Rewriting Gunsan's Old Town
Gunsan, in Korea's North Jeolla Province, is a city built by outsiders who gathered here. It retains a laid-back atmosphere where people draw in more people and find comfort in one another. Connections woven like threads fill the gaps that time has left in the city. Meet those who, leaning on these ties, are giving the old downtown a charming new look.
Words Ryu Sunwoo (@sunw_0.o)
Photos Shin Gyucheol (@cozy114)
Jazz Club
A New Nightlife Scene in the Old Town : Jazz Club Muddy
A traditional Korean health tonic shop shaded by a towering zelkova tree, red-brick buildings blanketed in ivy, nostalgic shop signs, and roads running straight in a grid. Yeonghwa-dong, Gunsan’s old downtown, was developed as a base for Japanese exploitation when the port opened in 1899. After liberation, the port and the U.S. military base kept it lively, but it slowly declined as the new city center developed. In 2025, a jazz club boldly opened its doors on a *street where vacant houses and shuttered shops had become increasingly common.
How has a small venue where music pours out at all hours changed the neighborhood’s nights? Take a seat at Jazz Club Muddy and experience a performance charged with the energy and sweat of live music, and you'll find your answer. Muddy distills the background of its owner, Song Seongjin, who studied jazz piano at the Seoul Jazz Academy and built up experience in concert planning. He books the musicians himself, and an important criterion is a distinct sound color rather than genre or name recognition. Another point of pride is the club's sound quality, said to be the only one in Korea capable of producing release-quality live recordings. Muddy's genuine dedication to music has quickly earned it a reputation across Korea's jazz scene.Evening performances are usually held from Thursday to Saturday, and the schedule is reportedly fully booked through the end of the year. The venue is intimate, so you can take in every expression on the musicians’ faces onstage. As the performance goes on, the rising heat bursts out all at once in applause and exclamations the moment the playing ends, It's the kind of moment that lingers in your memory of Gunsan long after the night is over.
*The Re/Turning Gunsan project, born of the hope that people would return to the old downtown, began here in 2019. After about five years of preparation, the site’s Japanese colonial-era brewery, lumber mill, and warehouses were reborn as a jazz club, restaurant, sushi bar, gelateria, café, bar, and hotel.
Interview with Song Seongjin, Owner of Jazz Club Muddy
Are you a Gunsan native?
My friends don’t count me as one. (Laughs) I went through middle school here, but I attended high school in Seoul. I loved music, so after graduating from a foreign language high school I went to Germany to study music, then crossed over to Venice, Italy, where I cooked. After coming back to Seoul, I opened an Italian restaurant 'The bar dopo' in front of the Seoul Arts Center and ran it for ten years. One day my hometown friends asked me down for a drink of soju, and in Gunsan I noticed a new building going up next to Eunpa Lake Park. I thought it would be perfect for outdoor concerts, so I signed a lease right away, moved back to Gunsan, and opened an Italian restaurant, Paradiso Perduto. That was in 2010. For 16 years now, I’ve held a 200-seat concert every spring and fall.
Why did you open a jazz club in Gunsan?
For a long time I kept asking myself, "Why is cultural infrastructure like jazz clubs so concentrated in Seoul in our country?" In Japan, even the countryside has clubs with shows every day. I really wanted to open a jazz club outside the capital, and ideally somewhere remote where hardly anyone passes. I always pictured a jazz club standing alone with its lights on, on a road without a single footprint on a snowy day. When I was scouring for a location seven years ago, this spot was exactly that.
I understand you led the Re/Turning Gunsan project, and Jazz Club Muddy is its starting point. What role do you hope this space will play in Gunsan going forward?
I think of the whole of Re/Turning Gunsan, Jazz Club Muddy included, as a playground. Good people gather in a good playground, and good relationships grow from there. These days there’s a lot of effort to find national-level solutions to prevent population extinction in the provinces, but I’m convinced that once a region has its own distinctive play culture, people will naturally gather.
In that context, how is the Re/Turning project going?
When we started the project, there were many vacant houses around here. I coaxed my friends, juniors, and acquaintances. I told them not to stay in Seoul but to come next to Re/Turning Gunsan and do the work they were already doing. Eight teams, which we call the 4 Friends group, are now with us. What’s funny is that I was the one who called them to Gunsan, and now those friends are coaxing others. (Laughs) The basis of urban regeneration is people calling people, and that’s exactly how it’s unfolding. It’s fun.
How have Gunsan residents responded?
Eighty percent of the people who come here are locals. They say there are people who’ve never been to Re/Turning Gunsan, but no one who has come only once. Some even say they now have a reason not to leave Gunsan. Since the project is called ‘Re/Turning’ Gunsan, hearing that makes me very happy.
