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Start
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Soyang River
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Cheongpyeongsa
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Flower Garden
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Ethiopia
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Pension
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Park
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Uiamho
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Kim Yu-jeong Station
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Jade Garden
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Finish
KT&G Sangsangmadang Chuncheon(Former children center) KT&G 상상마당
One of phrases representing Chuncheon is City of Cultural Performance. And the most important to keep its fame would be of course the passion of people but there are also various facilities here and there in Chuncheon that help it keep its status.
In particular, there's an organization for complex arts called 「KT&G Sangsangmadang Chuncheon」 for performance, exhibition, education and design.
This used to be Chuncheon children center but recreated as Sangsangmadang Chuncheon that opened on April 29th right before we visited.
This is divided into two departments, Art Center for creating and promoting arts and Stay for tourists or cultural artists visiting Chuncheon to stay.
Art Center has A and B building where you could get a clear view of Uiamho that is equipped with many facilities for cultural arts inside the buildings.
A and B buildings, of Art Center, and each stories look seperate but they are all connected with each other like a maze so once you enter the door, you could take a look around everywhere in the building in order.
So when you enter the door to A building, a big stage called SOUND HALL is prepared with 350 seats (600 seats for standing) for concerts and performances on the first floor and I was told DJ.DOC and Buhwal played a week before we visited to celebrate the opening of this building.
On the second floor, there was a gallery with exhibition works displayed in Chuncheon. At that time, the pictures and art works regarding the buildings of Sangsangmadang were displayed.
I have no sense in arts so I just had a peek at them but I liked this gallery more than anywhere else.
Because it was 30℃ outside and the gallery was around 20℃.
After we cooled down in the gallery, I saw a spider web in the empty space that looks connected to the first floor. I feel like I would bounce back if I jump like on a trampoline but this is just an artwork by Choi Gi-jang so please don't jump.
So when you get out of the building on the second floor, you'll see a small garden under the blue sky. The sun was blazing down but the tables somehow were inviting us for a cup of tea.
Over the walls, you could see kayak race right in front and a building that looks like an animation museum far away.
In the middle of garden, there were sofas for families who visited the park could take a rest.
On the second floor, you could directly get to the building B through the bridge and you'll see a bunch of tables and chairs in front of the entrance. Another art work, the video of tables and chairs constantly thrown on each other was playing using 3 beam projectors.
There's another gallery on the second floor just like building A. However, I could get it better because unlike artistic sides of A gallery, this one has historical stuff.
This exhibition is called
They were explaining about the educational institutions in Chuncheon in modern era as well as in the Japanese colonial era to pass the forgotten memories down to our children.
Black and white pictures of remaining Chuncheon downtown over time and a few light books in the middle.
In one corner inside the Gallery 2, pictures of different sizes were hanging on the wall. It's an exhibition titled
Coming out of the gallery, there was a wide center hall under yellow lights and built with red bricks just like the A building in the center of the building.
If you pass by the media lab in the middle, there's a LIVE STUDIO that helps musicians with performance or recording on the first floor and Performance Room, floor-type lecture room that teaches musical, drama or dance.
Somebody's working right now. I couldn't get a peek into the room. As expected, it's not just space for show, it's space to make music and practice dancing.
While this place supports complex cultural arts by providing space for dancing or music, it also has Photo Studio and Work Room for pictures and literatures.
The amenities of Sangsangmadang Chuncheon are located in A building. At the back of the first floor, new products with new ideas coming from imagination combining new designers and self-made brands are sold in Design Square,
and around the lake across, a cafe called Dancing Caffeine was located where would seemingly be good to have coffee and brunch.
Behind the building, outdoor stage with 1,200 seats were empty getting ready for applauses and cheers and waiting for artists and audience under the sun.
Sangsang Chuncheon Stay(former Gangwondo sports center) a little away from the Art Center is a 5-story building including one level of basement and 4 floors above that has 58 rooms and could occupy about 200 people experiencing cultural arts.
As Sangsangmadang Stay is located in a good place with proper transportation and easy access to Chuncheon, we could say it has a good setting that makes your life more enriched and allows tourists get to know cultural arts better. When I was there, I couldn't look inside the rooms because many of them were being used for activities but if you make it on time, you won't feel that the space producing art works like music, drama, photo or literature that seems to be of specific groups of people is actually not so distant from you.
Address : 223-2, Samcheon-dong, Chuncheon-si (강원도 춘천시 삼천동 223-2)
Telephone : 033-254-7933
Operating Hours : 10:00 - 18:00 (Closed on every Monday)
Kim Yu-jeong House of Literature 김유정 문학촌
As indicated on Kim Yu-jeong Literature Statue in Sculpture Park, the writer Kim Yu-jeong who wrote so many literary works was born in Chuncheon.
