Weekend Getaway to Busan- Gamcheon Culture Village

Gamcheon Culture Village in Busan, South Korea

When I decided I wanted to move to Korea, I began researching things to do around the country. I didn't know exactly where I would be or how far different sights were, but one of the places I longed to visit was the Gamcheon Cultural village in Busan. Unfortunately, the whole 21 months i've been living in Korea I never went to Busan where this village is located. There were several reasons why I never went which are all irrelevant now. Last week I found out my coworker was going on a weekend trip to Busan, I knew it was going to be cold but since this is my last few months in Korea why not. We were going with the Seoul Hiking Group and the cost was only 87k won for pension, transportation to/from Busan and breakfast. I really wanted to go to Busan in the summer for the beach but i'll settle for the fall. The bus ride to Busan was about 5-6 hours including rest stops. We were picked up from our meeting spot at the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul at 11:35 pm. We arrived at our pension around 6 am, took a nap then went exploring. We decided to start with the places furthest from us which lead us to Gamcheon Culture Village first.

Gamcheon Culture Village was first inhabited in the 1900's by people seeing refuge from the Korean War. Later the neighbourhood was transformed into an arts and culture village. This is one of the main attractions in Busan, thousands visit this neighbourhood a day. There are still people who live here which you can see when you visit. Be prepared to do a lot of walking up and down hill.

Birds with human heads

Travelling pants

Fishing for compliments

There are so many random building and original looking houses here. There are no two building that look the same.

The Wine House

In between the buildings you ca see the colourful rows of houses.

Colour pop

We came across this store that sold tea. It was not just any tea though, they were all flower based teas like peach blossom, lotus flower, dandelion, etc. I tried one but I can't remember what kind of flower it was, I just remember it helped blood circulation. I bought the peach blossom tea (far right) which helps with pimples, dark spots, etc. I bought the bigger bottle which was 10k won and can make about 4 litres of tea so it lasts awhile. 

For some reason Koreans love the Little Prince. I've seen him a few times around Korea. These two paintings are actually someones house.

This village is actually pretty huge. We were just going around the outside of the village to see how we would feel and if we were up for it we would wander around through the buildings.

Above the painting you can see the love locks. The whole love lock idea started in Paris but is all around the world now. In Korea they are all over the place, usually in tourist areas. 

Love is concrete

Endless rows of vibrant one story houses......

Everytime I go to these mural villages they ALWAYS have wings and I always take a picture with the wings. This time I decided I'd just take a picture of the wings since I have about 4 different pictures with them.

Good vs. Evil

We randomly stumbled by what looks to be a temple in the neighbourhood as well but the doors were blocked by wood.

I think we spent about 3 hours in the mural village. We could have spent more time there if we wore our jackets. It had started to get colder and we thought we would be okay since it was 18 degrees Celsius but we were wrong. I regret not exploring the unbeaten path but we were on a time crunch. I suggest devoting a good 4-5 hours here unless you are pressed for time. The neighbourhood is quite large and there are a lot of quaint restaurants with amazing views of the houses.

Getting there: Take Line 1 (orange line) to Toseong Station Exit 8 and take the first right at the traffic light up to the bus stop in front of the PNU Cancer Center. Buses 1-2, 2 and 2-2 all go there.