Hanji Gifts is a store created from love. Catherine Choi and Hyun Suk Choi fell in love in Korea, where Catherine was teaching English, and after they moved back to Catherine’s hometown of Toronto to start their new life. Hyun Suk was an entrepreneur in Korea and when he noticed how popular cards and stationery were he saw a way to bring a piece of his home country to Canada.
Hanji, meaning “Korean paper,” is a traditional style of paper made from the long fibres of mulberry bark. A popular sight in the markets of Seoul, but relatively unseen in Toronto, Catherine and Hyun Suk saw an opportunity to introduce it to Canada and opened their first store in 2011. Not long after, Hanji expanded to three locations, allowing them to carry higher end products. “It was going well. We thought why not make another one,” says Catherine. “We wanted to have a larger location because this one was feeling small for all the different kinds of products we wanted to carry.”
