Busan is a port city, and its two great markets — Jagalchi for fish, Gukje for everything else — sit ten minutes apart in Nampo-dong. This crawl does both in one afternoon for about 35,000 KRW, most of it going to lunch.
Jagalchi: The Fish Market
Take Line 1 to Jagalchi Station, exit 10, and follow the smell. The outdoor stalls along the waterfront are the old market — rows of ajummas behind tanks of flounder, sea squirt, octopus, and things you will not recognize. The modern seven-story building behind them is the new market: ground floor for buying, upstairs for eating.
The move: pick a fish on the ground floor — a live hoe (flounder or rockfish) runs 20,000–40,000 KRW depending on size — and the vendor sends you upstairs to a restaurant that slices it and serves it with sides for a 5,000–10,000 KRW per-person setting fee. If raw fish is not your thing, order grilled eel or the spicy seafood stew instead. Point, smile, agree on the price before you sit down — that is the whole negotiation.
BIFF Square and the Snack Interlude
Walk north through BIFF Square — the film-festival street with the handprints in the pavement — and stop for ssiat hotteok, Busan's signature seed-and-nut-stuffed fried pancake. The stalls with the lines are the originals; 1,500–2,000 KRW, eaten hot enough to burn your fingers.
Gukje Market: Everything Else
Gukje sprawls across several covered streets — it grew out of the refugee stalls after the Korean War and still sells everything: kitchenware, vintage clothing, tools, dried goods, knockoff sneakers. It is less photogenic than Gamcheon and more honest. The food alley (Arirang street) inside the market does excellent yubu jeongol (fried tofu hotpot) and cheap noodle lunches if you somehow still have room.
Timing
Go on a weekday afternoon. Jagalchi's upstairs restaurants close around 21:00, Gukje's stalls wind down by 19:00, and both are closed on the first and third Sundays of the month — check before you go.