Pohang Jukdo Market

Character

Jukdo Market began in the low, reed-filled ground beside Pohang’s inner harbor. Street vendors gathered there before the market association was formally established in 1969, and the district eventually expanded into the largest traditional market on Korea’s east coast

The scale is easiest to understand by moving through it. General market lanes sell produce, dried seafood, household goods, clothing and other everyday items; farther toward the harbor, Jukdo Fish Market takes over with seafood stalls, auction activity and more than 200 raw-fish restaurants

That seafood section is the market’s strongest local identity. Fresh fish can be bought and eaten nearby, while Pohang foods such as mulhoe, abalone porridge and winter gwamegi connect the market directly to the city’s coastal food culture

The experience

The market is not one hall. It spreads across a dense commercial district, so the visitor experience changes as ordinary retail gives way to fish tanks, seafood counters and restaurant rows closer to the inner harbor

The fish market works as both wholesale infrastructure and public food destination. A seafood auction area is surrounded by more than 200 hoe restaurants, making it possible to move from watching or buying seafood to eating it within the same district

The seafood section opens out toward Pohang’s inner harbor. Fresh catches, auction activity and restaurant trade sit beside the working coast that supplies them

There is still plenty here beyond seafood. Produce and dry-goods lanes keep Jukdo functioning as an ordinary city market, so a full walk reveals a broader commercial ecosystem than the fish-market entrance alone suggests

History

After the Jukdo Market merchants’ association was formally established in October 1969, the market expanded alongside Pohang’s growth as an east-coast port and industrial city. The district now contains about 1,500 shops

Seafood became the defining specialization within that growth. The fish-market section concentrated fresh catches, auction activity and restaurant trade beside the harbor, while the wider market continued to sell ordinary household goods

By the 2010s, Jukdo had become a tourism landmark as well as a working market. In 2014 it received a Korea Tourism Award in the shopping category, while its visitor appeal still depended on the same working food and seafood economy that built its reputation

Before you go

The main market and fish-market sections are close but not identical. Entering from the Jukdo Market side gives a broader cross-section of general retail before reaching seafood; arriving near Jukdo Fish Market puts the harbor-facing food and fish trade first