You may know Sinheung Market from viral reels. But what’s the story behind its makeover?
Eggs stacked high, vegetable stacks lining the walls, dried garlic dangling from the ceiling and clothes hanging by the entrance: this photograph captures Seoul's Sinheung Market nearly 36 years ago — a riot of everyday necessities woven into the rhythm of a more workaday Haebangchon.
Today, the weathered brick walls remain as traces of the market's past, while restaurants and cafes fill the buildings along with colorful signs and highly photographed alleys.
For those who knew the old Sinheung Market, the scene can be hard to believe: Did this place really change this much?
From neighborhood market to empty storefronts
Sinheung Market opened in 1953, serving the community that formed in Haebangchon, a hilly neighborhood in Seoul’s Yongsan-gu that took shape after Korea’s liberation from Japanese rule and the Korean War.
Koreans returning from overseas, people displaced from northern Korea and war refugees built homes on the slopes below Namsan. The market supplied them with food and other necessities. It later grew alongside the neighborhood's knitting and garment industry.
Its alleys were not valued for looking old or "retro." They were crowded because people lived and worked nearby.
Park Il-seong, a longtime owner of noodle shop "Il-seong Sanghoe," recalled in a 2020 KTV interview that customers once lined the alley.
"There were even pickpockets because there were so many people," he said in the interview.
As the garment industry declined and shopping habits shifted toward supermarkets and larger commercial districts, customers dwindled.
Lee Dong-suk, manager of the Sinheung Market Merchants' Association, told The Korea Herald that between roughly 2000 and 2010, only about two out of every 10 shops remained open.
"The other eight were vacant," she said.
Photographs from before the market's renovation show narrow, dim passages covered by mismatched roof panels. Sacks, carts and containers line the walkway, while some storefronts appear shuttered or used for storage.
The buildings remained, but much of the everyday life that had sustained them was already gone.
New life in old buildings
Hong Soong-jin arrived before the market became a destination.
A merchant who describes his role at Sinheung Market as that of a "producer," Hong first saw the market as a high school student. He returned around 2015 with the idea of opening a business.
"Sinheung Market felt like a treasure to me," he said. "I loved its vintage character, and it felt like somewhere outside Seoul."
Originally from Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, Hong said he had often felt out of place in Seoul. At Sinheung Market, greeting the people around him gave him a sense of belonging.
Many of the remaining merchants were elderly. As one of the younger arrivals, Hong began helping them with paperwork and complaints, eventually taking on problems involving waste collection and shared facilities.
"There was little lighting, and the roofs of the individual stores overlapped," he described. "It was dark enough that you could have filmed a horror movie here."
In 2015, Seoul designated Haebangchon as an urban regeneration area. Rather than demolishing Sinheung Market, the project improved its facilities while retaining its original buildings and layout.
Lighting and safety facilities were added, and a new roof was built above the alley. Photographs taken during construction show scaffolding threaded between the existing brick buildings and storefronts.
The city also sought to protect tenants. According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 44 property owners and 46 tenants signed a voluntary agreement in 2016 to limit rent increases to inflation for six years. Interviews published in 2018 highlighted some landlords keeping rents unchanged to help younger tenants establish their businesses. During renovation work, some owners also temporarily reduced rents by about 20 percent.
The experience, however, varied from one landlord and tenant to another. Reporting in 2018 documented rising rents after properties changed hands and longtime occupants being asked to leave. An academic study that year questioned the agreement’s effectiveness in stabilizing rents. Seoul City noted in 2021 that neither the agreement nor the temporary rent reductions were legally binding.
The evidence points to two changes unfolding at once. Rising rents placed pressure on those who remained, while long-vacant storefronts drew a new generation of merchants who saw untapped potential in the market's worn buildings and secluded alleys. Sinheung Market's transformation was neither a straightforward success story nor a simple case of the old being pushed aside for the new.
So, what's with all the Coca-Cola?
The tension between preserving Sinheung Market's character and turning it into something marketable is perhaps most visible in its red-and-white signs — and they seem to invite a tidy origin story. Coca-Cola first reached Korea through US military bases after liberation, and Haebangchon grew in the shadow of the former Yongsan Garrison. It is tempting to draw a line between the two.
But no available record places Coca-Cola's arrival in Korea specifically in Haebangchon. The connection is more of an echo than a direct historical link.
The actual explanation is less romantic, and far more recent. In 2025, Coca-Cola entered a marketing partnership with 11 restaurants in Sinheung Market, redesigning signs and parts of the interiors. By October 2026, the company was reporting 18 participating businesses. The designs featured Coca-Cola logos in different languages, chosen to reflect the cuisine served by each restaurant.
Announcing the project in June 2025, Coca-Cola said it selected Sinheung Market because of its growing profile as a dining destination and sought to create a distinctive food experience while strengthening its contact with consumers.
Some residents have criticized the amount of branding, saying it overwhelms the old market's appearance. Hong acknowledged that not everyone would like it but said participating merchants had generally responded positively, adding that participating businesses received signs, refrigerators and other improvements, along with promotional support.
The collaboration benefited merchants by providing equipment and greater visibility. It also benefited Coca-Cola by placing its branding throughout a market whose history and visual character had become commercially valuable.
He views the arrangement as different from other large companies entering a neighborhood and displacing independent businesses.
"There are cases where large companies move into an area, rents rise and gentrification follows," he said. "This was different because the company supported and collaborated with the merchants who were already here."
The partnership continues this year with an exhibition presenting the stories of more than 10 merchants through photographs and videos.
Saved, but changed
For the visitors who spoke to The Korea Herald, Sinheung Market's makeover was largely welcome.
Kim Tae-hwan and his girlfriend, Lee Hye-young, stopped by on a whim after a walk around Namsan. Returning after about six years, Kim recognized a storefront, though its menu had changed.
"This used to be a seafood stew restaurant, but now it's a grilled pork belly place," he said.
He welcomed the sight of people filling the alleys and taking photographs.
"I think it has changed for the better," he said. "Seeing so many people coming in, including from Namsan, I think it has been a good change for tourism, too."
University student Kim Min-seo, visiting for the third time, agreed. She now brings friends for the restaurants, cafes, photo spots and views of Namsan Seoul Tower.
"I think it is a very successful example of transformation," she said. "It feels different from other hot spots."
She knew little about the market's earlier life. What drew her back was what it offered today.
Many of Seoul's older neighborhoods are disappearing through demolition and redevelopment; Sinheung offers a different story. For market manager Lee Dong-suk, keeping something of the old market was part of what made people embrace the new.
"I think that became part of what made Sinheung Market distinctive," she said.
Hong is grateful for the crowds, but worries about how quickly a popular commercial district can fall out of favor. He nevertheless finds hope in the distance it has traveled.
"It feels like a dream, but I am also anxious," he said. "But maybe that period of decline is what made a revival possible."
tammy@heraldcorp.com
