Experience ancient Korean commerce at Seoul’s annual Yukui-jeon Festival

Jongno, the historic heart of downtown Seoul, will recreate a 600-year-old marketplace along Cheonggye Stream this Saturday during its annual Yukui-jeon Festival — a celebration named after the “Six Licensed Stores” that held exclusive royal monopolies during the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910).

The 2026 festival will run from 1 to 8 p.m. on Nov. 7 around Jangtonggyo Bridge, bringing together local merchants, food vendors, traditional games and live performances under the theme “Unjong-ga, Street Where People Gather Like Clouds.”

Unjong-ga was one of Joseon-era Seoul’s principal commercial streets, centered around what is now Jongno intersection, where government-authorized merchants and independent traders gathered to sell their goods.

The festival takes its name from Yukui-jeon, the six major categories of government-authorized shops that once dominated the district’s commerce: silk, cotton fabric, hemp fabric, paper, miscellaneous textiles and seafood.

Organized by the Jongno-Cheonggye Tourist Special Zone Council, this year’s event will feature sales booths operated by merchants from the district, offering jewelry, shoes, men’s clothing, medical equipment, cosmetics, medicinal herbs, health products, seals and aquarium supplies.

Food trucks will also serve visitors throughout the event.

The festival’s activity area will offer opportunities to try traditional Korean clothing, make beaded bracelets and mother-of-pearl key rings, and play traditional games such as “ttakji-chigi,” a paper-tile flipping game, and “jegichagi,” a shuttlecock-kicking game.

Visitors can also enjoy performances featuring popular music, trot and dance.

A new treasure hunt will invite participants to search for prize exchange tickets hidden along Nori Sangsang-gil in Changsin-dong’s stationery and toy district, with gifts offered to those who find them.

Traffic will be restricted along an approximately 450-meter stretch between Samilgyo and Gwanggyo from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday.

“Through the Yukui-jeon Festival, filled by merchants and enjoyed by residents, we plan to strengthen the self-sustaining capacity of local businesses and devote ourselves to promoting the special tourist zone,” Jongno District chief Yoo Chan-jong said.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.