No Haggling Needed for Autumn Prawns - Why Namdang Port's Daeha Festival Fixed Its Prices

The season of daeha - Korea's big autumn prawns from the west coast - has arrived. The 31st Namdanghang Daeha Festival runs for 66 days, September 4 through November 8, at Namdang Port in Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province (per Hongseong County and Visit Korea listings). Admission is free. And the festival's most traveler-friendly feature is its pricing: **prawns are fixed at 45,000 won per kilogram to go, 60,000 won with restaurant service, at every stall.** No haggling, no overcharging worries, no searching for the cheapest vendor.

The signature dish is salt-grilled prawns leaping on a bed of coarse salt, and there are hands-on programs like bare-handed prawn catching. The port faces west, so by evening the Cheonsuman Bay sunset becomes your table's backdrop - the classic plan is a late-afternoon arrival, a prawn feast, then the sunset. With its 66-day run, the festival also covers Korea's Chuseok holiday (September 24-26, with special performances on the 25th-26th). Getting there: train or bus to Hongseong then local transport, though a car is the practical choice. Readers of this article never need to run the numbers at the stall - the answer is already fixed.

By Kim Youn Young, Korea Tourism Times