Wow. Korea. Ew, and wow. The Jagalchi Fish Market in Busan is really something else. Just when we were thinking we had seen the wet markets of Asia… Behold! South Korea has octopi, baby sharks, giant rays, monster eels, freaky flat fish, and squirting sea slugs.
And there’s more. Have you heard about the Urechis unicinctus? It’s also known as the penis fish… (Don’t Google that one!).
If you’re visiting Busan, you need to visit the Jagalchi Market.
We’ve seen seafood markets in Asia, but none quite compare to the collection of unusual seafood, the colours, the size and the buzz of Jagalchi.
- About the market
- Visiting Jagalchi Market
- Urechis unicinctus
- Where is the market?
- Getting around Busan
- Where to eat (the best street-food)
- Where we stayed in Busan
- More from South Korea
About the market
- Cost: Free to enter the markets
- Hours: Open 05:00h to 22:00h
- Note: Closed on 1st & 3rd Tuesdays of the month.
Jagalchi Market is situated by Namp Port in Busan.
It is the largest seafood market in South Korea, and sells both live and dried seafood. Fresh seafood is brought in to the port daily and is cleaned and sold on site.
There are two main sections to the market. Inside is the live seafood section, and outside and in the neighbouring roofed area is the dried seafood and prepared fish and shellfish.
You can purchase live seafood from the ground floor of the market and take it upstairs to the restaurant floor to have it cooked for you.
We were visiting in the morning and weren’t hungry (or brave) enough for a live seafood purchase this time. Although it did sound tempting to try some of the fresh fish.
Exploring the market
Walking around the markets is an assault on all the senses…
It’s not hard to be wowed by the array of sea creatures on display and in live aquariums. It certainly took our marine worldschooling to a whole new fishy level!
Urechis Unicinctus – Jagalchi Market
We had never heard of this before. But I read about this as a ‘feature’ of Jagalchi Markets, and I’m not going to lie – we were intrigued…
Urechis unicinctus is the fancy name for a marine spoon worm. And quite seriously, it’s also known as the Chinese penis fish (note: don’t Google that!).
Jagalchi Markets undoubtedly has the largest array of unidentifiable seafood and squirming creatures I have ever seen in my life…
But this certainly stands out as one of the more unforgettable of the selection!
The fish mongers were lovely and proud to show us their stalls.
It was definitely an eye-opener of culture and biology of a different kind, that’s for sure!
Getting around Busan
The subway system in Busan is the easiest way to get around.
Even coming from subway-free New Zealand, we found it easy to navigate and a cost-effective way to travel in Busan.
To buy tickets for the subway, you can use the automatic ticket machines at every station.
- Note: The automatic machines only accept W1,000 notes or coins, so make sure to carry small notes with you.
The cost is W1,000 for one ‘section’ (less than 10km) or W1,300 for two sections (distance more than 10km).
And don’t forget to keep hold of your ticket as you need it to swipe in and out of the subway station.
The Fish Market is easy to find from the subway in Busan.
Take the exit for Jagalchi Station (Line 1, Exit 10). Walk straight passing the first street on your right; turn right into the 2nd street (Jagalchi-ro 47 Beon-gil).
From there walk 140m straight to reach the market, 5 minutes walk from the station.
Find Jagalchi Market
Getting from Busan to Seoul
From Busan, we took the fast train to Seoul. We booked tickets for this on our second day in Busan so as to secure a seat and know where we needed to be on the day.
There is a ticket booth at the main train station in Busan.
Staff were very friendly and helpful and spoke English well. It was a smooth, relaxing ride to Seoul.
Where we stayed
In South Korea we really enjoyed K-Hostel in Seoul. We found it to be in a good location, clean, with a big buffet breakfast (kind of hostel-style, and eaten in the basement) and very friendly staff.
In Busan and Namhae we found good places to stay, though neither particularly outstanding.
- Busan: Kimchee Hostel [good location, nice room with fridge and bath. Close to convenience stores and subway. Shared spaces and kitchen not clean; vibe of party hostel!].
- Seoul: K-Hostel [good location, close to metro; big breakfast, friendly staff, nice room].
The best street food in Busan
We really enjoyed trying all kinds of different Korean food in Busan.
Gukje Markets is definitely the best we found for street food stalls.
I recommend hunting out the ‘Pajeon’ stall. The boys were into the dumplings, and a lady walking past gave them a huge ‘Ppopgi’ cotton-candy lollipop. It’s a market outing for the win!
Pajeon is like a savoury pancake, and a staple dish of the Korean street food list. (Probably just as well we aren’t hanging around South Korea and the Pajeon stalls too much longer!).
South Korea, overall
We really enjoyed our time in South Korea, and travelling with kids, we were stopped by people every day.
When I updated our posts about Korea, there actually hadn’t been a day where we weren’t given a gift of some kind from a random stranger.
The kids got juice drinks, milk drinks, superhero stickers, chips, lollies, a cheese stick(!)… And plenty of hugs and squeezes.
We had heard mixed reviews about South Korea, and were even ‘pre-warned’ about cultural differences that we would surely see.
But from what we actually saw and of the people we met, we feel extremely grateful for finding yet another country we were so welcomed to travel in.
On the way to find the dinosaur footprints in Namhae, Oscar was having a more-than-Oscar-winning tantrum in the middle of a 7-Eleven store. Crying, because we wouldn’t buy him a toy dinosaur egg… The Korean delivery man, who spoke no English at all, heard his crying and bought him one.
We left South Korea feeling very thankful for the Delivery Man, and the Octopus Lady at Jagalchi Market. And for the superhero Train Man, and the hotel owner with chips.
Not just for the dinosaur egg and the hold of a sticky octopus; but for affirming our insight into a cool culture!
More about travel planning for South Korea and beyond…
These are the companies we use while traveling fulltime as a family and that we would recommend to anyone planning and booking travel.
- Booking.com – The best all-around accommodation booking site that constantly provides the cheapest and lowest rates. They have the widest selection of budget accommodation and it’s easy to filter and sort into price and availability with all the extras you are looking for personally. (We love the flexible cancellation policy!).
- Hostelworld– The largest inventory of hostel accommodation in the world.
- Skyscanner – This is by far our favourite flight search engine. They are able to search small websites and budget airlines that larger search sites often miss. We book all our flights through Skyscanner.
- GetYourGuide– Get Your Guide is a huge online marketplace for tours and excursions offered all around the world including everything from walking tours, to street-food tours, cooking classes, desert safari’s and more!
- SafetyWing – A global travel insurance that covers people from all over the world while outside their home country. You can buy it short or longterm; and even if you are out of the country.
- World Nomads – Travel insurance tailored for longterm travel and nomads (including those who have already left home).
Read more about travel in East Asia
- The ultimate travel guide for Japan with kids.
- Fushimi Inari Shrine: Walking up Mount Inari.
- Taiwan with kids: A complete Travel Guide.
- Visiting Taroko Gorge, Taiwan.
- Taiwanese food: The real deal traveling in Taiwan.
- Hong Kong: Mount Davis (accidentally) and the Monster Building.
- Hunting for fossilised dinosaur footprints on the coast of Namhae.