What are Gunsan’s appeal and potential?
I believe Gunsan’s innate DNA is unlike that of any other region in Korea. A hundred years ago, Gunsan didn’t look the way it does today. In 1899 Japan designated this area as an open port and laid out an urban district over the sea and tidal flats in order to plunder rice. Labor was needed, so they gathered people not only from Jeolla, Gyeongsang, and Chungcheong but also from China, Incheon, and North Korea. After liberation, most of them didn’t leave but stayed in Gunsan. In other words, it became a hometown created by outsiders. To me, Gunsan people have greater cultural receptiveness than those in other cities, and they’re less hostile to outsiders. They’re open. After liberation, U.S. troops were stationed here and the Yeonghwa-dong area became a garrison zone. The music and fashion that came in through the American clubs had a big influence on this neighborhood. I think this cultural and historical background, unique to Gunsan, is more than enough to appeal to travelers.
What are your plans for the future?
I hope Muddy grows into a jazz club whose sound and performance level can stand up anywhere in the world. I want it to be both the starting point and the center that leads the city’s play culture. Right now, I’m focused on what the Re/Turning Gunsan project, which has only just taken its first steps, will need in order to last another hundred years.
Hotel
A Stay That Blends into the Neighborhood: Hotel Ingrid
Hotel Ingrid began welcoming travelers in earnest this April. Its rectangular, mustard-colored facade stretches along one side of the Ground Zone, the site of Returning Gunsan, and catches the eye from far away. Ingrid is built mostly from materials that grow more handsome with time. The exterior walls are finished in plaster, and the interiors use stone, wood and metal, so the marks of the years show naturally. The atrium on one side of the building is striking, too. A narrow skylight runs along the center of the ceiling. The architect fell in love with the feeling of rain and snow drifting into the building, so he boldly removed the glass that appeared in the original plans. Inside the guest rooms, the attention to detail extends to even the hinges on the shutters. Some rooms hang vintage chairs and paintings; others have bathrooms finished in the same red tiles as the Ground Zone’s walls. Every room is dressed differently, so there is a pleasure in discovering each one’s details. Rooms with balconies feel especially open thanks to their large windows. Step onto the balcony in the early morning, when the sunlight first appears, and you can watch the neighborhood slowly wake up. Ingrid is closer to a “horizontal hotel.” During your stay, you are free to use the many facilities of Returning Gunsan, including its restaurants, cafés, bars and clubs. Wander around the Ground Zone and your steps naturally lead into the alleys of Yeonghwa-dong. There, you can blend in seamlessly with faded signboards and the homey scenes of residents gathering in twos and threes to chat.
+ Nightlife at the Hotel, Bar Ingrid
This bar sits within the Ground Zone. It adjoins the jazz club Muddy, so you can drop in casually after a show, or while relaxing at the hotel, and spend an atmospheric night away from home. It looks brand new, but historical touches are hidden throughout. To preserve the frame of a Japanese colonial-era house built in 1922, the timber was dismantled and reassembled. The long, straight bar counter of solid wood is said to be made from a main beam of the former Bank of Chosen Gunsan branch, built the same year as the main building. Skilled bartenders mix classic and seasonal cocktails.
A Little Italy in Gunsan : Paradiso 90 & Pizzeria Del Campo
Leave the hotel, open the glass door of the building on the right side of the Ground Zone, and the clatter of tableware blends with the hum of conversation. Paradiso 90 is run by owner Song Seongjin together with the jazz club Muddy. Here you can taste Italian cuisine infused with more than 20 years of his cooking experience. Chef Ban Seokhyeon, who worked with him for 10 years at Paradiso Perduto in front of Eunpa Lake Park, joined to lead the kitchen. Popular dishes include the pastrami and brie sandwich on house-made ciabatta, an oil-based seafood pasta, and cicchetti sarde, a Venetian-style sardine bruschetta.
On the right side of the restaurant is Pizzeria Del Campo, whose kitchen is run by a longtime friend of Song’s. While preparing Returning Gunsan, Song urged Manager Son Jina, who ran the pizza restaurant Trevia in Itaewon, Seoul, to come to Gunsan. She closed the shop she had run for about 15 years and made a new nest here. Son’s nickname is “dough master” and “dough artisan,” a title that fits her background: she studied at the Italian culinary school ICIF, then at the Rome pizza school A Tavola con lo Chef. At Del Campo, the dough is the heart of the pizza. Using almost no yeast, the kitchen ferments the flour dough for 72 hours, producing pizza that is easy to digest and moist. You can taste three kinds of pizza, each with its own dough aging and baking method: the round Italian tonda, the Roman-style long, paddle-shaped pala, and the Milanese-style rectangular teglie. Wherever you take a seat, at Paradiso 90 or Pizzeria Del Campo, you can order from both menus at the same table.
