Cheongchun Balsan Village

On the slope west of the Gwangjucheon stream, Balsan Village, with its tiny houses packed tightly together, was home in the 1970s and 1980s to young women who worked in the city's textile mills. When the factories closed, houses fell empty, until from 2015 the village was repainted, young people moved in, and it gained the name Cheongchun ("youth") Balsan Village. It is often cited as a model of urban regeneration that chose preservation over demolition.

From refugee hillside to mill workers' village

Balsan Village began after the Korean War, when refugees built houses on this hill. In the 1970s the Ilshin and Chonnam spinning mills opened across the Gwangjucheon, drawing young people from all over the country, and many of the mill girls shared small rooms on this slope. After the 1990s the textile industry declined, the factory workers left, and the village became a quiet place of empty houses and elderly residents.

The colours that woke the village up

When the project began, the area had 2,232 households, 740 of them single-person households, 28 empty houses, and roughly four in ten residents classed as vulnerable. In 2015 Hyundai Motor Group, the Seo-gu district office and the social enterprise Public Art Prism launched a regeneration project built around "design, people and culture" that set out to revive the village rather than tear it down. The first step was a colour art project that painted the whole village, after which young entrepreneurs and artists moved into empty houses and opened workshops, cafés and activity spaces together with residents. The project won the top prize in the urban regeneration category of the Korea Brand Awards in 2018. Today the Cheongchun Balsan Cooperative, run by young newcomers together with residents, organises activities and events, and in spring 2025 it ran a "season" programme of hands-on activities in the old lanes every Friday to Sunday.

What to look for in the lanes

• 108 Steps: a staircase climbing from the bottom of the village up the hill, and the village's best-known sight.
• Cheongchun Village: the visitor centre and meeting point for residents and visitors, where you can pick up a map and information on workshops.
• Ppongppong Bridge: the village's exhibition space.
• Yang Hak-seon's birthplace and mural: a house and mural linked to the gymnast Yang Hak-seon are among the village sights.
• J-Hope mural: fans come to find the mural of BTS member J-Hope, who is from Gwangju.
• Balsan Myeongdong mural street: murals line an old lane.

Tripto tips

• Getting there: the village is about 1 km as the crow flies from both Dolgogae and Yangdong Market stations on Gwangju Metro Line 1. Walking from Yangdong Market across a bridge over the Gwangjucheon lets you combine the two.
• Hours and fees: the village is open 24 hours and free. There is no dedicated car park, so use public transport. Workshops and seasonal events are listed on the Cheongchun Balsan Cooperative website.
• Time needed: 60–90 minutes to walk the 108 Steps and the lanes, about two hours with a café stop or a workshop.
• When to go: sunny days in spring and autumn are best for walking. With so many slopes and steps, midsummer afternoons are tiring.
• Etiquette: people still live here. Keep your voice down outside houses and do not photograph into windows or yards.
• Combine it with: have lunch at Yangdong Market across the Gwangjucheon, then walk over to the village for a half day in Gwangju's western old town.