Street food alley near Busan's Haeundae Beach to close by month's end

Bada Maeul Pojang Macha Chon, or Ocean City Street Food Alley, behind Haeundae Beach in Busan is closing down by the end of this month. [BUSAN METROPOLITAN CITY]

A decades-old street food alley in Busan is shutting down by the end of January, the city government said Wednesday.

Bada Maeul Pojang Macha Chon, or Ocean City Street Food Alley, is located behind Haeundae Beach and has been in operation for over 20 years.

The move to shutter the alleyway was unanimously decided by the vendors and the Busan Metropolitan Government in 2021, following public complaints that the food alley was an illegal establishment, according to the city government. Due to Covid-19, however, the government had granted the vendors an extra two years and six months to close shop.

“At the time, we had many public complaints [about the alleyway], so we did an internal investigation and decided that it would be better to return this space to the Busan citizens,” an official from Haeundae District told local news outlets.

In its heyday, the Ocean City Street Food Alley saw over 70 street carts, but now only 39 remain. It was especially famous for its lobster dishes, which included a large steamed lobster and lobster ramyeon, among other freshly caught seafood.

Busan has been grappling with the issue of illegal food carts around the Haeundae Beach area since the 1980s. It tried to clean up the area ahead of the 2002 World Cup by encouraging vendors to gather in one place and form food cart clusters. The number of food carts during that period shrank from some 270 to 70. Such food cart alleyways began mushrooming around the Haeundae area and eventually established itself as a must-go place for tourists, though allegations of the vendors ripping off customers and the food carts being illegal establishments persisted.

Haeundae District plans to refashion the alleyway into a public space that tourists can enjoy in a new way.

“Nothing is set in stone yet, but we want to give the space back to the citizens,” the district official said.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]