"No one is here by chance", but we indeed visited this culture village by chance. The night before our full day in Busan, my dad actually called to tell me that the chinese papers had reported about this cool new lesser-known tourist attraction in Busan called Gamcheon Culture Village and urged me to go check it out. It's said that this place is like the "Santorini of Asia" like wow got so good meh?
The next day was actually supposed be spent on the Busan City Tour Bus touring Taejongdae and having seafood at Jagalchi Seafood Market. However, when we got to Busan Station, the queue for the city tour bus was too damn long, and apparently we had better have made a reservation for the bus, if not it's close to impossible to board it on weekends. I mean like, who knew! So we decided to change our itinerary for the day on the spot and YOLO-ed our way to Gamcheon Culture Village! And damn, I NEVER regretted coming to this place a single bit.
To get to Gamcheon Culture Village, you would first have to take the Busan Metro to Toseong Station and exit by Exit #7. And you would see this crossroad with Exit #6 opposite you. Cross opposite and turn left. You would see some Busan Cancer Centre (or something along that line)
Walk straight down till you see this bus stop.
This should be the view opposite you,
You are at the bus stop boxed up in black, and you are supposed to take the MINI BUS 2 or 2-2 up to Gamcheon Culture Village or Gamcheon Haneul Maeul (Ha-nool Ma-ool... well that's close)
On the mini bus....
Alight when you see the Tourist Information Centre! Actually most of the people would alight at this stop so just alight along with them. Maps of the village are sold at this place for 3000 won I think?
And heeeeeeeeeeeeere weeeee areeeeeeeeeeeee,
I'll just let the pictures do the talking.
I really like how random street art installations are scattered all over this village.
We had lunch at this cafe selling simple fare and of course, we ordered our favourite dosirak to satisfy our dosirak cravings. Not as good as the one we had in Seoul, but the million dollar scenery they had on their rooftop made up for everything. The toppings on their patbingsoo were also given really generously.
Look for the kind waffles uncle near the Tourist Information Office if you are lost and need directions!
I would definitely return to this place to spend a full day here to slowly take in the sights and sounds as we didn't have enough time to complete the course as shown in the map. But I guess whatever we covered in a mere 4 hour trip was pretty impressive!
Gamcheon Culture Village is a place I would strongly recommend to those travellers who like to discover something off the beaten track. The place is so lively, colourful and filled with youthful ajummas and ajussis around to help you out if you lose your way. Who says slums are definitely dirty, dark and smelly?
