Shops selling steaming snacks line the streets of Seoul's Daerim neighborhood, home to thousands of ethnic Chinese, some feeling the pressure from mounting anti-Beijing sentiment ahead of South Korea's presidential election.

China has displaced longtime foe and former colonial power Japan in many South Koreans' minds as the country's most distrusted neighbor in recent years.

And ahead of Tuesday's vote, anti-Chinese feeling has spread among South Koreans — online, at right-wing rallies and in Seoul's Chinatown.