Quintessential
nighttime fun in Busan
Bupyeong Kkangtong
Night Market is emerging as a new hot tourism site as Korea’s first permanent
night market. The photo shows tourists and citizens checking out food stalls at
the market.
Bupyeong
Kkangtong Night Market is growing into a landmark tourism site one year after opening,
captivating foreign tourists’ palates
Enjoying
Busan does not end with the sunset. The fun continues in diverse settings when
night falls.
Bupyeong
Kkangtong Night Market is celebrating its first anniversary. It opened at the
end of October last year and is the nation’s first permanent night market.
In
the meantime, it has established itself as an iconic night tourism spot in
Busan as well as a national landmark. The market is visited by 2,000-3,000
people on average during the week and 5,000-7,000 people on the weekend.
Well-known
bloggers who visited the night market bombarded the Internet with pictures of
scrumptious food and exotic scenery, resulting in it gaining a following among
foreigners as well.
In
short, Bupyeong Night Market has made it onto the bucket list of tourists
visiting Busan.
Thirty
or so mobile stalls line the night market’s alley, which stretches about 110
meters (360.9 feet).
Even
during the week, a slew of people mill about on every corner of the night
market, which opens at around 6:30 p.m. The most popular venue is, of course,
the area that sells food native to Busan. Starting with stand No. 1, which
sells Busan’s iconic seed hotteok (sweet pancake with nuts), a bevy of stalls
supply Busan’s seafood bread, sweet red bean porridge and yubu jeongol (fried tofu
stew).
In
particular, seed hotteok is catching on among local and foreign tourists. Its
sinfully sweet taste has people lining up in front of the stall for a bite.
Bupyeong Night Market
sells exotic food from various cultures. The food includes chia gio, fried
banana and much more.
Southeast
Asian food is also much sought after.
Southeast
Asian night markets are already well known, but Bupyeong Night Market offers
particular delicacies such as crispy Philippines-style fried sweet potato and
banana and Indonesian fried noodles, or mi goring. Both Busan citizens and
tourists can't get enough of them.
Among
these ethnic foods, Vietnamese fried dumplings, or cha gio, are flying out of
their stall. Fans of this food do not mind waiting more than 20 minutes for it.
In
fact, the daily sales of some popular stalls exceed 900,000 won ($834). One
Japanese tourist in her 40s said, “This is my third time in Busan. So far my
tourism was limited to getting massages and visiting spas. But now that the
night market has opened, I have more fun eating exotic food and sightseeing.”
During
July, a group of around 900 Chinese tourists from a cruise liner visited the
night market. It is no longer unusual to see packs of foreign tourists from
Japan or Taiwan sightseeing in the venue. Busan City is planning to expand
Bupyeong Night Market by adding more stalls.
Bupyeong
Kkangtong Night Market showcases the ultimate charm of a Korean traditional
market, hence being much loved as a global tourism hot spot. The night market
is open 6 p.m. to midnight.
-How
to get there: Walk 10-15 minutes from Jagalchi Station or Nampo-dong Station
(Metro Line 1)
The source of news: Dynamic Busan