Nga Tsin Wai walled village has a history of over 650 years, dating back to the Yuan Dynasty, and the name means “The walled village in front of the yamen” (a Chinese official’s building – the remains of which can be found nearby at Kowloon Walled City). Living in walled villages like this helped safeguard residents against attacks by rival clans, and especially pirates.

The village is organised in a tightly packed grid pattern and is ringed by a number of sleepy shops where the proprietors look almost as old as the village.

A traditional Chinese medicine shop with concoctions of dried plant roots and other strange smelling powders laid out on the table.

An outdoor barbers where you can get the cheapest cut in HK!

The surrounding concrete jungle is not exactly pretty but at least the local residents seem to keep the area in good nick.

Entrance to the Nga Chin Wai is by way of a two-story gatehouse where the chatter of villagers playing mahjong could be heard coming from above.

Straight ahead lies a small Tin Hau temple where outside a board lists the names of donors writing on thin strips of paper.

Ancient looking fire buckets sit patiently in the corner, biding their time.

Sadly the village is imminently scheduled for redevelopment by the Urban Renewal Authority and most of the houses inside have already been demolished by the property developer. Steel girders prop up the remaining buildings.

The dwindling numbers of villagers who remain are gradually being coerced into leaving and once a certain percentage have gone the rest will be evicted.

‘Resumption’ orders are posted on many buildings stating that the government is taking back the land.

The narrow alleyways lie mostly deserted with plant foliage rapidly encroaching every corner.

Another propped up wall awaits the inevitable. Its dark interior gives up few secrets as to its former life.

A penthouse suite which has seen better days perches precariously on top of a crumbling wall.

Many houses lie completely gutted with only their skeletons remaining. Considering the steel beams it can’t have been an original structure.

The entrance to a house lies open, but with no house behind it.

Some rusting gas cylinders.

How much of the village will be kept after the area is redeveloped remains to be seen but if you want to take a look before it’s completely gone it’s round 15 minutes’ walk to the east of Lok Fu or the south of Wong Tai Sin MTR station.

Related posts you might like:

1. Lok Fu Part 1 – Kowloon Walled City
2. Pok Fu Lam Village
3. Jeonju Photo Walk – Part 1

Over a yearlong period I visited the area three times and below is the first part of a compilation of what you can find on walk around the local neighbourhoods.

Along one side of Carpenter Road are many side streets packed with small restaurants, many serving Southeast Asian food. Old streets with huge signs hanging the road like this are gradually disappearing in Hong Kong so I often feel compelled to document them before they’re gone forever. The ones with the square hand-painted boards seem to be the oldest.

Near the south entrance to Kowloon Walled City Park lie the few remnants of the City’s original South Gate and its entrance plaques which were discovered after the renegade settlement was demolished in 1993 (check out my previous article for the history).

Although the traditional Chinese-style park is very pleasant, it’s a pity so little of the original structure remains. At its center is a fully restored Yamen (a local bureaucrat’s, or mandarin’s, office) which contains a permanent exhibition about the old walled city.

A lion dance at Chinese New Year in Kowloon City Plaza.

Neon lights burn away into the night, illuminating the street below. Anyone for Taiwan beef noodles?

A small restaurant, typical of thousands in Hong Kong, often serving BBQ meat on rice with some bok choy (Chinese cabbage).

One of around 40,000 7-Eleven convenience stores you can find worldwide, which makes it an even bigger franchise chain than McDonald’s, with a staggering density of 1 shop per 1.16 km² in Hong Kong! I’m surprised they never broke into the UK.

You can find lots of cheap and tasty food in Hong Kong’s wet markets and at the top of the one in Kowloon City can be found some good Thai restaurants.

I tried a place called ‘Chiangrai Thaifood’ which had some great fresh mango ice drinks (my favourite).

Choose your own adventure in spiciness!

Seafood hot-pot – not really my sort of thing but has an interesting visual texture.

Thai green curry with egg fried rice – really good.

And now for something completely different – a random shot of a car mechanic garage door. I found the typography and colours strangely alluring.

As if a park built on the ruins of a lawless city where many a foul crime took place wouldn’t be creepy enough at night, image it filled with a spooky light and sound installation as was the case with Power Plant in February 2011, sponsored by the British Council.

Deep in the garden, as dusk falls, an eerie sonic wonderland comes to life where strange illuminations light up the night and the garden is transformed by magical sounds… check out the video above to get a taste of what it was like. Surreal would be putting it mildly.

