Jongno 3-ga
Overview
Jongno 3-ga (종로3가) is a core downtown area located in Jongno-gu, Seoul, forming a commercial and cultural district centered on Jongno 3-ga Station, where Subway Lines 1, 3, and 5 intersect. It was the axis of commerce during the Joseon Dynasty, when Hanyang's Yukuijeon (六矣廛, the six licensed markets) stood here, and it sits alongside Cheonggyecheon, Gwangtonggyo Bridge, Jongmyo Shrine, and Tapgol Park, making it a distinctive space where history and the modern commercial district overlap. Today, it brings together the largest wholesale jewelry and precious metals market in the country, food alleys, and the Ikseon-dong Hanok Village, functioning as a major hub for downtown tourism in Seoul.
Key Details
Geography and Administrative Districts
Jongno 3-ga is located in the central part of Jongno-gu and belongs to the administrative neighborhood of Jongno 1·2·3·4-ga-dong. To the west it connects with Jongno 2-ga, to the east with Jongno 4-ga and Jongno 5-ga, to the south with Euljiro, and to the north with Jongmyo and the Donhwamun-ro area. The street-level commercial district formed along Jongno-daero blends with the narrow alleys behind it, and Cheonggyecheon flows along its southern boundary. Jongno 3-ga Station is one of the largest transfer hubs in downtown Seoul, where Lines 1, 3, and 5 converge, with hundreds of thousands of people passing through each day.
Historical Background
In 1394, when King Taejo Yi Seong-gye moved the capital to Hanyang, Jongno became the central thoroughfare of the walled city. During the Joseon Dynasty, the Yukuijeon were established in the Jongno area and served as the center of commerce nationwide, while the area around Gwangtonggyo Bridge over Cheonggyecheon was the largest bustling district where people and goods gathered. The March 1st Movement of 1919 began at Tapgol Park near Jongno 3-ga and spread across the country, which made this area a symbolic site of the modern national movement. The commercial district was heavily destroyed during the Korean War, but from the 1960s onward it was rebuilt as a center of downtown commerce, centered on the jewelry shops and Sewoon Sangga.
Precious Metals and Jewelry Commercial District
The Jongno 3-ga jewelry street took shape in the late 1960s and has established itself as the core of jewelry distribution nationwide. With the Jongno precious metals market, jewelry wholesale arcades, and craftspeople concentrated here, it has served as the reference point for wedding gifts and gold wholesale transactions. A defining feature is its clustered structure, in which gold shops, crafting workshops, appraisal offices, and gemstone wholesalers are gathered within a single block, and a substantial share of retail gold shops nationwide are supplied with inventory from here. In recent years, as online commerce has spread, the share of simple retail has declined while demand for custom-made, refurbished, and vintage jewelry has been increasing.
Food Alley and Pimatgol
The Jongno 3-ga food alley is a representative late-night and office-dining district packed with affordable eateries serving stir-fried octopus, jokbal (braised pig's trotters), bossam, braised seafood, and gopchang (grilled intestines). The nearby Pimatgol takes its name from the Joseon era, when commoners dodged the horses of officials riding through; old, long-established restaurants line its narrow alleys. It remains a place steadily visited for office gatherings and as a late-night food route for tourists.
Ikseon-dong Hanok Village
Ikseon-dong was a residential area densely packed with urban-style hanok built in the 1920s, but through regeneration in the late 2010s it was transformed into a mixed cultural space housing cafés, restaurants, select shops, and bars. Thanks to the distinctive scenery created by its narrow alleys, low hanok rooflines, and red brick walls, it has become a photo spot for younger people and foreign tourists, and craft beer pubs and dessert shops converted from old hanok stand along every alley.
Nearby Attractions
Within a 1 km radius of Jongno 3-ga are gathered Jongmyo Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; Tapgol Park, the birthplace of the March 1st Movement; Sewoon Sangga, Korea's first mixed-use residential-commercial building, completed in 1968; the Cheonggyecheon walking path; Gwangjang Market; and the hanok café street along Donhwamun-ro. These attractions, all reachable on foot, are often combined into a half-day downtown sightseeing course.
Recent Trends
In 2024–2025, the Jongno 3-ga area is showing a clear recovery in downtown tourism demand after COVID-19 along with an increase in foreign visitors. The Sewoon Sangga area is pursuing a transition into a mixed space based on startups and manufacturing while discussions on urban regeneration and redevelopment proceed in parallel, and in Ikseon-dong the makeup of the commercial district is changing rapidly as debates over rising rents and gentrification continue. Jongno-gu is reviewing pedestrian-friendly policies and the expansion of pedestrian space along the Cheonggyecheon–Jongno section, conducting experiments to reorganize the vehicle-centered streets around pedestrians. The precious metals commercial district is being reorganized to respond to the shift online and to demand from the MZ generation for custom and vintage jewelry, while concerns are also being raised about rising downtown vacancy rates and the hollowing out of the commercial district. As tradition, commerce, and tourism overlap here, the way it is reorganized in the future is likely to become a test case for downtown commercial district policy in Seoul.
Related Topics
- [[Jongno-gu]]
- [[Ikseon-dong]]
- [[Cheonggyecheon]]
- [[Jongmyo]]
- [[Tapgol Park]]
- [[Sewoon Sangga]]
- [[Gwangjang Market]]