Gamcheon Culture Village

My Korean friends were puzzled why I wanted to go to Gamcheon Village. They, residents of Busan themselves, have never been there. Gamcheon Village, they said, is one of the poorest areas of Busan. That may have been true back in the 50s, when Gamcheon began as a slum town, filled with refugees as a result of the Korean War. It was in 2009 when Busan's government decided to transform Gamcheon Village into a creative community, hiring artists to create street art.

I don't know if Gamcheon Village is still considered to be one of Busan's poorest areas but it sure didn't look like it from afar as we were going up the winding road to the village, nor did it look like it when we were strolling its streets.

Gamcheon Village was a barrage of colors. From afar, the thousands of little box–shaped houses of different sizes and colors, covering the side of a hill, looked like Lego bricks.

Walking the streets of Gamcheon, my head swiveled every which way—anything and everything caught my eye. Different colored birds perched on a wall, birds that upon closer inspection looked rather creepy with their human faces.

Reminder: Gamcheon is a village of 10,000 residents. Keep noise level at a minimum. And don't go poking about in somebody's home or taking photos of residents.