Tickets were sold out for the event which was highly disappointing but surprisingly it was relatively easy to find alternate means of entrance…

More about how the exhibition was created in the video below:

Stay tuned for more in Part 2 soon.

Related posts you might like:

1. Lok Fu Part 2 – Nga Chin Wai Walled Village
2. The Hong Kong Island – Kowloon Divide
3. Beijing 2008 Part 1: A City Evolves

My first impression of the festival was one of pessimism; with so many installations containing works that would probably be thrown away at the end how could it live up to its ambitions of promoting sustainability?

Luckily I was proven wrong – while the installations were a mixed bag, most of them seemed to have taken the theme seriously and raised some interesting questions about how we contribute to environmental issues as consumers.

Indeed, many works were repurposed from recycled materials themselves, like these lamps made from old taxi light shells by Handsome Co. (俊記) who make simple bags and other products from old discarded Hong Kong taxi parts.

The video above tells the story of how they came into existence.

The real success of DETOUR to me though was its utilisation of the old PMQ premises which is comprised of two parallel accommodation blocks with a large courtyard in the middle (where a stage had been setup at one end for performances).

As with the Victoria Prison and the Central Police Station (which I snuck into earlier in the year), PMQ is another relic of the British Colonial period which had been left to rot while the government endlessly debated what to do with it.

Before it was built in 1889, PMQ was the original home of the former Central School which was the first government school to provide primary and secondary Western education in Hong Kong. After being destroyed by bombing during World War II it was redeveloped as the PMQ in 1948.

While the site had initially been targeted for redevelopment (i.e. bulldozed and turned into a shopping mall / luxury apartment complex), PMQ is now slated to be turned into a ‘landmark‘ hub for creative industries by 2014 where artists and designers can showcase their products to the public.

Judging by Hong Kong’s previous attempts there is a big question mark hanging over how well this will be executed but at least it’s a step in the right direction. Of note, an underground museum will give visitors access to the ruins of the Central School which should be fascinating in itself.

Most of the installations were housed in the identical single-room flats which lined each corridor of the buildings. While they have now been stripped bare of their former inhabitants decorations you can still get a sense of their lives from the markings on the walls and the small balcony / bathroom at the rear of each room.

A broken view through a broken window.

Washing-lines were strung between the walls of the corridors which today feel hauntingly barren.

Kitchen windows bear the marks of years of accumulated oil and dirt on their fading floral facades.

I managed to sneak onto the roof which, as with much of Hong Kong’s skyline, yielded magnificent views of the surrounding neighbourhood. Amid all the dense buildings its hard to imagine that you’re actually on the edge of a small island.

Looking down on the rooftops of nearby buildings you can spy many high-rise gardens being kept by green-fingered tenants.

The roof of PMQ is covered by an elaborate network of pipes, all of which now lie disconnected and rusting.

The building stands as a precursor to the even taller apartment blocks which were to be built around it.

As well as plants you’ll also notice a forest of tv aerials pointing in every direction. I’d love an apartment somewhere like this so I could do BBQ’s on the roof!

Aberdeen street sweeps steeply downhill creating a deep gorge between the buildings on either side.

Look closely and you’ll notice that there are workers clinging onto the bamboo scaffolding, inside the green netting, renovating an adjacent building – not a single safety harness in sight!

North of Hollywood Road you can see the historic Wing Lee Street (永利街), the shooting location for the acclaimed film “Echoes of the Rainbow” (歲月神偷主題曲), that was also recently saved from redevelopment and is now being restored.

The film tells the story of a working family in Hong Kong during the 1960′s whose eldest son, a popular boy and star athlete, becomes ill with leukemia.

In Hong Kong, where land is scarce and expensive, the government profits hugely from real-estate deals and hence the fate of history often comes down to money. It’s a really rather sad state of affairs.

Since most of these historic sites in Hong Kong are usually off-limits, this is one detour I was please to have taken.

Related posts you might like:

1. Lok Fu Part 1 – Kowloon Walled City
2. The Hong Kong Island – Kowloon Divide

Owing to its fertile surroundings Pok Fu Lam was traditionally a point of immigration for farmers in asylum seekers from mainland China and is often mistaken for a shanty town such is the poor quality of construction brought about by complicated land ownership rights.

