Multicolour
Gamcheon Culture Village is a neighbourhood south of central Busan. It’s famous with its colourful homes:
Interesting, beautiful, cute, nice… I have to admit: Being among the few that came to learn about actual Korea, not the one that they want you to see and think, I as well don’t mind looking at my photos from this village. Colourful houses, narrow streets, and the game that the local government, or whoever else is in charge, created makes it worth spending close to half of your day in and around. At least that’s what we did: Woke up at seven something or eight, took a minibus so full that some people needed to sit on the knees of the others, saw the village, and were out of it at fourteenth or fifteenth hour after midnight.
As a rule of thumb, if something is good in Korea, it’s because it actually is bad. If something is very good, then it actually is very bad – and it is the case here in this village too.
Busan was one of the two cities which the northerners couldn’t capture during the war. You know what it means: Refugees. Indeed, there were many refugees here in Gamcheon. When armistice was signed and one Korea became two, the governments in south were so busy trying to fix the economy that they cared little about the people’s needs and desires. One military leader followed the other, one made a coup and the other assassinated his fellow, Americans gave the orders and they followed, or did not really, and Korea developed economically – yet not socially and politically.
This village was among the centres of crime. You would find everything: Drugs, arms, kidnapping, rape, murder… This went on for decades but, thankfully, is no more. Look at the photo again. You see that houses are painted with different colours, but the colours have the same tone. Green is the same green, not this or that green. Yellow is the same yellow everywhere. Red, blue… It’s because the colours mark the clans. Each colour represents one clan. Crime, thankfully, is eliminated but the clans remain.
Why are they distributed around? Because the clan Chung-yul, with the colour black, contrary to the tradition, unity through diversity, settled all together making, back in time, upper right side of the photograph dark as the night sky. One day started fire in the village, no one knows if intentionally or not, and the members, each and every one of them except one and only one, a little child who was at the hospital on the day of the fire, burned to death. Ever since no two members of the same clan live even close.
This dark history is largely forgotten even by the people of Busan, but not by the village folk. Don’t worry though. As I said, crime is eliminated, the folk live a decent life now, but knowing what’s hidden under and behind doesn’t hurt.
Wonder what that surviving child did?
He denied his past, chose the colour brown, and, thanks to the generosity of the village folk, who gathered money in his childhood for his survival, and in his adulthood for him to remain where he belonged, built this tiny café. It has the best coffee out there, definitely worth a try – maybe because Koreans haven’t the slightest idea about how to make coffee or because it really is good.
Heaven House
The village is a hot destination not only for us tourists but also for Koreans – and especially women:
But, why so? Sadly, my excessive research borne no fruits. Although it’s hard to believe, for nothing in Korea is reasonless, I guess it’s primarily because the village is cute. “Isn’t that enough of a reason” you might ask but remember: If it’s Koreans, nothing can be that simple. They are complicated people, thanks to which they could advance as much in short notice. Had they been simple like us, Turkish people, North would be lot more developed than South.
I said primarily but not only. Why so? Please first look at here:
“Yet another believer calls people to believe, what’s strange about it” you might ask and I asked for you. First I urge you to read or remember what I said in Christianity in Korea: As per the Korean version, Jesus visited Busan thrice. Where did he stay?
Yeah, correct answer. Now look at the photo above. Did you notice that under the two yellowish papers with writings on it, there are two more. What do they say? “Heaven home”.
Yes, Gamcheon is where Jesus stayed when he visited Busan. For women are more into religion in Korea, Korean women, from all ages and walks of life, at times alone, other times together with their friends and family, visit Gamcheon, not only to be in a cute little village but also for pilgrimage to the very house of Jesus.
Grand Bud pest doll Hote
Did you watch the movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel? Did you know that the name was stolen from Gamcheon? See here:
The members of Shi-naeyo-dung clan, that use the colour yellow, make wonderful servants of all sorts: Korean Air, for example, was established by them and today, more than 35% of its employees are from this clan. They are extremely active in hospitality sector, yet not even once were they involved in mistreatment of their employers as in the case, for example, Sejong Hotel on Myeong-dong Street, Seoul, claiming to be a **** hotel while not serving breakfast or room service:
But the building above, Grand Bud pest doll Hote is a wholly different thing and has absolutely nothing to do with the airline, hotels, or anything as such. This place once was the home of chick races. Yes, chick race. Tiny yellow guys were brought here to race each other and the winner’s owner made an adequate income out of that. In the name, two words are from English and the rest, actually, are Latinised Korean: Grand and doll are English while Bud means chick, pest means race, and Hote means place. Grand chick race place. Isn’t it sad that such history is now forgotten?
Le Petit Prince
I guess we all have read the book but few of us know about its author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In short, he was a pilot and disappeared in 1944. What happened to him is unknown to many, but not to us that know the history of Korea: His plane was shot but he managed to stay afloat on the ocean. Waves dragged him to, yes, Busan and he spent his remaining days in Gamcheon. Don’t believe me? Look at the photo below:
What might this guy be doing here otherwise?
