Gamecheon Cultural Village

Walking through the Gamcheon Cultural Village is like walking through an art museum.  It is a poor part of Busan but among the alleyways and shacks of houses is murals and other pieces of artwork.  Every corner you turn is a new view and new artwork.  There are sculptures alongside murals and even painted houses scattered throughout the area.  Its full of stairs and and hills, but its worth the effort.  I know I didn't see everything because I've seen pictures online of areas I never found.  But after a few hours of wondering and loads of pictures I called it a day.  The good news is I can always go back :)

The week before I headed to Gamcheon Cultural Village I learned that a bus from my neighborhood actually goes all the way to Nampo.  I figured I would start there as far as figuring out how to get there. What I found out was that bus goes almost all the way to Gamcheon!  The bus route ends just down the hill from the village and when you get off you have the option of walking up the hill or taking the local neighborhood bus up.  I choose to walk to get in the exercise but after 15 minutes of walking only uphill I think the next time I will take the local bus :)  Walking downhill isn't so bad, but the up hill was exhausting before I even got to the village!  The positives though, I was saw artwork on the road up to the village including the dragonflies, flowers, and balloons and the 30+ yard mural on the wall leading to the village.

The start of the mural.

The end of the mural.  It was gorgeous.

These dragonflies are not the same as the ones above.  The wall pictured here started with the flowers, changed into balloons, and then finished with dragonflies.  Across from the dragonflies is where I first entered the village at, but it isn't the main entrance I found out later.

The village with all its beautiful colors and artwork to discover.

The first artwork.  These cut metal people are painted to show the village.  I thought if you lined up your picture just right they would blend in but I never found an angle where it would do that.  They were interesting.

Can you spot the house painted like a dalmatian?

These painted wood fish guide and direct your through the alley ways to the artwork hidden within.  They were pretty awesome and I think they would be fun projects to do with kids sometime.

They were not all painted like fish, bur from a distance they all look like fish swimming across the walls of the village.

Besides the fish there were also arrows to direct your through the alley ways.  I think this is so they can maintain some privacy within the village and keep some areas more just for locals.  That's just a guess though.

The arrows were not just plain arrows.  Like above there would be many to or like this one they would have small drawings on top of them.  They were all different and unique.

There are a couple of different areas in the village.  There is a main street that has a lot of murals and artwork and then there is artwork hidden within the alleys.  Below is the artwork from the alleys.

I turned a corner and I felt like I was on top of this.  It was very interesting.  There is a close-up below and as you can kind of see in this picture and in 2 pictures below, people have drawn in new rectangles to add to it.

I liked how the mural was mimicking real-life here with the kimchi jars draw in and also sitting there beside the plants.

As I came out of an alleyway I saw these houses up above the road.  There were several and were so brightly colored.

These are probably the most unusual looking buildings within the village.  The fire hydrant and coffee mug looking buildings are not actually houses though.  There is artwork within them and bathrooms in the lower level.  But still fun and visually appealing when looking from a distance.

As I made my way from the mailboxes above the street I came to the main road at the top of the village. Here there are many different murals and artwork scattered throughout.  You cannot walk more than a few feet without seeing something new.  I walked back down this road after I made it to the end and saw even more on my walk back!  Always something to see and discover :)  Below is a select few of the pictures I took from this area.  There are just too many to post them all!

The girl and fox are not part of the painting.  They are sculptures that are mounted on top of the barriers.  Fun place to take pictures if you are with others.

I would love to have a picnic here.  It just seems like a calm place.

I first saw this sculpture with the chicken running below it...

Then I looked behind the planter to see the whole scene of chickens running across the curb.

This is probably the most photographed part of the village.  At least its what is used most often of pictures of the village.  It ties the them of the painted wood fish from the alleys up to the main road.  Its really long.  It spans the length of about 4 parking spots.

And then you look up and there is even more artwork!

I mean why not make planters be made out of jeans walking down the road.

This is one I saw on the way back.  I saw the front of this building with some artwork below the brick.  Well on the way back you see the mural with the drawing of bring on the side and envisioning a completely different view than just the side of a building.

I really loved wandering through Gamcheon Cultural Village.  There is evidently a map you can buy that will walk you through it all and take you to different areas that have stamps.  You can collect stamps for each area of the village. It would add even more fun to the walking around the alleys.  I would definitely put this on my "must see" list for Busan.