The Coolest Culture Space In Korea Is In A Cave In Gwangmyeong
In the summer we were studying rocks and lava and decided to take a field trip south to Gwangmyeong Cave, or Gwangmyeongdonggul, (광명동굴). When Seoul starts to get too hot and humid to bear, take a trip here. The interior of the cave has a dramatic temperature difference from the outside and you can fill it literally as soon as you take one step in the entrance. Visiting is a really cool thing to do near Seoul… literally. Once a mine, today, it is the largest themed cave park in Korea.
Plan your visit to Gwangmyeong Cave:
- How To Get There
- Basic Info
- What To Know
- What To Prepare
- What To See
- Why Gwangmyeong Cave Is A Must See
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How To Get There
Address: 142 Gahak-ro 85beon-gil, Gwangmyeong-si, Gyeonggi-do (경기도 광명시 가학로85번길 142 (가학동))
By Public Transportation: Go to Gwangmyeong Station and outside of exit 8, take bus 17 or 77 which will take you directly to the Gwangmyeong Cave site in about 15 minutes. Get off when you see the signs.
Basic Info
Admission: Adults: W6,000; Children: W2,000
- Discounted Tickets: If you are a Coupang user, you can usually get discounted tickets to Gwangmyeong Cave.
Days: Closed Mondays, Chuseok, and Lunar New Year
Hours: 9:00am ~ 6:00pm
Website: http://www.gm.go.kr/
What To Know
Gwangmyeong Cave was opened to the public in 2011 but prior to that was the Siheung Mine which was established in 1912. Siheung Mine was the largest metal mine in the metropolitan area and produced almost 100 tonnes of gold, silver, bronze, zinc, and other minerals every month for 60 years.
During the Korean War, the mine was used as a shelter for residents. In 1972, the mine was closed and it stayed closed for 40 years due to environmental issues with flooding. Interestingly, during that time it also acted as a storage space for salted shrimp that came in from the Sorae Port.
Finally in 2011, the city of Gwangmyeong took over and transformed the cave into a theme park of sorts that is meant to showcase the industrial heritage of the cave and the fun and culture of the area. Oh, and just for kicks, experts say that there is most definitely still a large amount of gold still in the cave that has yet to be discovered.
What To Prepare
A Jacket: No matter what season it is, take a coat/jacket. The cave maintains a temperature around 12-13 degrees Celsius throughout the year. You’ll feel it as soon as you get through the entrance. Even if you think it’s super hot in the summer and you’ll be fine… trust me, you won’t. Take a jacket or you’ll be sorry.
Safety Information
- Do not arbitrarily enter a restricted area in the cave.
- Do not smoke in the cave.
- You are not allowed to bring food in the cave.
- You are not allowed to bring pets.
- Strollers are not allowed in the cave, check in your stroller at the entrance in order to enter.
- Hiking poles need to be folded and placed in your bag in order to enter the cave.
- If a sudden blackout occurs while on the tour, please remain calm and exit by following the directional signage under the guidance of staff or guide personnel.
- The average yearly temperature inside the cave is 12 degrees, and the humidity is 60 ~ 99%. Please be aware for those visitors who are sensitive to rapid change of temperature and humidity.
What To See
Treasure Exploration Space
One of the coolest and newest additions to the Gwangmyeong Cave area is actually outside of the cave. Now, this is isn’t so cool if you don’t have kids, but super cool if you do. Basically, it’s a giant space of experiences for the kids that you brought along so they can learn a bit more about caves, sift for gems, and find bones.
There’s a fork lift that kids can jump into and try. There is a giant pit of sand and they can sift through it to find gems. There’s also another sifting station and then a lot of beautiful gems and stones to see.
There is a lot of information in here. It made for a great and educational addition to the cave. We started with this which was probably good and if you have kids, you probably should too. By the time we got out of the cave, everyone was ready for a sit down and rest.
