Gunsan Inner Port Railroad with Historic Roots to Be Revived as Tourist Attraction

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In the inner port of Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do, lies a railway that has shared the modern and contemporary history of the city. Industrial heritage sites remain intact around the railway, holding significant historical value to the extent that it has been designated a National Registered Cultural Heritage. The city of Gunsan is now pushing forward with plans to restore this railway and link it with surrounding modern industrial heritage to utilize it as a tourism resource.

Here is a report by Kim Jin-hyung from JTV.

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The Gunsan Inner Port Railroad was built during the Japanese colonial period.

Constructed by the Japanese colonial authorities to exploit rice from the Honam Plain and connect it to Gunsan Port, the railway fully embodies a painful history of exploitation.

Entering the modern and contemporary eras, it connected ports and factories, supporting Gunsan's logistics and industry.

However, after trains stopped running in 2007, only rusted tracks remain today.

In recognition of its historical value of holding Gunsan's modern and contemporary history for a century, it was designated a National Registered Cultural Heritage in 2018.

Around the railway, where time seems to have stopped, modern architectural structures showcasing Gunsan's past 100 years remain.

From the floating docks once used to load rice, to a flour company warehouse built in the 1930s, and storage tanks of a chemical company retaining traces of the industrialization era, Gunsan's history spanning from the era of exploitation to the age of industrialization is layered thickly along the railway.

The city of Gunsan is pursuing a plan to revive the inner port area as a historical and cultural space by connecting the century-old abandoned railway with nearby architecture.

The city plans to finalize the specific restoration scope and utilization methods for the railway through a study by next year.

[Seol Jung-hwan / Head of Cultural Heritage Facilities Division, Gunsan City: The history of overcoming the Japanese colonial period is hidden here, and along with that, changes in the lives of residents in the old downtown area will also be connected to make the flow of history known through the study.]

The Gyeongam-dong Railroad Village in Gunsan is also cited as a representative tourist attraction utilizing a railway.

While the Gyeongam-dong Railroad Village is a living tourism site where the railroad and residents' lives blend together, the inner port railroad can be differentiated as a historical and cultural tourism destination that showcases Gunsan's history along ports, modern architecture, and industrial heritage.

Once the railway is restored, it is expected to create a railway tourism resource of a different form from the Gyeongam-dong Railroad Village, emerging as Gunsan's new modern and contemporary tourist attraction.

(Video Journalist: Lee Sung-min, JTV)

Kim Jin-hyung, JTV
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.