Cheongnyangni 588 () is a now-defunct

red-light district A red-light district or pleasure district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex industry, sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, and adult theaters, are found. In most cases, red-light district ...

Dongdaemun District Dongdaemun District () is one of the 25 List of districts of Seoul, districts of Seoul, South Korea. It has a population of 346,770 (2010) and has a geographic area of 14.22 Square kilometre, km2 (5.49 sq mi), and is divided into 14 ''Dong (admin ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. It was located near the Cheongnyangni station. By 2022, the last brothels were closed, with new construction occurring in the area. Cheongnyangni is often referred to as "Oh Pal Pal", meaning "five eight eight" in Korean possibly due to a bus which once passed through the area. At its peak in the 1980s, it housed 200

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

s and 500

prostitutes Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-p ...

, and was the largest red-light district in Seoul.

History

The area was first became used for

prostitution Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, no ...

during the 1910–1945 Japanese occupation following the building of Cheongnyangni Station. In the 1950s during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, the station had many soldiers passing through it and these soldiers were the main customers for the area. The lifting of the nighttime curfew in 1982, (which had been in place since the end of WW2), increased trade to the area. In 1988 Seoul hosted the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

. In an attempt to improve the area ahead of the Olympics,

windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

were fitted to the front of the sex establishments in the style of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

's De Wallen district. This improvement of the area was backed by the government. In 2004, the

South Korean government The government of South Korea () is the national government of the Republic of Korea, created by the Constitution of South Korea as the executive, legislative and judicial authority of the republic. The president acts as the head of state and ...

passed an anti-prostitution law (Special Law on Sex Trade 2004) prohibiting the buying and selling of sex and shutting down brothels. Although now illegal, and despite police crackdowns, the area continued.

Closure

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) set up a "Civic watchdog programme" to try to shut down the district in 2013, some

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...

actions occurred under this scheme. Plans to redevelop the area were announced by the SMG. The re-development entailed demolishing the area and building of four 65-story luxury residential-commercial complexes and a 42-story shopping mall by 2020. At the end of 2016 the closure of the 156 brothels started, although may of the sex-workers had already left, many having previously left to work in massage parlors or ''huegaetael'' (sex-hotels). Demolition started in March 2017, at which time 8 brothels and 40 sex-workers were still operating. One brothel remained in operation until March 2018.

In literature

The Cheongnyangni district is mentioned in several works of fiction and non-fiction as the setting for a crime drama ''Seoul: Lost in the big city'' () and also in the book ''In Search of Life'' ().

References

{{reflist Former red-light districts in South Korea Society of South Korea Geography of Dongdaemun District 2022 disestablishments in South Korea