Namdaemun Market

Namdaemun Market (Korean: 남대문시장; Hanja: 南大門市場) is a large traditional market in Seoul, South Korea. It is located next to Namdaemun, the main southern gate to the old city. The market is among the oldest extant markets in Korea, having opened during the Joseon period in 1414.

The market's character, location, and size have all changed over time. Amidst Joseon's isolationism in the 16th and 17th centuries, the market was limited to mostly Korean customers and merchants. This persisted until the Empire of Japan forcefully opened Korea in the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876. Afterwards, nearly half of the merchants became either ethnic Chinese or Japanese merchants. During the 1910–1945 Japanese colonial period, the market survived a number of attempts by the Japanese colonial government to shut it down. The market was destroyed a number of times over time by accidental fires, including one during the 1950–1953 Korean War. Each time it was destroyed, it was rebuilt to roughly the same size and status it had previously operated under.

Today the market has been modernized, although it retains much of its bustling character. It is largely jointly owned by a collective of the merchants who operate within it. According to the Seoul Institute, it contained 5,200 stores, had 9,090 workers, and had an area of 64,612 m² (695,480 sq ft) as of 2016.