Kyobo Book Centre

Kyobo Book Centre
Entrance of Kyobo Book Centre, Gwanghwamun Branch in 2006
Korean name
Hangul	교보문고
Hanja	敎保文庫
Revised Romanization	Gyobo Mun-go
McCune–Reischauer	Kyobo Mun'go

The Kyobo Book Centre (Hangul: 교보문고; Hanja: 敎保文庫; RR: Gyobomungo, also known as Kyobo Mungo), is the largest book store chain in South Korea. It has ten stores in seven cities, with the flagship Main Store, or Gwanghwamun-jum in Seoul, which is located in the basement of the Kyobo Building, at 1 Jong-ro, Jongno-gu in Seoul's central business district.

It was first established by its founding of the company, "Kyobo Moon-go Corporation", in December 1980. After six months, the first store opened in June 1981. It was built under the headquarters of its parent company, Kyobo.

The central location, with its address at 1 Jong-ro (Jongno 1-ga), enabled the site to receive much enthusiasm from readers, bringing much needed life into a depressed publishing industry. It underwent major renovations in 1991, to enlarge its property underground to approximately 9,000m². Its total length of leadways and passageways amounted up to 25 km. The Gwanghwamun Store is famous for its entrances, particularly the main entrance that one takes from Jongno 3-ga. Whereby before climbing the stairs to the heavy gate-doors, one can read in clear old-style Korean, across the outer wall of the passageway: "People create/make books, and books create people/men". When entering the passageway, one notices the famous Nobel laureates of the world, including Korean recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, late former president Kim Dae-jung. An empty board exists for any future Korean Nobel laureate. It houses around 2.3 million volumes. Together with the enormous book store, it also has the "Hot Tracks" store, where a huge collection of music CDs and DVDs are sold. With this, there is also a huge stationery store, together with office ware and decorative products.

In May 2003, Kyobo Book Centre opened its eighth location (and third in Seoul) in Gangnam. It holds the record of being the biggest book store of the nation. Measuring 11,900m², it is located underground, below the Kyobo Towers in Gangnam. It has the "Bookmaster Dedicated Hotseats" and the automated book distribution system that was implemented the first in the world by any book store. From July 2009, it has connected with Seoul metro line 9, Shinnonhyun station.