Every so often, the Korea Times publishes an article about the destruction of one historic neighborhood or another, usually in a poor district of Seoul. Each piece brings for me a nostalgic pang for the Korea of yesteryear. The intricate alleys and passageways of the city’s older districts are a relic of one of the most important and transformative stages in the country’s history - a time of rapid post-war growth when a people united in the face of a common threat, rebuilding a nation and forging a future together. That future has now arrived in the form of sparkling buildings looming into the sky, and it is destroying the very towns where its progenitors were born, lived, worked, died.
Every so often, the Korea Times publishes an article about the destruction of one historic neighborhood or another, usually in a poor district of Seoul. Each piece brings for me a nostalgic pang for the Korea of yesteryear. The intricate alleys and passageways of the city’s older districts are a relic of one of the most important and transformative stages in the country’s history - a time of rapid post-war growth when a people united in the face of a common threat, rebuilding a nation and forging a future together. That future has now arrived in the form of sparkling buildings looming into the sky, and it is destroying the very towns where its progenitors were born, lived, worked, died.
Baeksa Village is a mountainside shantytown in Junggye-dong, located in northeastern Seoul s Nowon District. It is situated quite literally in the northeastern corner of the district, in the northeastern corner of Seoul, on the slope of Mount Buram, which separates Seoul from Gyeonggi Province to the east.
A black-and-white snapshot captures the facade of a dilapidated shack in southern Seoul s Apgujeong-dong, with a torn-out roof and walls that turn out to be nothing more than a mishmash of tarps and nailed wood boards of wildly varying sizes.
[Cityscapes] Counting down Seoul s last moon villages
Posted : 2021-03-09 18:02
Updated : 2021-03-09 18:08
A village bus descends the steep road of Guryong Village in northwestern Seoul, June 19, 2016. / Courtesy of Ron Bandun
By Ron Bandun
I feel like there s been an increasing amount of articles and videos lately with sensational titles like Seoul s last shanty town or Seoul s last slum.
Quick, which neighborhood do you think they re all about?
Chances are, you thought of Guryong Village in Seoul s southern Gangnam District. Or Baeksa Village, up in northeastern Nowon District. Both have been given the title of last several times in recent years, even though the presence of both invalidates either s claim to the title. And there is another. Which one will be the last standing?