Cultural Space
Where Time Begins to Move Again : Gunsan Hoegwan & Graphic Shop
Just beyond Yeonghwa-dong, in the neighboring district, others are seeking change too. A space open to everyone: that is how you might describe Gunsan Hoegwan in a single sentence. It welcomes all who come, from children to pets, without barriers. Its predecessor was the Gunsan Citizens’ Culture Center. Anyone from Gunsan has at least one photo taken in front of this building, and the place holds layer upon layer of the citizens’ memories. Since opening in 1989, it served as the city’s cultural hub, but it closed in 2013 because of the building’s age and the construction of the new Gunsan Arts Center. The change for this space, vacant for more than 10 years, began when the private company Connect Gunsan took over its operation. Without harming the architectural value of the building, the last work designed by architect Kim Chung-up while he was ill, the company added an elevator to improve access and transformed the atmosphere with cozy interiors. In August 2025, Gunsan Hoegwan returned to the citizens’ embrace.
Enter through the front entrance of Gunsan Hoegwan and you are greeted by a café run by Bean Brothers, the parent company of Connect Gunsan. Neoreun Hall lies at the back, and if you climb one floor up the spiral staircase, you reach the Graphic Shop and an open lounge. Neoreun Hall, originally a performance venue, is used for a variety of events. When nothing special is scheduled, it operates as a listening space, with beanbags placed on the stage for visitors to rest comfortably. Local events and programs, such as the Gunsan Book Fair and Toyojang (Saturday market), are also held here.
Gunsan Hoegwan also actively publishes works that capture Gunsan through fresh eyes, in partnership with local publishers, cultural planning companies, and other organizations. Graphic Shop is one of the places taking part. It is an art book store run by Kim Gwangcheol, head of the publisher Propaganda. It opened in 2023 across from Returning Gunsan and moved to Gunsan Hoegwan this March. The shop curates books on design, film, and art, with a focus on architecture. “From the moment I decided to come to Gunsan, I knew I wanted to run an art bookstore. It’s hard for this kind of bookstore to survive outside the capital region. Still, I thought it would be nice to have at least one. In terms of diversity, it’s better to have a bookstore with a different character.” Now in his fifth year since leaving Seoul for Gunsan, Kim says his local activities keep growing. He is helping, one thread at a time, to weave a cultural fabric this city didn’t have before. Beyond discovering and publishing local content, he has organized the Gunsan Chaekmunhwa Baljeonso (Gunsan Book Culture Power Plant), a network of local bookstores, and has hosted the Gunsan Book Fair since 2024.
@commonzfield_gunsan, @propaganda_publishers
Café
A Fresh Take on a Local Specialty : Boridang Cafe
Walk from Yeonghwa-dong toward Sinheung-dong, and low houses and buildings, none taller than two stories, line both sides of the road. Pass Hirotsu House, the best-known Japanese-style house in Sinheung-dong, and at the end of the alley you will come to the private-house stay Soseol Yeohaeng. Right next door is Boridang Cafe, opened by Heo Seunghui, who runs Soseol Yeohaeng. Born and raised in Daegu, she first set foot in Gunsan by following her aunt, an artist who majored in sculpture. Her aunt asked her to help run the stay, and she came with a light heart, only to fall for the neighborhood. Eight years later, she is still here. “I like that I can walk to bookstores and cafés, and shop at the neighborhood butcher or the market instead of a big supermarket. The people here share a similar vibe. Many of them aren’t greedy for much and find small pleasures in everyday life. The people my age who run shops are close, too. It’s a small city, but it’s colorful.” While preparing to start her own business, she noticed that guests at the stay were curious about Gunsan’s local specialties. That led her to launch Boridang, a brand built around white glutinous barley, and open Boridang Cafe. She makes a range of products, including barley coffee drip bags, blended tea bags, and Milk Barley, a milk tea base, while the café serves tea and coffee.
The signature drink is the barley coffee. Barley and coffee beans are roasted separately, then blended and hand-dripped. The barley milk tea is another drink you can find only here: it’s topped with white glutinous barley that turns chewy when cooked, and cold-brewed with assorted grains and persimmon leaf tea. The interior is small, with about five tables, but perhaps thanks to the eye of Heo, who majored in interior design, it is a cozy and comfortable place to rest for a while.
