DAEJEON DONG-GU DISTRICT

San 1, Dong-gu, Dae-dong, Daejeon is one of the most well-known shanty towns in Daejeon. Dae-dong, Dong-gu, Daejeon Metropolitan City

Dae-dong is a neighborhood within the city where almost 13,000 people reside. South of this neighborhood features a hill which circles the neighborhood like a folding screen. This hill bordering Yongun-dong of Dong-gu stands 120m~127m above sea level and about 500m of ridge connects the east and west.

The hilltop, at about 100~120m above sea level to the northwest, is a shanty town where people came to live after the Korean War and is currently home to about 40 households. This is San 1, Dong-gu, Dae-dong, Daejeon, which is one of the most well-known shanty towns in Daejeon. Here, old houses that were built 40~50 years ago sit right next to each other like matchboxes.

As you walk through the alleys of the shanty town, you start remembering the time when everyone was poor. Alleys that feel more familiar than the neat and cold city landscape. You can visualize the busy alley where children with yellow noses and dirty hands are playing. You start to think about the time when women walked with briquettes strung up in straw rope during the cold winter.

People lacked food and clothing in those times but it was a friendly time when neighbors split beans to share. A family covered themselves in a blanket as they try to get warm with a single briquette during the cold of winter in a single room, a poor but happy time. The term ‘Neighbor cousin’ was trending back then, with everyone knowing the family affairs of their neighbors as well as the number of spoons and chopsticks in their kitchens.

The shanty town at Dae-dong, which still carried the scenery from the 60s~70s when everyone was having difficulties, has been reborn into something new. It was designated for the ‘Contest for the Improvement of Isolated Areas’ conducted by the Public Art Promotion Committee under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2007 and an art program to paint murals and install sculptures with about 30 local artists along with neighborhood kids and adults took place.

Neighborhood residents have established the “No. 1 Cultural Space Promotion Committee’ to make the shanty town of Daejeon into the no. 1 cultural space of Daejeon afterwards and it won the first place in the “Third Public Contest for the 2008 Rainbow Project” conducted by the city of Daejeon. Its residents have been conducting the no. 1 cultural space project at the helm since 2009. You can see neatly decorated interiors of houses as you look around the neatly decorated murals on the exterior of the homes. You can see that the minds of the residents have become brighter and hopeful as the neighborhood atmosphere changed.

The shanty town of Daejeon is not a nickname that just sticks. It must have a view that looks down on the city view. When you climb up the hill of this neighborhood, you can see a 180 degree wide open city view from the edge of Gyejoksan Mountain to northeast to the skirt of Bomunsan Mountain to southwest. This was a hidden attraction of Dong-gu as it was a place where people could watch the whole city as it changes from afternoon to evening.

The project to turn the shanty town into a number one cultural space as residents desired continued to create a new attraction for Daejeon! In December 2009, 400 million won was invested to construct a park on the hill of the shanty town through the ‘Dae-dong Village Resting Place Project’. Benches and pavilions were constructed for people to rest and enjoy the view of the city along with convenience facilities and this place was named as Sky Park. The park was opened to the public and the shanty town of Dae-dong became a place of communication for citizens rather than an isolated area in the city.

Night view at the observatory of Dae-dong Sky Park, a mural village and theme cafe district

50, Ihwa-ro 35beon-gil, Dong-gu, Daejeon