January 1 2008
Geumho I just needed a couple quick reshoots of Suwon. |
January 1 2009
West Ichon Daelim Apartments We returned in the daytime to get some photos of the highrises with decent sunlight. Of course it's kind of difficult, considering how the sun is permanently on the opposite side of the buildings, at least until spring. The highrises line the riverside, and in their shadows there are several medium-sized Korean buildings that are considerably older.
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December 28 2008
Train Ride We took one of the cheap passenger trains down to Suwon, intending to save time. It was a good investment, especially when we found the diner car with all its surprises.
There's also an abandoned apartment building on the way to the park, but we failed at finding it on the way back. I've got a lot to learn about navigation in central Suwon.
It didn't feel particularly cold, but the lake was totally frozen over. It was hard enough that I couldn't chip it by hitting it with a wooden paddle, but I was not willing to test its strength with my own life.
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December 27 2008
Geumho We went for a walk around Geumho. Jung hadn't seen before how much is being demolished, and how close the zones are getting to touching. |
December 25 2008
Sewoon Arcade I always like going to difficult locations on public holidays. Sometimes security is lessened on these days. Not so at Sewoon Arcade. Also, Jung got a camera from me for Christmas, so she got to try it out here. |
December 24 2008Gusts of Popular Feeling: Gindeung Village Not an update from me, but Matt over at the weblog Gusts of Popular Feeling has made a post about a condemned neighbourhood close to his home. It looks like he lives very close to it, and he had the chance to photograph it over a long period of time. It's a pretty typical neighbourhood with buildings ranging from four-storey brick buildings to little shacks cobbled together from spare parts. UPDATE: A second post has been made about Gindeung Village, this one showing more of a time lapse view of the neighbourhood disappearing, until there is only one stubborn house left standing in the middle. |
December 14 2008
Spacebeam This site's been quiet for the past few weeks (along with the other two pages) but the reason isn't because I haven't been taking pictures; I just haven't had the time to edit them. Over the last three weeks, I've been busy with another project, we visited an art gallery in an abandoned soy factory in Incheon, we travelled all over downtown Seoul, and we went through the three main abandoned neighbourhoods of Geumho (that's right, we're at three now). |
December 13 2008
Downtown I made up a list of all the most interesting locations to visit downtown, and we hit all of them in one day. Most of this stuff was pretty basic, and we never did anything more hazardous than staying on our feet for a long time. We made one important discovery though, which is what this picture is about. |
December 6 2008
Photo Album Nik brought over the abandoned photo album he found and we had a long look through it. It contains photos of a Korean couple from the mid '70s to early '90s. That reminds me, I should see if he wants it back. |
December 6 2008
Geumho North Valley Wall Our first stop was the closest one, the condemned neighbourhood five minutes away from my home. It's built on a kind of steep hill so it's a bit of a hike, but we were going slowly enough that it never became an issue. Demolition started here a while ago but it's still only limited to one corner. I guess the logistics of demolishing up here are a little tricky.
I noticed it on a map in a real estate office, but still was surprised to find it.
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November 29 2008
Nik's area Nik invited me up to his area to show me some abandoned properties he'd found. There was a small corner of a few buildings fenced off right across the street from his place. Getting inside involved a bit of gymnastics, but we found it in pretty good condition. Of course in a place like that you don't want to spend too much time around the windows in case you get seen.
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November 26 2008TA Copy - Glory Days I have to admit, TA Copy aren't exactly in my favourite genre, but I just found this music video they made in Daejeon Greenland. I'm impressed that a band did that, as I've always said an abandoned amusement park is the perfect place for a music video. Judging by some of the scenery, there were several rides there at the time that are now gone. I wonder what happened to them. |
November 22 2008
Greenland After my original weekend plans cancelled, I sent out the message that I was going to Daejeon in search of another abandoned amusement park. I met up with Nik, a fellow urban explorer who recently moved to Korea, and arranged to meet a member of ExpatKorea who's in charge of the photo forum. The plan was to spend the day there, and make it back in time for Pornotarium at the Stompers Battle of the Bands. Also, on the way down, I remembered that Chadburger would be in Daejeon that evening. Would it all work out? I'll have an update or two on the main page in a few days. |
November 16 2008
Gangster's Paradise A day earlier, we were in Yongsan to get a new lenscap. We decided to take a taxi home, and in the search for a good place to catch one I kept leading Jung further and further away. We ended up standing in front of a fairly large condemned area. The next day, we came back to look closer. This area has probably been worked over by gangsters worse than any other area I've seen. They've been smashing up and wrecking stuff, and leaving unusually mean-spirited graffiti. Jung suspects one guy started working for the gangsters who has some sociopathic issues.
