There is a modern South Korean restaurant franchise under the same name that was created in 2004 that claims descendency from the original.
The restaurant was originally founded under the name Shāndōng Huìguǎn (Chinese: 山東會館; Korean: 산동회관; MR: Sandonghoegwan).
[8] In either either 1912[4][8] or 1913,[5] in honor of the establishment of the Republic of China, the restaurant changed its name to Gonghwachun (lit.
At some point, caramel was added to the tianmian sauce (chunjang in Korean), which made it a black color.
[9] First Lady of South Korea Yuk Young-soo, wife of Park Chung Hee, was reportedly a fan of the restaurant.
He ran the restaurant Junghwalu (Chinese: 中華楼; pinyin: Zhōnghuálóu; Korean: 중화루).
Those rights were again sold to a Chinese person named Yi Hyeon-dae (이현대),[16] who registered it as a trademark in 2002, and in 2004 started a new restaurant that claimed to be a successor to the original.
[18] In 2019, the founder of the restaurant's granddaughter filed a lawsuit against the CEO of the chain, for a symbolically trivial value of ₩1,000 ($0.86).
[18] The chain has since expanded to other cities in South Korea,[19] and sells instant ramen that is now sold internationally.