A Day in South Korea – Daejeon Jungang Open Air Market
Eugene L. 08.18.23
When you think about South Korea several things come to mind; Kimchi, K-Pop, K-Dramas, Samsung, Hyundai, K-BBQ, and so many more. While these are some of the biggest bits of Korea that’s been spread around the world there is so much more to the nation. It’s a small country a little smaller than Kentucky, but has 10 times the population. It was born in the aftermath of the Korean War, where the peninsula was split in half at the 38th parallel after 3 brutal years of war. In the 70 years since the country has rapidly modernized and become the 13th largest GDP in the world. This rapid growth has led to an interesting mix of new and old in South Korea. One which we will explore in-depth today being the Daejeon Jungang Open Air Market.
Earlier this summer I got to go visit South Korea for the first time in my life. Finally seeing the country in person was something completely different than everything I had seen through media on TV and online. Amongst the skyscrapers and cities, there are still vast stretches of farmland some with traditional Hanok-style houses. Brand new towers of Apartments right next to idyllic mountains and streams. This contrast is present when it comes to shopping as well. While modern department stores, malls, and hypermarkets are commonplace. Traditional Open Air Markets are still very popular places to go shopping in Korea.
Traditional open-air markets in Korea are a combination of many different shops and stalls lining streets and alleyways in designated market districts. You can buy almost anything from these traditional markets. They have a wide variety of vendors and stores, from cellphones and accessories to home appliances and soft goods. You can get your grocery shopping done or just buy dinner out right at the market. We had some spare time to kill one day during the trip and checked out the Jungang Open Air Market in Daejeon.
This market brings in tons of locals and visitors alike. As I said before it is a wide mix of vendors selling different things. Like here in the photo above while just walking into the market from a parking garage nearby you can see assorted vendors, clothing and shoes on the left, and assorted home goods on the right. Off the side of the photo, there’s an aquarium shop on the right along with a secondhand electronics store right next to it.
Going further into the market I had to stop and admire this handsome fella, an orange tabby street cat that has become a mascot-pet for a coffee shop down the alleyway outside the main street market. Once you get inside Daejeon Jungang Market proper it is almost a sensory overload of stores and vendors. There is so much going on at once inside. Stores and stalls of every sort for as far as the eye can see. You do have to keep your head a bit on a swivel to watch out for scooters that buzz through. A lot of shops offer delivery services in Korea with same-day shipping.
There is a rough sort of organization when it comes to the layout of the market. With similar retailers sticking to certain alleys or sections of alleys. Clothing, bedding, and other soft goods roughly together. Appliances, kitchenware, and even furniture in other sections. Then there are sections of meat, produce, fish, and other food products vendors in their own clusters. Amongst all these are street food stands with anything from fried fish, mungbean pancakes to Soondae (Korean Blood Sausage) and Boiled Offal.
It can be a bit intimidating walking through the stores if you are new to this sort of place. All the vendors will call out to you as you pass if you show any interest in their products. Though I do need to say it could be different for anyone who is not Asian. Unlike Seoul don’t expect anyone to speak English here. So even if you are or look like a foreigner they might just still call to you in Korean anyways, who knows. They were super persistent until we moved along. Once we got past the clothing and home goods sections we got into an alleyway of meat, seafood, and produce. Interspersed among these vendors are small little restaurants for you to either eat at or pick up prepped food.
You can even find live seafood in the Daejeon Jungang Market, these tanks below contained a few different species of freshwater species. Live weather loaches in two sizes in the tank directly below. They are used to make an energy-boosting food, Chueotang (Loach Soup) a soup full of herbs and greens seasoned with gochujang(chili paste) and doenjang(soybean paste).
These tanks in the pictures below contain a few different popular food species as well. At the top left is some eel catfish either a Silurus or Clarius species. The bottom left tanks contain a bunch of crucian carp. And the tanks on the right side have the infamous in US northern snakehead, in Korea they’re just a popular and tasty fish. Live fish are popular in a lot of Asia where possible, it’s a guarantee of freshness and quality. Often times the meat, seafood, and produce at these traditional street markets tend to be fresher and cheaper than those at modern markets. This is due to the vendors often being able to cut out the middlemen.
If you do come to Daejeon Jungang Market I say put aside at least an hour to explore. My photos here barely scratch the surface of all the things to see and experience in the market. I highly recommend stopping by here or any of the other traditional street markets in South Korea. It is a shopping experience like no other.