That's why there's a station in Gyoengchun Line that leads to Chuncheon called [Kim Yu-jeong Station], the only station named after a person in Korea.
The ready why this station is named after her among so many other stations in Gyeongchun Line is because her birth place is 500m away from there.
Around her birth place, a few villages around Sindong-myeon in Chuncheon-si formed Kim Yu-jeong Literature Village.
The first time I heard of this literature village, I suspected it would be a multiple complex commercialised in a big space like a typical theme park in a small city but this one was quite plain and simple.
Well, let's take a look around her birth place to get to know her better. To the right of the entrance, it leads to the exhibition that is a tile-roofed house.
On both sides of the garden, there's a signboard that allows you actually see the Dongbackggot(camellia flower), her representative work, but it didn't have any photo so I don't know which one is camellia flower among different types of grass there…
As I entered the exhibition, a cultural interpreter was giving an enthusiastic explanation about the writer Kim Yu-jeong in front of book model that's bigger than an adult.
I was eavesdropping and it seemed quite funny, matching names of places and characters with those in her novels, having jokes with tourists, and laughing together.
The literary works and literary arts journals published in the 1930s when she was writing and the dolls stood looking so innocent like characters in her novels.
Just like the interpreter's comments, her stories might have happened for real since the names and places were used exactly same as the real ones around her birth place.
Next to the exhibition, her statue with a book in her hand is standing and she looks like she's thinking so hard. When you pass by the statue, there's a square house that she was born.
Especially as she used stories regarding the lives in farming village, there were various old items like Korean A-frame, straw shoes, mesh bags, bamboo baskets and so on handing on the wall.
People kept taking photos of Bong-pil (father-in-law) right in front Jangdokdae(platform for crocks of sauces and condiments) who delayed the marriage of his daughter making an excuse that his daughter is too young to get married then bringing the main character to his home and making him work in her novel 'Bombom'.
On one side of the wall, I saw the items made of traditional straws that were used as nests for chicken or keeping eggs.
In one corner of the building, there's a place that needs no explanations. A big pot buried under the ground with two plates, a squat toilet.
If you go down from the birth place, there's a statue that makes you feel something's urgent but unresolvable looking at somewhere.
It's the statue of mischievous Jeomsuni in 'Dongbackggot(camellia flower)' making the main character play a one-legged fight with a chicken.
There's one more chicken on the opposite side so you could take a funny picture with Jeomsuni like this.
One thing I missed though was I had to walk towards the station about 200m just for a drink. I saw a proper red clay house that looks long and square.
This building smelling new is Tourist information center called 'Nangmannuri' that offers you tourist information for West region of Gangwon-do including Chuncheon-si, Hwacheon, Hongcheon, Inje and Yanggu.
Nangmannuri also provides exhibition space to display various items depending on each theme. It looks like a more organized than the exhibition room of Kim Yu-jeon's literature village.
On that day, the pictures of lakeside were displayed. Whenever we saw the places we had visited in Chuncheon, we whispered and 'oh we've been here and there' then we headed back to the station.
The opposite direction from the literature village at Kim Yu-jeong Station. I could see the sign written [Kim Yu-jeong Station Rail Park] where a big parking lot was. Is this a parking lot or what?
We didn't want to go on a fool's errand due to the hot weather but just in case…I saw a mysterious space decorated books as multiple times higher than my height.
Passing by cafes located between big books, I was wondering if this is a theme park to commemorate the writer Kim Yu-jeong. Then I saw a ticket office. Where does this lead to?
In front of the building decorated as bookshelf, there was a train rail. Ah… it's rail bike boarding station, another experience center of Kim Yu-jeong Station(http://www.railpark.co.kr/).
There are 3 rail bike courses in Chuncheon. One starts at Gyeonggang Station, second one between Kim Yu-jeong Station→Gangchon Station, and the third one is Gangchon Station→Kim Yu-jeong Station. I was told that the course that starts right here is the most popular because there's no uphill but many things to see.
As we got there, bikes just had left. It would've been so nice to take them while we enjoy the great view over Bukhan Riverside… However, the buildings decorated as big books were fun enough because we tried rail bikes a few times before. Probably next time we'll try Kim Yu-jeong rail bike…
As we finished our visit to the writer Kim Yu-jeong's birth place to look for the traces of her, we headed for our next destination while we noticed her name on every book cover standing so high under the blue sky.
Address : 25, Sille-gil, Sindong-myeon, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do (강원도 춘천시 신동면 실레길 25)
Telephone : 033-261-4650
Operating Hours : 10:00 - 18:00 (Winter 17:00) / Closed on Mondays
Website : www.kimyoujeong.org