Wormhole Square
This is the first thing you’ll see when you get down into the cave after walking down the Wind Road, which is basically the entrance where you feel that first chill of cold air that is coming up through the cave tunnels. Once through the Wind Road, you come to a sort of fork in the road which is Wormhole Square. I say fork, but you will be directed to a certain direction and not to worry, you’ll end up back here when you circle back around but come out of a different tunnel. The halls to various parts of the cave intersect here.
Light Space
What you most often see in photos from visitors to Gwangmyeong Cave is this part where there are lots of colorful lights which I didn’t really capture so well as we were far too excited to see what we could see.
Not only are there twinkling lights that decorate the interior of the tunnel to create a tunnel of lights basically, there are also some pretty cool light up creatures to see. It’s a bit like stepping into the darkest depths of the ocean and finding those creatures that have to create their own light in the dark dark ocean where there is no light from the sun. If you’ve got kids who liked Finding Nemo, they will probably like that bit.
Cave Underground World
The underground passages that you walk through where the miners once carried the mined ore are mostly lit though some parts are a bit dark. Watch your head. There are little representations of how the miner’s worked and what they did.
Cave Arts Center
This might be the largest/tallest part of the cave. You can look up pretty high on the walls here and this is where there are various performances and concerts or light shows. There are seats in this section though when we visited, due to Covid, we couldn’t sit in the chairs but stood on various squares that were spaced out for more social distancing.
Once the light show began, everyone in the room looked up with amazement. It was a pretty awesome lights and laser show. The light show seems to change based on photos I’ve seen, but when we went, we saw man creating fire and then that became city lights which shot up into the dark sky where the stars were that turned into the constellations. It’s not long, maybe 10 minutes or less but just enough time to stand still with a kid. The Cave Arts Center is the first of its kind in Korea and has held a number of fashion, culture, and music events. Hopefully, they can host them again soon. The entire space is quite impressive.
Cave Underground Lake
This is deep, far… down… into the cave. We were walking down down down and I mentioned how we had to think about coming back up and both my husband and daughter flipped around quickly and realized they didn’t think of that. You go down pretty deep and the steps are big so be prepared for that hike back up. I actually carried my daughter on my back for part of the way back up though I wouldn’t recommend that. It’s deep, but there’s so much to see on the way down and up that you stop enough and don’t notice it as much.
Golden Road
So if you’re looking for some of that gold that is still in the cave, then this is the spot for you… kind of. The Golden Road, also known as the ‘Long Life, Happiness and Peace Road’ will bring you health and happiness because of the anion effects, so they say.
This golden section gleams and there’s a giant golden supernova where you can make a wish. The Supernova of Wishes is made up of 4,219 golden plaques with each containing a wish written by a visitor from 2015. You can even write you own wish on a golden plaque.
Cave Based Aqua World
I wouldn’t say there’s anything particularly fantastic about this random little aquarium down in the cave except that our daughter quite liked the fishy surprise. They are quite proud of the fact that it is the country’s first aquarium in a cave and they have goldfish. It was a fun quirky little stop near the end of the whole adventure into the dark depths.
Wine Cave
If you have time to sit and sip, there’s a section of the cave with 170 types of wine from all around South Korea. There are wine tastings every Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4:00pm. We didn’t stop into this section but if you like drinking wine in a very cold place, then definitely take the time. They also have coffee, juice, and tea too for you too so take a gander.
Why Gwangmyeong Cave Is A Must See
The massive cave is not only a piece of history but it’s a space that has been regenerated into a culture and entertainment space for the general public and that is always awesome to see. Much like B39, previously a trash compacting station now culture space, or the Peace Culture Bunker, used for wartimes but now for the public, this is a place where history and present collide for the better.
The cave was named one of the “Stars of Korean Tourism in 2017” and “100 Destinations for Korean Visitors for 2017-2020” by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization. It’s awesome and if you get lucky, you can have most of it to yourself like we did.
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