Published by the Gwangju International Center since 2001
Sunchang County’s been on a roll lately in terms of tourism promotion. The county boasts a pair of suspension bridges at Gangcheon-san and Chaegye-san, plus the new zigzagging boardwalk up Yonggwol-san. The county’s tourism crown jewel is probably its hanok-inspired Gochujang Village, adjacent to which is the new Sunchang Fermentation Theme Park (순창발효테마파크), which is about the most Jeolla pair of tourism facilities imaginable.
The people of Gwangju should be proud of Uchi Park Zoo for stepping in (and stepping up) to take care of this tiger. Hopefully, many people will visit the zoo to support its efforts and also to welcome Hosooni.
To mark my fifth year stewarding the “Lost” column, I’d like to return to Gwangju proper, specifically Yang-dong. This month, I’ll scribble the pages of the Gwangju News with a tale involving hostess bars, North Korean collages, menacing graffiti, courteous cult invites, and a tenacious cat I call Achilles who, like Yang-dong itself, refuses to die despite all odds.
To kick off the new year, we’ll unshelve our trusty Farmers’ Almanac and put its sage guidance and folksy humor to good use in the pursuit of understanding Korea’s modern agricultural craze: sowing apartment complexes in the middle of nowhere. What could possibly go wrong? So, without further ado, let’s hop in the car and head to the countryside – oh, and feel free to ask any questions along the way…….
This month, we’ll turn to the interior for a visit to Hwasun County, located just southeast of Gwangju. There we’ll visit a pair of abandoned family shrines and the ruins of a mountain fortress dating back to the Goryeo era.
Numun-dong, located directly across the Gwangju Stream from Yangdong Market, is one of the city’s more variegated areas and a stellar example of how urban planners used to prioritize density differently through jumbles of mixed-use, low-rise structures. Even as it is now midway through the compensation process, the area is still teaming with grizzled locals and faded mom-and-pop shops that spill out onto the streets between rows of tightly parked cars. It even has a few garish love motels crowned with fake castle turrets and Russian onion domes, though these are mostly abandoned now.
