Jeonju Nambu Market

Nambu has traded beside Pungnammun gate for a couple of centuries and is still a working market - vegetables, fish, dried goods, kitchenware, a hanbok section - with several hundred stalls and none of the polish of the hanok village next door. Two additions have changed it. The Youth Mall on the upper floor was created to bring young traders in at low rent, and now holds small independent shops, cafes and bars, with a distinctly different atmosphere from the aisles below. And on Friday and Saturday evenings a night market runs down the central aisle: several dozen food stalls, mostly street food and fusion, extremely crowded and genuinely good. Jeonju's reputation as a food city rests on bibimbap and on kongnamul gukbap, the bean sprout soup eaten for a hangover, and both are available here at prices well below the tourist restaurants a street away.

What you actually see

• The working aisles - vegetables, fish, dried goods, hanbok.
• The Youth Mall - young traders' shops and bars upstairs.
• The weekend night market - food stalls down the central aisle.
• The Jeonju staples - bibimbap and kongnamul gukbap, cheaply.

When to go

Friday and Saturday evenings for the night market, which is the highlight. Daytime any day for the market itself. Many aisle stalls close on Sundays.

Honest expectations

The night market is only two evenings a week and is packed shoulder to shoulder. The Youth Mall is small. Little English, and cash is easier at the older stalls.

Nearby

Pungnammun gate is adjacent; the hanok village and Gyeonggijeon are a few minutes away.