In the late spring of this year, I discovered a neighborhood beginning the redevelopment process. I always find something exciting in a residential district on its last legs. What makes this particular area unique is the Japanese colonial era hanoks hidden behind bland 80s era apartments and jutaeks. Months passed. It remained an anonymous, nameless abandoned neighborhood until the perfect, most obvious moniker emerged when I wrote an article about it in Gwangju News: The Hidden Hanoks Neighborhood. During this time, I christened two hanoks with distinct features pointing to Korea’s occupation in the early 20th century. Read more about it here.
With this post, I am going to show you more of the Hidden Hanoks Neighborhood, which is, as of this writing still with us. The redevelopment process is unfolding slowly, which might be due to the abnormally long rainy season and/or the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases. Another possibility is that developers are waiting for the last residents to move out. It might be a combination of all three. Whatever the reason, they started putting up the brown tarps not long ago. Many of the buildings are locked up and inaccessible, especially some hanoks I would really like to see before they are razed. In the mean time, here are some photos from previous explorations.
To be continued.
