Jagalchi Fish Market

자갈치시장

Korea's largest seafood market, where “ajummas” sell live fish from tanks on the ground floor and the catch is prepared as sashimi upstairs. It's the most vibrant everyday scene on Busan's harbor.

Jagalchi Market sits on the Busan harbor front in Nampo-dong. It began after the Korean War, when women set up stalls by the sea to sell fish, and it grew into Korea's largest seafood market. The fishwives known as “Jagalchi ajumma” (자갈치 아지매) are a cultural symbol of Busan. The market has two parts. The modern building, completed in 2006 and shaped like a seagull with its wings spread, has hundreds of tank stalls on the ground floor selling live seafood at market prices: flounder, sea bream, octopus, sea snails, sea cucumber, sea squirt, king crab, snow crab, and more. The second floor is home to raw fish restaurants. The classic approach is to buy downstairs and eat upstairs. Choose your fish on the ground floor, and the vendor will clean and prepare it. Take it to a designated restaurant upstairs and pay a preparation fee of roughly 3,000 to 5,000 won per person, which includes side dishes, chili paste, seaweed, and spicy fish-bone soup, to eat the freshest sashimi. You can also order set meals directly at restaurants upstairs. Outside the building, the open-air market along the coast and the neighboring dried-fish and potted-plant markets have a more down-to-earth feel. Vendors grill eel, shellfish, and hagfish (kkomjangeo, a Busan specialty) on the spot, and sell dried fish, pollock, and seaweed. The building's 7th-floor observation deck overlooks Busan Harbor and Yeongdo Bridge, which opens for a show every Saturday at 2 p.m. Five minutes' walk away are BIFF Square (a snack street where you must try the nut-filled hotteok), the International Market (a general goods market that evolved from postwar US military supply trade), Bupyeong Can Market (a night market), and Yongdusan Park with Busan Tower. Together they make a half-day Nampo-dong tour. Getting there: take Subway Line 1 to Jagalchi Station, exit 10, then walk about 5 minutes. Allow 1 to 1.5 hours, including a meal. Notes: confirm prices (per kilogram or per fish) and preparation fees before you buy. Bargaining is possible, but the room to negotiate is small. Some stalls don't accept cards, so bring cash. Seafood prices fluctuate with the season, so compare several stalls for high-priced items like king crab. The floors can be slippery. The new building is closed on the first and third Tuesdays of each month; the open-air market stays open.

Opening hours

Approx. 5:00 am–10:00 pm (restaurant until 10:00 pm); new building closed the first and third Tuesday of each month

Seafood market · Sashimi · Local life · Nampo-dong

Nearby sights

Places to eat nearby

More in Busan