Enclosed on two sides by hills and mountains the village is home to around 100 families and is loosely divided into four sections, each with its own public toilet, since not all houses have one.

Pok Fu Lam can claim several firsts in the history of Hong Kong: it was the place where Hong Kong’s floral emblem, Bauhinia blakeana, was first discovered; the site for Hong Kong’s first reservoir, and the site for Hong Kong’s first dairy farm (which closed in 1983).

While it may not have all the mod-cons of a standard Hong Kong high-rise community there is a definite charm to the higgledy piggledy patchwork layout of the buildings, many of which would probably be closer described as tin shacks rather than anything which had been placed by design.

While the rest of Hong Kong seems to delight in flashing their cash whenever possible there is something far more genuine about the unpretentious way of life here (even if the inhabitants don’t have much choice). It is both figuratively and literally down to earth.

The population of the village reached its peak in the 1980′s, spurred on my the development of the surrounding region, but by 2000 began to decline since those who become more well-off left the village.

Local residents have repeatedly asked the government to give indigenous inhabitants of Pok Fu Lam the same recognition as residents of the New Territories but these claims have been rejected by the government which also threatened demolition of the village.

The contrast between the village and the modern apartments nearby couldn’t be starker, making it feel rather disconnected and detached from the outside world.

That’s not to say the village is totally devoid of colour, in fact quite the opposite…

The village contains plenty of greenery from both the plants lovingly grown by its inhabitants and those which have taken root of their own accord.

Some of the buildings are in pretty poor shape with more which had been abandoned and collapsed. One can’t help but wonder if the government are simply biding their time till they can justify levelling the whole area.

Razor wire surrounds the old Dairy Farm workers building which has been abandoned since 2006. I looked around for a way in but the site is very well secured.

The village has its own Fire Dragon dance (similar to the one I saw in Tai Hang earlier this year).

Down one narrow lane I came across what looked like the scene of a gruesome crime but in fact turned out to be spilt paint.

Another haunting sight came by way of a small patch of land which had a dozen or more disheveled teddy bears hanging above it being used as slightly macabre scarecrows. You could hold a really creepy Halloween party here!

Curling above the village in a loop can be found a path which is partly utilised by a nearby riding school.

With a declining ageing population and the constant threat of re-development, the future of Pok Fu Lam Village is unclear but if its history is anything to go by it hopefully has some life left in it yet. For anyone seeking to see another side of Hong Kong it is well worth the visit.

Related posts you might like:

1. Breaking into Victoria Prison
2. Korean Folk Village
3. Dafen Oil Painting Village

The first three parts of the series (watch here) are great but what I really loved are the deep dives into two of my favourite films; The Matrix and Kill Bill which were both heavily influenced by a plethora of other works which came before them.

The Matrix is a film which simmered in the minds of the Wachowski Brothers for many years before it was made and it shows in the numerous references to films, literature and philosophy. In many ways it could be said that the film brings a Hollywood sheen to that which came before it, in particular another great favourite of mine – the anime Ghost in the Shell (which I’ve explored at length before).

Films you might like if you love The Matrix:

• Alice In Wonderland (1951)
• Dr. Who: The Deadly Assassin (1976)
• Philip K. Dick Speech (1977)
• Drunken Master (1978)
• Koyannisqatsi (1982)
• A Better Tomorrow (1986)
• Akira (1988)
• The Killer (1989)
• Total Recall (1990)
• Once Upon A Time In China (1991)
• Tai-Chi Master (Twin Dragons) (1993)
• Iron Monkey (1993)
• Fist of Legend (1994)
• Strange Days (1995)
• Ghost In The Shell (1995)

Books you might like if you love The Matrix:

• Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard
• The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campell
• Hard Boiled by Geof Darrow
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
• Neoromancer by William Gibson
• Out of Control by Kevin Kelly
• The Invisibles by Grant Morrison
• The Allegory of the Cave by Plato

The amount of “borrowing” that Quentin Tarantino does is unprecedented, with many of the themes and visual elements in Kill Bill being directly lifted from 1970′s Hong Kong martial arts flicks, Japanese samurai movies, spaghetti westerns, and his own work. Below are a few key ones mentioned in the documentary but a Tarantino fan site mentions many more.

