street. The market’s present-day variety rests on a longer story of merchants creating a permanent marketplace and rebuilding it as Seoul changed around them.
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The market’s covered lanes feel almost like streets under one roof: vendors face one another across a stream of shoppers, with food and textiles sharing the same close quarters. Gwangjang began in 1905 as a permanent market established by private merchants, at a time when Seoul’s commercial life was being reshaped. Its early buildings and businesses did not remain untouched.
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UpgradeQuick facts
- Gwangjang was established as a permanent market in 1905.
- The current three-story market building dates to 1959.
- Fabric and hanbok trade remained important to the market.
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