The small fishing port of Guryong-po in Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do has an alleyway lined by Japanese-style homes left over from the colonial era, when Japanese settlers established themselves in Guryong-po to develop the region’s fishing and whaling industries. On a hill overlooking the port, the settlers created a park, complete with a shrine where Japanese fishing crews would pray for safe sailing.
Pohang City is working on restoring the alley by 2010 as part of a bid to have it registered as a cultural property (the first time that an entire neighborhood has been so registered). The shrine unfortunately was torn down in March, although the stone steps leading to the park still remain.
The stone steps leading to Guryong-po Park originally had the names of Japanese who contributed to the construction of the park. After Liberation, however, the names were covered over in concrete, flipped over and etched with the names of local Koreans who had contributed to the port’s development.
One wonders what’s under the concrete on this stone monument in Guryong-po Park…
Not everything has been covered up, though.
The neighborhood will probably look a lot different by 2010 once the homes are fully restored. Some of the houses are in desperate need of repair, but that said, dilapidation has its own sort of charm, too… rusting, ramshackle monuments to a fallen empire.
You can read about the rest of my trip to the wonderful city of Pohang in the August issue of SEOUL magazine.
12 Comments
> the wonderful city of Pohang
First time I’ve EVER heard that label applied… I lived there all of 1987, and can’t remember much that was wonderful in any way, except for the one Temple (Palgyeong-sa??) up north, and O-eo-sa of course… Esp in contrast with Gyeongju so close by… So I’ll look forward to reading your report, seeing what you found there of value!
Greetings to all from Bangkok, where it’s even more insufferably hot/humid than in Korea!
I have more recent memories of Pohang, and they’re not any better. But then again Robert has an uncanny eye for finding nice things in odd places…
This was my second to Pohang, actually, albeit the first time was like nine years ago. Before I visited for the first time, I thought it was going to be an industrial shithole, but I was pleasantly surprised. Even POSCO has a Blade Runner-like beauty to it, especially at night.
People are nice, too, in that charming Gyeongsangbuk-do sort of way.
Yuck. Pohang looks like a post-nuclear apocalypse.
Lovely shots Marmot! It is encouraging to see the restoration of history. Maybe Koreans are not thin skinned after all?
Tough crowd.
Hehe, Robert. I did have some nice human experiences there, although I spent most of my time in Pohang at 포항공대, who was a customer, and the people I dealt with were not very nice at all…
But the city… Yucks.
Pohang is now subsurb of Taegu thanks to the highway built about two years ago so I heard many of developments in Pohang are driven by Taegu residences. Although Bukbu beach does not have the tourist appeal compare to other beaches in eastsea. The sight of smoke/steam coming out of the POSCO plant at the Bukbu beach used to give me jitters that anyone could get cancer by swiming there. Jukdo market is still the best place to get Korean sasimi “huae”. It is much better than Samcheonpo or Pusan’s Jagalchi IMHO.
I was in that area this weekend and recommend that anyone going there, and having a car available, take Route 31 up or down the coast. It’s a beautiful drive.
Nice pics. I need to get a good camera so I can take those kind pictures; that and I need to learn how keep my thumb off of the lense.
BTW, Is there a reason you have not linked to your KT piece?
#9 - As long as traffic isn’t too bad - which, unfortunately, is not always the case - the Pohang to Sokcho route along the east coast is probably the nicest drive in Korea.
Marmot is my hero. When he’s got his hand on a camera and not on his joystick. 와하하
I wonder if the general ugliness of the city has protected the Japanese enclave from outside apartment-strip developers. (But, oh, also, aside from having grown up in Japan, doesn’t 박태준 have a lot of connections there, and stay there for long periods from time to time? Isn’t he sorta “mayor for life” down there?)