Films you might like if you love Kill Bill:

• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presens: Breakdown (1955)
• Sanjuro (1962)
• Navajo Joe (1966)
• The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
• Death Rides A Horse (1967)
• Django Kill! (1967)
• Goke, Body Snatcher From Hell (1968)
• Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
• The Mercenary (1968)
• Twisted Nerve (1968)
• Fists of Fury (1972)
• Lady Snowblood (1973)
• Gone In 60 Seconds (1974)
• Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1974)
• Deep Red (1975)
• Carrie (1976)
• Black Sunday (1977)
• Circle of Iron (1978)
• Game of Death (1978)
• City of the Living Dead (1980)
• Shogun Assassin (1980)
• Blade Runner (1982)
• Resevoir Dogs (1992)
• Pulp Fiction (1994)
• From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
• Jackie Brown (1997)
• Samurai Fiction (1998)
• Battle Royale (2000)
• Ichi The Killer (2001)

It strikes me that the ability for audiences to peel back the layers with each viewing is, in part, what adds to the longevity and popularity of the films. They create connections through popular culture, which while we may not always realise consciously, is the fabric upon which our society evolves.

Copy. Transform. Combine - Creation requires influence. 

“Perhaps it’s because movies are so massively expensive to make. Perhaps it’s because graphic novels, TV shows, video games, books and the like are such rich sources of material, or perhaps it’s just because audiences just prefer the familiar.”

Everything is a Remix.

Related posts you might like:

1. Filmic Reflection
2. Battle Royale
3. Matrix DVD Boxset

Maybe it was the autumnal weather but my first impressions of the city were similar to those of many other tier-two Chinese cities I’ve visited – miles upon miles of cookie-cutter concrete apartment buildings built at a rate which only the Chinese could accomplish. Without the gloss of coastal cities like Shanghai or Shenzhen you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a bit bleak.

Our base of operations during the visit was the Loft Hostel which was a cheap but characterful place to stay, built in what used to be a printing factory. On the ground floor it had a nice cafe and courtyard area with free wi-fi access.

It’s centrally located on Zhong Tong Ren Lu, Xiao Tong Xiang (中同仁路, 小通巷四号), a residential street with many small bars and cafes which was good for an evening snack but on the downside meant it was a bit noisy at night (especially on weekends).

Ten minutes walk from the hostel a cluster of restored / reconstructed traditional streets can be found, known as Kuan-zhai Lane. While a little touristy you can get a taste of what life in Chengdu was like in times gone by.

The inhabitants of Chengdu have a reputation in China for their laid-back attitude to life and you’ll find more teahouses here than in any other part of the country. I’m not an expert on tea but know that for hardcore aficionados there are even tea tours / holidays which can be arranged.

A new sight for me on the streets of Chengdu was the presence of ear-cleaners, that is to say professional aural hygienists with a staggering array of metal tweezers, tuning forks and feathered sticks who will thoroughly clean out your lug-holes for a modest fee. Apparently it’s a dying art but those partaking in the ritual looked to be enjoying it and I secretly wished I had tried!

While walking the streets looking for a particular temple we wanted to visit we came across a group of workers beginning to resurface a road. An hour later when we walked back the same way we were surprised to find that they had almost finished.

Purely out of curiosity we decided to check out the ‘Chengdu Industrial Civilisation Museum‘ (成都工业文明博物馆) marked on our map, only to find out on arrival that it was closed while a new exhibition was being installed. Instead we contented ourselves by clambering over an old steam train sitting outside and watched older folks flying kites in the neighbouring park.

Being in Sichuan, the food in Chengdu is generally spicy (微辣), very spicy (老辣), or hardcore spicy (骨灰级辣). Hotpot ranks near the top of this scale and the use of Sichuan pepper (花椒) causes your mouth to become somewhat numb, something I first experienced way back in 2007 while living in Beijing. A friend directed us to a very local place which served up a dish straight from the fires of hell!

Next up was some unknown white meat which I think was probably beef but given the strength of the spices could have been almost anything.

On the more tame side of things were these totally non-spicy meatballs which my brother, accustomed to student food, loved!

We did a lot of walking in Chengdu looking for various places and came across an operatic performance taking place in the corner of a construction site. All the workers had downed tools and were watching with rapt attention.

While I have seen more than my fair share of temples in Asia, Qingyang Gong Taoist Temple (青羊宫) was a pleasant place to take a stroll on a lazy afternoon in the chilly autumn air. The grounds are extensive and contain six halls on a central axis.

