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Real Local Flavors That Make Taxi Drivers Stop the Meter… The 11th Busan Original Downtown Revitalization Festival “Taxchelin” to Be Held

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Busan Metropolitan City announced that the 11th Busan Original Downtown Revitalization Festival “Taxchelin” will be held from May 22 to 24 across the original downtown districts of Jung-gu, Seo-gu, Dong-gu, Yeongdo-gu, and Nam-gu.

“Taxchelin” is Busan’s signature gourmet festival introducing authentic local restaurants personally recommended by veteran taxi drivers with more than 10 years of experience navigating the streets of Busan. This year, the festival will expand beyond the original four downtown districts to include Nam-gu, offering an even broader and more diverse local culinary experience.

This year, the city improved accessibility and convenience for both residents and visitors by making the “Taxchelin Guidebook” readily available at Kyobo Book Centre locations.

The “Taxchelin Guidebook,” which features Busan’s local restaurants and gourmet information, will be available beginning May 20 at major Kyobo Book Centre branches including Busan Main Store, Centum City, Ulsan, Daegu, Daejeon, Cheonan, Changwon, and Sejong, allowing people nationwide to easily discover the flavors of Busan.

In particular, a separate English edition has been prepared for international visitors, featuring multilingual menus from “Busan Ollang” and QR codes linked to maps, enabling anyone to easily locate featured restaurants.

In addition, from May 23 to 24, the city will operate the “One-Bite Sentence Bookstore” in collaboration with Kyobo Book Centre at Busan Station Plaza. Under the concept that “gourmet experiences are also a language of personal taste,” the event will present book-pairing content combining food and reading for a unique cultural experience.

The opening ceremony marking the start of the festival will take place at 7 p.m. on May 22 at Busan Station Plaza, where a new Taxchelin collaboration menu created by the century-old restaurant “Sinbalwon” and a star chef will be unveiled for the first time.

Alongside the awards ceremony for this year’s featured Taxchelin restaurants, a special dining event will also be held. The event will present a unique multi-course menu featuring dishes from restaurants selected for the “2026 Taxchelin Guide,” including amuse-bouche, appetizers, main dishes, and desserts.

One of the highlights will be the collaboration between “Sinbalwon,” the long-established dumpling restaurant in Dong-gu Chinatown selected as a 2026 Camellia Star, and Head Chef Park Gi-seop of the Haeundae Korean restaurant “Sogonggan Dining.” Visitors will be able to experience the newly developed signature menu created jointly by the two culinary experts as the event’s featured main dish.

The new Taxchelin menu will be available in limited quantities at Busan Station Plaza from May 23 to 24, and will later be sold for a limited time at the Sinbalwon restaurant.

Various hands-on programs will also be offered throughout the original downtown areas during the festival period.

Programs include the “Original Downtown Explorer Training Course,” where participants follow the Taxchelin guidebook through downtown while completing missions; “Taxchelin Run the Original Downtown,” a running tour combining local courses with dining experiences; “Night View Pocha,” featuring specialty menus and liquor pairings in collaboration with local merchant associations; “Taxchelin Guide Taxi,” a storytelling taxi experience based on taxi drivers’ restaurant recommendations; and the “Beauty & Flavor Tour,” a gourmet bus tour through Nam-gu.

The city will also launch a dedicated “Taxchelin Webpage” this year, accessible without installing a separate application, where visitors can conveniently view guidebook downloads, program schedules, restaurant coupons, and other festival information in one place.

Some programs will require advance reservations. Further details can be found on the Busan Festival Organizing Committee’s Taxchelin website at https://festivalbusan.com/taxchelin.

Meanwhile, Busan Metropolitan City also plans to promote the charm of Busan’s coastal tourism in connection with the festival’s tourism programs.

Through promotional activities linked with the Korea Tourism Organization’s “Digital Tourism Resident Card,” visitors to the festival will be able to more conveniently access tourism benefits and local information. In addition, through collaboration with the May tourism campaign “Travel to the Sea Month – Wave After Wave, Something New,” the city plans to introduce visitors enjoying local gourmet experiences in the original downtown areas to the attractions of Busan’s marine tourism as well.

Na Yun-bin, Director of the Tourism MICE Bureau of Busan Metropolitan City, said, “The 2026 Taxchelin festival has been prepared to allow both citizens and tourists to experience Busan’s local culinary culture in broader and deeper ways through guidebooks, festival programs, and tourism partnerships,” adding, “We hope many people will show interest and participate so they can newly discover Busan’s unique flavors and stories.”