Gamcheon Culture Village
One of my favourite places we have visited in Korea was Gamcheon Village in Busan.
From what I gather, it was built in 1920s in order to relocate poorer population to the areas which were not so visible from the port, which was (and is) the main feature of Busan. It has recently received a ton of money for “urban regeneration”, essentially to make it a tourist attraction. A bunch of local artists gathered around, painted the houses and created a bunch of small art installations throughout it. According to wikipedia, the “village has been reborn as Busan’s most colourful and artistic spot”.
An overview of Gamcheon from the bus station
Not only are the walls colourful, but some of them also have things painted on them. Houses in this case.
There is a Little prince watching.
We found that it’s best to arrive early in the morning (before 9), as we managed to see most things before swarms of tourists arrived. Also, from a photographer’s perspective, the light tends to be the best, although a weird overcast seems to be omnipresent in larger Korean towns. If you arrive early however, make sure to be respectful and quiet as it still is a residential area. Don’t be those people.
Fish and fishing are a huge thing in Busan - amongst other things, it has the largest fish market in the world. It is only fitting that there would be a fish-inspired artwork.
It sometimes seemed like Gamcheon was also the national capital of cats.
Cat one
Cats two/three
Cat four
Cat four again? Lost the count
While walking around, it’s easy to forget that despite the touristy destination that Gamcheon is, it is still a residential area. If you look a bit closer, there are traces of “everyday life” everywhere.
Finally, we were in a bit of a time crunch, so we decided to skip the trek (45min walk) down and took the bus. Korean buses were in general an adventure, but this one was particularly bad, as the driver managed 50-60kmh on one-lane two-way streets full of hairpins and blind corners. It was only 10 minute long but I felt the life flash in front of my eyes.