According to legend, Qing Yang Gong was said to be the birth place of the founder of Taoism, Lao Tsu, although I’m fairly sure I’ve visited other temples claiming the same thing…

Tune in next time for the highlight of Chengdu; some very cute pandas!

Related posts you might like:

1. Wenshu Temple in Chengdu
2. Deadly Bus Fires in Chengdu & Shenzhen
3. Chengdu Panda Research Base

One of the village elders had a dream that the python was the son of the wrathful Dragon King and the only way to rid the neighbourhood of plague was to parade a mock serpent covered in incense sticks through the streets. This they did and, accompanied by drummers and firecrackers, they danced for three days and three nights.

Seemingly miraculously the plague disappeared, possibly disinfected by the sulphur in the fire crackers. Every year since then the residents of Tai Hang (today situated between the busier districts of Tin Hau and Causeway Bay) have performed the Fire Dragon Dance for three nights during the Mid-Autumn Festival in memory of the incident.

This year I went along on warm sunday evening to see for myself and I managed to capture a bit of the action on the video above (HD version available on Vimeo).

To get a good view you’ll have to arrive pretty early since it gets extraordinarily crowded. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people wielding digital cameras before! In a way this rather spoils it but at the same time the volume of people adds to the atmosphere.

Once the dragon has paraded through the main street it careers down some of the narrower side-streets from where you’re more likely to get a closer view – although get too close and you may end up with face full of burning incense. Sadly my shots were pretty blurry but you can see a better gallery on CNNGo.

Drummers also make up a large part of the festival procession providing a continuous beat for the dragon to wind its way in and out of people holding up decorative banners and signs.

The Fire Dragon is altogether 220 feet long with its body divided into 32 segments and the dancers take it in turns to hold it up. Controlling the heavy head and tail requires much strength so only the most experienced participants are allowed to wield it, the former weighing around 70 kilos alone. Getting burnt is apparently part of the fun!

In nearby Victoria Park at the Lee Kum Kee Lantern Wonderland there was also a Guinness World Record attempt with a lantern that measures 37 meters long and 14 meters wide. Shaped like a fish it pulsated with different lighting patterns - novel but a bit tasteless in my opinion…

Related posts you might like:

1. Yuen Long Tin Hau Parade

Despite being only a matter of ten minutes apart by MTR train the communities on either side couldn’t be further apart psychologically and it’s not unusual that people on either side of the harbour rarely cross over. I once met an expat who told me the only reason he ever leaves Central is to go to the airport – Hong Kong Island is to Manhattan, as Kowloon is to The Bronx.

While cramped living conditions generally persist on both sides due to the constrained land space, buildings on the Kowloon side often appear to be in a constant state of urban decay with the effects becoming more clearly visible the further north you head.

All the photos here were taken around Sham Shui Po (深水埗) which is in northwest Kowloon. Much of the housing stock here consists of public housing estates built in the 1960′s (after a massive fire in 1953) and a few even older Chinese Tong Lau (唐樓) tenement buildings.

During the 1980′s mainland China’s reform and opening up led to the decline of the textile industry in Hong Kong and the area became notorious for its poor living conditions which included caged bed-spaces and wood-plank divided apartment cubicles. There were also racial tensions between local residents and Vietnamese refugees.

Today Sham Shui Po is best known for its markets and in particular The Golden Shopping Centre where the upper floor, Golden Computer Centre (高登電腦中心), mainly sells games and software, while the lower floor, Golden Computer Arcade (黃金電腦商場) focuses on the sales of computer hardware. Think of it as Hong Kong’s answer to Akihabara in Tokyo.

The are a number of urban renewal projects taking place in the area funded both publicly and privately including The Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC) which was converted from a former factory building (opened in 2008). It’s situated right next to Shek Kip Mei Estate (石硤尾邨) which was the first of its kind and currently undergoing regeneration also.

In addition to studio space for artists, the centre features a theatre, galleries and communal workshops for resident artists and the community to use. Members of the public are free to wander around inside and it’s a nice space to get away from the hustle and bustle of the crowds in the nearby markets.

Since moving to Hong Kong I’ve visited Sham Shui Po on numerous occasions, often for great dim sum at the weekends, but have become increasingly fascinated by the sights and sounds of the area which provide a glimpse into another side of the city.