Bar
A Cocktail Bar That Gently Seeps into Your Senses: Haemoo
After sunset, reality and imagination, the familiar and the strange, blend together in Yeonghwa-dong. The cocktail bar Haemoo (Sea Fog) is a place where the blurry line between past and present grows even hazier. Low-flowing music, a scent that seems cut off from the outside world, lighting dim enough to hide your face. The moment you step into Haemoo, located inside Yeonghwa Town, it feels as if you have walked onto a cozy, quietly staged set. Yeonghwa-dong and Wolmyeong-dong have an unusually large number of cocktail bars because, after the Korean War, a commercial district catering to US soldiers formed in this area, and American-style pub culture still lingers. Young bartenders who trained under the older generation are carrying that culture on. Choi Yunseong, who runs Haemoo, drew on his experience working part-time at a cocktail bar during college and opened a bar of his own in 2019.
At Haemoo, you can order classic cocktails, as well as drinks that aren’t on the menu, made to your taste. Among the signature cocktails are Sagwanamu Podo Yeollyeotne (“The Apple Tree Bore Grapes”), which brings out the bright acidity of green apple and green grape, and Richigetta, which blends bittersweet notes with the aroma of lychee. Also popular is the Basil Smash, a fragrant basil-based drink topped with a glazed cherry tomato. The objects decorating every corner of the bar, including movie posters, photographs, LPs, and books, offer a glimpse of the owner’s tastes. Interested in music, he has invited singers to perform at the bar, and lately he has been studying perfumery with the idea of creating a signature scent for Haemoo. As you hold on to the end of the day and slowly empty your glass, the easygoing atmosphere of a Gunsan night seeps into your heart.
Interview with Choi Yunseong, Owner of Haemoo
Are you from Gunsan?
I’m not originally from Gunsan, but I moved here quite a while ago. I was born in Jangsu, Jeollabuk-do, and grew up walking through rice paddies and fields. In high school, I was determined to go to a city, but I didn’t have the courage to go to Seoul. There was a university in Gunsan I wanted to attend, so that’s how I came to this city. It’s my 17th year now. I majored in visual design in college. After graduating, I got a job and lived in another region for a short while, but I eventually came back to Gunsan.
What led you to open Haemoo?
Since I was young, I’ve wanted to create a space of my own. I signed the lease before I had any concrete plan. In college, I worked part-time at a cocktail bar for quite a long time. While thinking about what to do, I decided to draw on that experience and try making cocktails.
I’m curious about the meaning behind the name.
Haemoo means sea fog. When I first came to Gunsan, Yeonghwa-dong was a neighborhood where only elderly people lived. Apart from Leeseongdang, there were no well-known tourist attractions either. Back then, I often walked around Yeonghwa-dong on foggy days. That fog carried a really strong smell of the sea, salty and a little fishy. I grew up in the countryside near mountains, where fog on a mountain feels moist, clear, and refreshing. Gunsan’s fog feels fishy and clammy, and it hangs really thick. That fog suited the neighborhood’s lonely mood so well. I thought that if I ever had a space of my own, I would give it a name related to fog. Locals told me that the fog rises from the sea right next to Yeonghwa-dong and rolls inland, which is why it smells of salt.
What does a day at Haemoo look like?
I usually arrive right at opening time. These days, there are customers the moment we open, so I prepare in a bit of a rush. As Gunsan has become known as a good place to travel alone, more first-time visitors have been coming. Once I get busy, it’s suddenly 9 or 10 p.m. I’d love to make eye contact with customers and chat at a relaxed pace, but I’m so busy working that I lose track of time. After 11 p.m., people who run businesses nearby come in after closing. When familiar faces show up, I spend the rest of the night feeling more at ease.
What is life like in Gunsan?
There are still so many neighborhoods and alleyways I haven’t explored, so the city still feels new to me. Lots of great spaces have opened in Gunsan lately, which makes it even more fun and interesting. During the day, I often go to Trevia, which opened in Returning Gunsan. I also stop by Gunsan Hoegwan from time to time. The sound is good, so it’s a nice place to work calmly while listening to music. In August, I go to the Gunsan Book Fair. I used to be a designer, so I need to visit places like that to wake up my senses. (Laughs)
What kinds of cocktails can people try at Haemu?
There is a menu, but what’s on it are common cocktails that everyone knows. Honestly, I don’t really want people to order those. For guests who don’t know much about cocktails, I usually recommend something that isn’t on the menu. When I meet a demanding guest, I sometimes make an experimental cocktail, and those moments are actually more fun. Some people even ask, “Make me a cocktail that captures how I felt traveling around Gunsan.” (Laughs)
What are you most interested in these days?
I’ve been traveling back and forth to Seoul to take a perfumery class. Gunsan is comfortable and a good place to live, but I wish it had more of that kind of infrastructure. I’d love to see more young people with a variety of professions come to Gunsan.
What would you like Haemoo to become?
I hope people will really indulge in the space itself. I’d like them to notice the details, like the music and scents I’ve chosen. And if you have a worry, something to celebrate, or something fun to share, come and talk to me.