Nothing more romantic than watching a man make sweet, sweet love to an excavator, right? Han Vlad also makes music under Yamagata Tweakster and recently released this video, shot from an abandoned neighborhood I’ve never seen before. After examining the video closely, I found the clues necessary to track down its location.
My wife and I made the drive during the Lunar New Year holiday to the neighborhood in Dongdaemun-gu. Lunar New Year and Chuseok are the two holidays where urban explorers can relax a little while on an adventure. Christmas arrives twice a year for us, where we don’t have to worry about being caught by demolition workers.
The mixed-use neighborhood is predominately 80s style brick apartments but tucked between rows of these (in my opinion) bland buildings were some charming hanoks. These hanoks were probably built around the 60s as they are very close in style with hanoks found in another recently leveled neighborhood within the vicinity.
The redevelopment zone is a small slice compared to other neighborhoods I’ve explored, but it still has a lot to offer the open-minded and curious adventurer. Besides finding bujeok, we found some old yearbooks and an Olympics poster that dated back to 1988.
I thought I’d end this post with another video related to Korea and urban exploration, yet at the same time, it’s not a Korean urban exploration video. I love how this video seamlessly weaves urban renewal together with Korean shamanism. The man incants and congers the spirits left to wander the purgatory of the redevelopment zone. I don’t think you need to be well-versed in either Korean shamanism or urban redevelopment here to feel this video’s intensity.
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