If you’re looking for a break from the uniformity and homogeneity of the many modern shopping malls in Hong Kong then Sham Shui Po is well worth a visit. Even though the area is undergoing renewal you can still find a slice of life here which quietly persists much the same way it has for decades. SSP is easily accessible via the Tsuen Wan Line, just 15 minutes from Central.

Related posts you might like:

1. Lok Fu Part 1 – Kowloon Walled City
2. Hong Kong Wetland Park
3. Hong Kong Accelerate

Shikumen literally means “stone gate” in reference to the stone archways that stand at the end of each alleyway, known as a nòng-tang (弄堂). From above the deep ravines between the tightly clustered two or three-story houses sharply stand out in contrast to the more modern developments which surround it.

Shikumen emerged in the 1860′s and were a byproduct of both Chinese and Western sensibilities, being similar in design to Anglo-American terraces or townhouses, but distinguished by heavy red brick walls protecting an inner courtyard from looting and burglars (rife during the Taiping rebellion).

With the exception of electricity and air conditioning little has changed about these traditional residences which are inhabited by a community of mostly older locals who have probably been there most of their lives. Facilities are basic by todays standards meaning that younger generations have left to live in more modern apartments.

The few remaining children to be seen are being looked after by their grandparents as is still the tradition in China for families where both parents usually work. Conditions are cramped but not unsanitary.

While most of the buildings are in a state of considerable decay, lines of washing hung high between buildings down each alley make the area feel far more alive than most of the stale generic high-rise apartments which the majority of Shanghainese live in today.

While living standards may have risen dramatically over the past 30 years for many in China, you can’t help but feel the sense of community a place like this created has been lost. Knowing your neighbours has become something of a rarity.

One of the things I liked the most was the amount of vegetation which was growing freely within the streets. Unlike other places in China the inhabitants were clearly taking some pride in keeping the area clean despite it’s age.

At their height of popularity over 60% of Shanghai’s housing stock consisted of Shikumen style residences, but today those which survive are rapidly being demolished or turned into fashionable restaurants, bars, and boutiques like in Xintiandi (新天地) and Taikang Lu (泰康路) which I visited last year.

Both outcomes displace the original residents which is a great shame but seemingly unavoidable.

I would loved to have been able to meet the owners and hear their stories but I had already invaded their privacy enough and sadly the language barrier would have prevented this. In such a tight-nit community anyone wandering around with a camera tends to stick out!

This particular Shikumen is known as Hongfu Li (洪福里) and can be found on Wuzhou Road (behind 1933 Shanghai). Go visit it soon as with all the encroaching development I fear it may not survive much longer. Below is a short video I took wandering through one of the alleyways:

Related posts you might like:

1. 1933 Shanghai Slaughterhouse
2. Shanghai Jinmao Tower
3. Shanghai in Motion

The short video was taken to the south of Jeonju Hanok Village that I was visiting for the second time after my inaugural visit the year before. While going somewhere again is never quite as special as the first time there are always new things to discover if you get away from the more popular areas and allow yourself to get lost.

Another enjoyable moment came when I was invited into a hanok (traditional Korean house) which had recently been reconstructed after being relocated from another part of the country due to some turbulent history in Korea’s colonial past (I’m not entirely sure of the exact story).

The proprietor was very generous in going out of his way to show me around – often by merely indicating your interest in something beyond a superficial level you will get a far more valuable experience than simply turning up, taking a few pictures and leaving again.

I was struck by the beauty of both the buildings simplicity and the craftsmanship which had gone into its construction, primarily out of wood for the frame, hanji (Korean paper) for the doors, and iron fixtures holding things together. There was a main house for the owner, an outhouse for guests, and a large hall where students could be lectured.

Since the rooms in a hanok are often multipurpose the thin mattresses for sleeping on are folded away each day. The ones here were made of elaborately pattered silk indicating the high status of the original owner.

During the colonial era (1910 – 1945), there was a systematic attempt by the Japanese government to destroy traditional Korean architecture. One of the ways in which the Korean people resisted the Japanese Nationalist Agenda was to build traditional Korean homes and the houses in Jeonju Hanok Village are a particularly notable example of this.

It’s good to see the building of traditional houses in Korea continuing today although how much this about preserving tradition vs. attracting tourism is debatable.

Related posts you might like:

1. Jeonju Photo Walk – Part 1
2. Hakindang Hanok Guest House (학인당)
3. Jeonju Photo Walk – Part 2