Tabang

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Tabangs are Korean coffee shops, but they differ markedly from the more traditional coffee shops.^{[citation needed]} There are many in the smaller towns as the meeting and socialising places for the town's residents, in lieu of the fact that there might not be any where else for them to go.

Tabangs had their origin in 1902.^{[citation needed]} A Madam Lyuov opened a hotel and called the coffee shop a tabang.^{[citation needed]} They proliferated from that point on as places where people could come and talk or discuss business over a tea or a coffee.^{[citation needed]}

They function as many things, depending of course on the owner proprieter. Some are places for old people to play Paddock or Go (a Korean-Chinese board game)^{[citation needed]}, others merely serve tea or coffee to its patrons, others deliver coffee or juice to its patrons, and others are small mom and pop stores where the family might be living in the back.

Of the numerous types of Tabangs, one particular type called a "Ticket Tabang" is known in South Korea as a source for discrete prostitution. Ticket Tabangs make up a small percentage of Tabangs. Often when a person orders coffee from a Ticket Tabang, they are aware the service includes sex. Ticket Tabang women often deliver the coffee on a scooter and then provide a sexual service upon arrival. Ticket Tabang employees can be seen driving scooters to and from Ticket Tabangs in the more rural communities throughout South Korea ^[1]