Walk from Jongno 3-ga toward Jongmyo and two entirely different specialized commercial districts appear one after the other. Nakwon Arcade brings together, floor after floor, shops selling guitars, pianos, wind instruments, and audio equipment, along with repair shops. South of Jongmyo, jewelry wholesalers and metalworking workshops cluster around Bongik-dong and Jongno 4-ga. One works with sound and the other with light, but both are sustained by the skills and trading networks of small shops.
The Arcade That Lets a Road Pass Beneath It
Nakwon Arcade was created in the late 1960s, when the population and number of vehicles were surging, by constructing a mixed-use building over a four-lane road connecting Yulgok-ro and Jongno. Seoul Metropolitan Government materials explain that the building appeared in 1969 and was completed in December 1970. At the time, it was a mixed-use cultural complex containing not only an instrument market but also a theater, a bowling alley, and apartments. Even today, seeing cars pass beneath the building briefly unsettles the common assumption that buildings stand on the ground.
Why Gold and Silver Craftspeople Gathered Here
According to Seoul Future Heritage materials, Yeji-dong in Jongno 4-ga was called “Seoksubanggol” or “Okbanggol” because craftspeople who shaped stone and jade gathered there. After the Korean War, jewelry stores and workshops opened around the Hwashin and Shinshin department stores, and around 1980 an association connected with the trade moved to Bongik-dong. Merchants joined them during the 1985 redevelopment of Hunjeong-dong, helping the area grow into South Korea’s largest jewelry district.
Etiquette for Looking Around
Neither district is an exhibition space for tourists; both are workplaces where real orders and repairs are handled. Do not photograph workshops without permission, and when trying an instrument or asking its price, first confirm the purchase or repair terms. The most direct way to respect a long-established commercial district is to pay for its expertise instead of consuming it merely as a “retro backdrop.”