Kyobo Book Centre

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Kyobo Book Centre
Hangul:	교보문고
Hanja:	敎保文庫
Revised Romanization:	Gyobo Mun-go
McCune-Reischauer:	Kyobo Mun'go

The Kyobo Book Centre or Kyobo Bookstore, Kyobo Bookcenter, Kyobo Moongo (In Korean), is the largest and most famous book store in South Korea. It boasts ten stores in seven cities, the most famous one being its Main Store, or Gwanghwamun-jum in Seoul, which is located right under the Kyobo Life Insurance Building, situated at Number 1, Jong-ro 1 Street. (Center of Seoul)

[edit] General information

Entrance of Kyobo Book Centre, Gwanghwamun Branch

It was first established by its founding of the company, "Kyobo Moon-go Corporation", in December 1980. Where after six months, the first store was created in June, 1981. It was built right under the headquarters of its parent company, Kyobo. The sheer location, being Number 1, Jongro-1-ga, (or 1st Jong(bell) Street) enabled the site to receive much enthusiasm from book fanatics, and its growth was exponential, together bringing much needed life into the recessive book industry. It underwent a major reconstruction in 1991, to enlarge its property underground to approx. 9000m². Its total length of leadways and passageways amounted up to 25kms. The Gwanghwamun Store is famous for its entrances, particularly the main entrance that one takes from Jongro-3-ga. (or 3rd Jong Street). Whereby before climbing the stairs to the heavy gate-doors, one can read in clear old-style Korean, across the outer wall of the passage way: "People create/make books, and books create people/men". When entering the passage way, one notices the famous Nobel laureates of the world (for what reason Kyobo put these portraits here, is still a mystery), and after coming down the spiral staircase, one is immediately taken a back by the book store's sheer grandeur. Its ceilings are all mirrored and the book store seems endless. It houses around 2.3 million volumes. Together with the enormous book store, it also has the famous "Hot Tracks" store, where a huge collection of music CD's and DVD's are sold. Most non-Korean music is sold here; the membership subscription was so powerful that the "Hot Tracks" Gwanghwamun Store managed to shut down a huge CD warehouse store in Jong-ro sam ga. With this, there is also a huge stationery store, together with officeware and decorational products. The Gwanghwamun Store has the famous "Melodys" restaurant, that has a ceiling that resembles the night sky.

In May 2003, Kyobo opened its eighth official store, the third in Seoul, in Gangnam. It holds the record of being the biggest book store of the nation. Measuring in 11,900m², it is located underground, below the Kyobo Towers in Gangnam. It boasts having the "Bookmaster Dedicated Hotseats" and the automated book distribution system that was implemented the first in the world by any book store.

Kyobo Book Store currently has around 3.2 million members (August 2004) for the Kyobo Book Club (nearing a percentage of the Korean population), and receives around 180,000 visitors everyday both its online and offline stores. Kyobo has maintained the reputation as the "nation's book store" by frequently and regularly hosting various book-related events, and it is famous for its monthly "meet-the-author" events. Kyobo Book Centre has also maintained its number one position in the category of "Mega-size Book Stores" in the KCSI, or Korean Consumer Satisfaction Index, for a record eight years.