I was careful not to post any pictures where any workers could be identified. |
November 16 2008
Brand Outlet Fashion Mall We returned to the abandoned shopping mall downtown, but there are still way too many workers around. |
November 13 2008Hundred Mental Arithmetic Sums Land From John, we have a very small gallery of a cool-looking abandoned amusement park out by Uljin. He found it while on a regular hiking trip, and unlike the vast majority of people, saw the clues and went to see what was there. p<> While we're at it, there are several abandoned amusement parks along the east coast of Seoul. A while ago I got in contact with someone who went to an amusement park not too far from Sokcho. He didn't seem to know the name of it, but I suspect it's Sorak Plazaland, which is listed as defunct on the Roller Coaster Database. Here's a more recent picture I found by someone else that shows it's very likely still standing. And last, here are some arty shots of a park that seems to be on the outskirts of Kangneung. Christ am I going to be busy for the next few years. |
November 8 2008
Brand Outlet Fashion Mall Over on the other side of Gwanghwamoon, I found a fairly sizeable section that had been condemned and demolition had started. There were some very clumsy demo workers still there so I couldn't get in. Then on the other side I found a sit-in protest of the people who'd been evicted from their homes and/or businesses. They were terrorised by gangsters hired by construction companies in full knowledge of the police. Someday I'm gonna show up with a big bag of Korean liquor and get wasted with them. They had a photo gallery up of the vandalism done to their businesses by gangsters, showing many of the places I would like to get inside. While I was photographing all of their signs and pictures, an old man came over to me. He pointed at a picture of a man in a red vest that says "Fight the power" being hauled away by two cops, and told me that is him. |
November 8 2008
Pimatgol I went downtown with Jung to get a belated birthday gift for my friend Marc, and we stopped by Pimatgol to see how demolition was progressing. The two hostels that Sarah and I got in were torn down already, and the place was definitely showing its mortality. I easily got into the fancy restaurant I've been watching for a while. After that, I headed over to another area I was tipped off about by Mark who runs the Korea Gig Guide, a very useful service. Those pictures will come soon, but there's a lot of material I'll need to translate first. |
November 1 2008
Nasan Homeplace What is up with Nonhyun lately? First that nutbag sets a fire and starts murdering girls as they flee for their lives, and less than two weeks later in the same neighbourhood a major building goes down. If you follow Korean news, you might know about the collapse of Nasan Department Store, AKA Nasan Homeplace in Nonhyun-dong. It's a derelict department store in one of the richer parts of Seoul that's been abandoned since 1999. The building was being demolished from the top down, with excavators on the rooftop slowly taking it down. When they got to the fifth or sixth floor, there was a catastrophic collapse, which surprisingly only wounded two people (I've heard conflicting reports on whether either of them died). This is sure to resurrect some ghosts from Korea's past, namely the collapse of Sampoong Department Store in 1995. In that case 501 people died when an active department store collapsed in the daytime. You can't blame Koreans for being a little sensitive about seeing another one go down. One interesting thing I found out about Nasan is that the redevelopment was to be a joint project between SK D&D and the US firm Lehman Brothers, which recently went bankrupt. I wonder what that means for the future of this lot.
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November 1 2008
Geumho I took a quick stop by one of the condemned neighbourhoods in my area to see how demolition was progressing. Recently I'd seen a YouTube video by mikeinkorea that shows demo has started. They've wiped out a ton of homes, but the church is still standing and still quite possibly open. |
October 28 2008
Greenland During lunch break, I jumped back down to Suwon to have a quick look for Greenland. Sure enough, it had been demolished, with only a few relics left to show that an amusement park had once stood here. |
October 26 2008
Lakeland Part I It turns out I took a buttload of photos, so my trip to Suwon will be revealed in segments. Thanks to a fellow urban explorer, I was introduced to the Roller Coaster Database, which listed all the defunct amusement parks in my region (which spills over into China and Japan, but not Okpo Land). Anyway, I set my sights on Woncheon Greenland, down in Suwon. You might notice this one is called Woncheon Lakeland; I haven't figured out if they are two separate entities yet, or if there are two abandoned amusement parks out there. When we arrived, there was a lot of active demolition in the area, so I was prepared to be let down, which made the surprise all the greater. Sarah and I crawled over every inch of surface, and then afterwards I stumbled upon an equal or possibly even greater surprise. But you'll have to wait a bit to see that one (or look for it in the background of these photos).
