Yesan County is the traffic hub of the northwestern region of Chungcheongnam-do. The county recently has attracted attention thanks to Baek Jong-won, CEO of The Born Korea, who carried out a project to revive the economy of the county. 

Opened in 2021, Ye San Central Funeral Hall is playing a role model in creating a better society through community service and good funeral practice. CEO Jo Se-je ran a shoe store in Yesan Market for 50 years and almost all of Yesan residents know him. 

▲ Ye San Central Funeral Hall / CEO Jo Se-je

“I was born in Seocheon but settled down in Yesan where I raised children and got them married. I have served as the president of the Yesan Market Merchants Association and I thought I want to spend rest of my life to serve society. During my 50 years of running a shoe store, I have seen many of my regulars and some of them passed away and some of them I haven’t seen for years. So the idea of running a funeral hall came up and I opened Ye San Central Funeral Hall.” says Jo.

With luxury interior like an art gallery or a hotel, Jo paid attention to food that must be served to guests after paying respect to the deceased. “It is good to hear that many guests say that the food is really delicious.” says Jo. 

The 3 story funeral hall has 180 seats on the first floor, 240 VIP seats on the second floor alongside 100 special seats in a separate room, and 180 seats on the third floor. “Because the interior is like a hotel, guests tend to stay longer. Also, the funeral hall is designed to meet the requirements of Buddhists, Catholics and Christians with a 13,223 square meter big parking lot.” says Jo.

Jo is also serving as the president of the Yesan Market Merchants Association and the head of the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise Yesan County. The former has 300 members and the latter 7,000 members. “Micro business owners count around 7 million but the government support is weak. This is the reason I have run the office with my own money for 2 years.” pointed out Jo.

As part of an effort, Jo, Yesan County and Baek Jong-won joined hands to run Yesan Market Revival Project. Started in 2018, the tripartite effort has been harvesting fruits as the number of visitors increased to 8,000 from 5,000 on weekdays but up to 20,000 on weekend. 

“I will keep doing what I can do to promote local markets.” says Jo.