Abandoned Neighborhood, Deogyang-gu, Goyang

While Korea is not on full lockdown, it would be a good idea to practice social distancing. What outside hobby is better, even encourages social distancing? That’s right, urban exploring! I feel even safer exploring condemned neighborhoods and buildings now that citizens try to maintain a healthy distance from each other.

All this free time has also allowed me to work on other projects like this blog. Perhaps you will see more posts while we try to limit our interactions. Today’s exploration is a short bus ride from my house in Goyang. While most of the area has been chomped up, the district has been fun to explore. Here are some pictures from a scouting mission on January 5th of this year. At this time, large patches where buildings once stood started to appear.

013100520017 — Despite much of the area being razed, there are many buildings here I would like to explore.

My second trip was a spur of the moment decision. I didn’t have a camera, so I shot the following pictures on my phone. I would like to go back and reshoot the bujeok on film. Demolition crews had removed most of the rubble from inside the ring.

This series of photos were taken on January 24th.

The interior of an empty hanbok specialist’s store.

The exterior of the hanbok specialist’s store and the shaman’s temple called Geumdeok-am.

Across the street was an active neighborhood.

Lots of amulets protecting living things in this room…

In another house, I found someone’s music collection.

A big fan of 80s and 90s Western pop hits.

The demolition had picked up speed since my last visit. Now the individual patches have formed a single spot. The buildings still standing all form an outer ring of the neighborhood. I wandered across the street, curious about the state of the buildings. They seem safe for now.