At some point in this gallery it finally dawned on me that we were in the wrong amusement park. Everywhere, it's written "Woncheon Lake Land Amusement Park." But we were here looking for Woncheon Greenland Amusement Park. Wikimapia shows us that Greenland was right next door to Lake Land. How could we miss that? And they had a ferris wheel! My only explanation is that it's demolished. In fact, large amounts of this area have been demolished.
It didn't exactly work out that way, because I spotted a fleet of abandoned floating restaurants in the reservoir. These are some of the most fascinating structures I've seen and I really want to get inside them (well, two of the three).
I'm going to have to come back here with Jung soon. There was a lot to do in Suwon, and it'll clearly take a full weekend to do everything I want.
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October 25 2008Coming SoonThere's all of a sudden a lot to do these days. It always seems like whenever I think I'm in a dry spell, I'm suddenly flung violently out of it. After last week's colossal failure with Dreamland, I've gone and experienced the opposite in Suwon; pictures will be on here in a few days. I also need to go down south at some point to follow up all the leads I have. |
October 19 2008
Chinese Food I hadn't gone for Chinese food for a while, so on the way home I stopped by Ho Lee Chow and ordered takeout. While I was waiting, I went up to the roof of the hotel and got some birds-eye shots of Itaewon. |
October 19 2008
Downtown Sarah had to go home, but I wanted to have a look at the Hoehyun apartment. Just as I reached the top of the hill, it got dark and the lights of the apartment turned on, too late to save me an uphill hike. |
October 19 2008
Pimatgol After Dreamland, I decided to head for Pimatgol to check up on some buildings. I managed to convince Sarah to come along, promising to show her inside the hotel. But when it turned out my point of entry was locked up, I started to wonder if she was a bad luck charm. Then, fortunately, we got inside a restaurant, and two yeogwans, and ended the trip on top of a high building on a helipad. |
October 19 2008
Dreamland One of my finds last week when I was scouring online was Dreamland, an amusement park in Seoul that was reported to be practically abandoned. The Flickr photos linked here are over a year old, and the photographer said that the park was still open and visitors were charged admission, although all the rides were pretty well shut off and most people came for the swimming pool. Jung checked online and discovered the plan is to convert the area into a city forest in 2009. Well, fearing the worst, that I was already too late, I set out to find Dreamland with my friend Sarah, and yes, my worst fears were confirmed. But on the bright side, we hiked over an interesting mountain and we discovered how forests are built. |
October 18 2008Last week, I found a ton of material online documenting abandoned sites in Korea by other foreigners. One of them was the enclosed video here, taken by a Canadian who plays airsoft in abandoned locations. There's one point in the video where he says at 1:40, "That's Indeogwan Station over there. Gwacheon is over this way behind these trees." It was enough for me to find the location on my own. Of course, when I got there it was quite different.
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October 18 2008
Golden Doghouse Every day on the way to work, my bus whips past this giant yellow building left in the brief empty space between Gwacheon and Anyang. I could tell it's unused partly by the fence, and partly by the number of empty windows. Judging by some front details, I figured it had been abandoned during construction. Anyway, I was eager to come to work on Saturday afternoon because that meant I had time earlier in the day to finally swing by this place and get a closer look. What did I find? A big german shepherd chained up at the base of the building. There didn't seem to be anybody around, just the dog, so maybe I'll try making friends with it. It's chained up so the only real risk is that the barking gets somebody's attention. Well, I'm not eager to get much closer for the time being. |
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Jon underscore Dunbar at Hotmail
010-3212-2812
Please remember that these photos are all copyrighted to me. If you want to use them in any way, there's a 90 per cent chance I'll give you my permission, and be able to give you a copy with a higher DPI.Copyright Jon Dunbar 2004
Photos taken by
Nikon CoolPix 950
digital camera.