Gyeonggi Province Mural Village Autumn Tour Destinations Best 4

Casually visiting Mural Villages in Gyeonggi Province with a camera

Looking up at the sky, I realized that autumn has already come. The sky is blue and high, and the golden sunlight of autumn is shining down. It is a perfect day for an outing. So today, let me take you to mural villages in Gyeonggi Province. A number of famous mural villages can be found in the province. Of those, the ones I’d like to introduce today are villages with special histories.

Modest transformations have enlivened old alleys that were forgotten, and flowers blooming on gray cement walls have brought people back. Mural villages in Gyeonggi Province are places that people like to visit with loved ones, camera in hand, on beautiful fall days. Shall we go to these towns? 

Best Autumn Tour Destinations in Gyeonggi Province

1. Mural Alley in Cheolsan-dong, Gwangmyeong City: “Taking a Rest and a Step Back” 

As always, it is after a boom of urban village redevelopment has swept though. Cheolsan 4-dong of Gwangmyeong City was a backward town forgotten by people in metropolitan areas. It was a poor hillside village with steep inclines and uneven stairs on which a few small bent grandmas were spotted breathing hard. In 2006, however, a special transformation project began. Art college students of Hongik University and artists who participated in a project called ‘Cheolsandong Project’ revived hope on the walls, stairs, and in the street corners. Unfortunately, it will disappear before long since redevelopment is scheduled to commence in a few years. 

Over time, most of the murals have faded, and some parts are completely washed out. There is, however, a certain reason for visiting and looking around Cheolsan-dong Mural Village once again, a wistfulness for disappearing things. On Haengun-gil (meaning lucky road), which can be seen only in the Cheolsan-dong Mural Village, you can have fun finding a four-leaf clover. Cheolsan-dong Mural Village offers respite and a step back from hectic lives to those who, wrapped in looking for a four-leaf clover, are missing happiness from numerous common three-leaf clovers.

Best Autumn Tour Destination in Gyeonggi Province

2. Naptteokkol Mural Village in Sokdal-dong, Gunpo City: “Fairy Tale Village Where Time Has Stopped”

Naptteokkol, meaning a wide valley deep in a mountain, is a place that imparts little smiles to so many hikers going to Suri Mountain. About 10 years ago, the artist Kim Hyeong-tae opened his studio in this village and initiated wall paintings with the help of residents; this was the beginning of Naptteokkol Mural Village.

Sparrows perched on clothes lines like musical notes on sheet music, children playing music, fish flying in the sky dreaming of the sea, and storks delivering hope for the new year are all small gifts being offered by the walls to visitors. Bustling with hikers going to Surak Mountain and visitors taking pictures of the murals, this small village, which once was mired in silence, is filled with vibrant sounds — the clicking of camera shutters, lovers laughing and posing for pictures, and people reading out poems written on the walls. Such a pleasant change appears to continue throughout the autumn.

Best Autumn Tour Destinations in Gyeonggi Province

3. Haenggungdong Mural Village in Suwon City: “Happy Murals Flowing from Suwoncheon to Haenggungdong”

Suwoncheon, which provides a rest area for Suwon citizens, has emerged as a tourist attraction with beautiful murals flowing along the stream. As a part of the ‘Suwoncheon Public Art Project,’ beautiful murals were painted on the walls nearby Suwoncheon. In Haenggungdong Mural Village, various cute murals can be seen on the Love Road, First Morning Road, Road Going Backward, and the Romance Road.

Began through the ‘Art Project Shared with Neighbors, Haenggungdong People’ undertaken by Space Eye, Haenggungdong Mural Village is located in front of Maehyang Girls’ Information High School on the banks of Suwoncheon near Hwahongmun Gate, the north gate of Suwon Hwaseong Fortress. It is a famous romantic destination for couples because of the mural ‘We got married!’ and love padlocks. Couples enjoy murals on the walls while walking hand-in-hand along Suwoncheon, and fasten padlocks to a heart shaped fence. It is a place recommended for couples who appreciate a simple but meaningful date.

Gyeonggi Province Autumn Tour Destinations

4. Yangji Mural Village in Anyang City: “Murals Bursting with Vivid Colors”

Not all mural villages are lyrical and redolent. The murals of Yangji Village in Anyang City are popular for their vivid colors and distinctive images. A total of 4 member schools of Yeonsung University’s educational-industrial cooperative group — Anyang High School of Art, Anyang Foreign Language High School, Anyangseo Elementary School, and Anyang Girls’ Commercial High School — participated in creating the murals. All the murals, created by students, convey liveliness, so it is hard to imagine the old and weathered walls beneath the murals.  

The murals are not just pretty drawings. They were carefully created under the themes of space, display, information and education. It would be nice to contemplate such meanings while enjoying the murals. The murals of Yangji Village, particularly in vivid colors of violet, yellow, green, and more, also serve as a nice background for taking pictures like those from photo studios. Yangji Village is a great place for taking selfies.   

Mural villages are special because some have given new meaning to places that were almost forgotten with the passage of time, and also because some have planted flowers of hope on worn walls that bear testimony to past lives.

Mural villages are bustling with people again today. It must be because everything starts from and is passed on to human beings. It is autumn, the best season to go out. Please visit the mural villages of Gyeonggi Province where beautiful murals and the stories of lives are stored. 

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