Beautiful Rock Garden Replacing Illegal Street Stalls

On the 7th, a rock garden was created at the site of illegal street stalls and protest tents removal at Gyeongdong Market intersection... Continuous removal planned to eradicate illegal stalls

Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul (District Mayor Lee Pil-hyung) announced on the 7th that it has created a rock garden in the area around Gyeongdong Market Intersection (Wangsan-ro 137), which had been plagued by illegal street vendors.

The site had six illegal street vendor stalls removed in March last year. In response, the street vendor groups held protests and left protest tents unattended for nine months. Concerned about urban aesthetics and potential safety hazards, the district office, after negotiations with the street vendor groups, removed the tents in December last year.

On the 7th of this month, to block the recurring illegal street vending and improve the urban landscape, the district office collaborated with the owner of Seoul Naeun Hospital building to create a rock garden composed of rocks of various sizes and plants on the site where the protest tents were removed.

Lee Pil-hyung, Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu, said, “This is the first time a garden has been created on a site where illegal street vendors once operated, which makes it even more meaningful. We will devote ourselves to maintaining the garden so that people can visit Gyeongdong Market feeling pleasant.” He added, “We plan to continuously regulate illegal street vendors and transform the district into a ‘walkable city’ that residents can feel by planting flowers and trees throughout the city.”

Meanwhile, this year, the district has carried out its 15th round of maintenance, removing 151 out of 562 street vendor stalls (26.8%), and plans to continue steady efforts to eradicate illegal street vending.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.