Sansok Lighthouse Is The Cool Spot To Find Near Jeonju, Korea
Around Korea there are more and more culture and arts spaces that are being opened after older factories and industrial spaces that were once abandoned, are renovated. These spaces are always intriguing to me and I will always search them out because seeing how places and spaces that were used to treat waste maybe, or store oil, or house military personnel that have been converted are so cool.
Most recently, we visited Sansok Lighthouse (산속등대), a cool culture and arts space just outside of Jeonju, Korea. Whereas Jeonju is very much a historical city where tourists head to find the Jeonju Hanok Village there, this is a very cool industrial and modern space that can and should be visited on the same trip south.
Feel free to skip around to get all of the details:
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How To Get There
Address: 82 Wonam-ro, Soyang-myeon, Wanju-gun, Jeollabuk-do (전북 완주군 소양면 원암로 82)
By Public Transportation: Take a KTX train from Yongsan train station to Jeonju Train Station. Outside of the station, hop on to bus 806 which will take about 20 minutes and travel 17 stops.
Other buses that drop off here include: 806, 807, 814, 817, 834, 839, 866, 871, and 872. Just get off at the stop of the same name as the complex.
Basic Information
Hours: Every day: 10:00am ~ 9:00pm
Website: https://www.sansoklighthouse.co.kr/
Sansok Lighthouse (산속등대) was a paper manufacturing site but had been neglected for 40 years until it was recreated into a culture and arts complex that was just opened in May of 2019. This is a trend in Korea and I, for one, am always enthusiastic to see how old spaces are made new again. If you like how old factories or waste spaces are being transformed into culture spaces and museums, also look into:
- B39 in Bucheon
- The Oil Tank Culture Park
- Seonyudo Island in Seoul
- Camp Greaves
- Peace Culture Bunker
- Sewoon Market
What To See & Do
Find The Outdoor Installations
From the cafe, visitors will look out and at once be taken aback by the giant 33 meter long whale that sits on the lawn. The whale is actually a play space and you’re welcome to go inside the gargantuan creature and pretend you are Jonah, or maybe Pinnochio inside the whale.
The neglected wastewater treatment facility makes the perfect outdoor amphitheater. Sit down to rock the piano or dance around the stage in the industrial remnants.
The first thing visitors will probably see as they drive in and get out is the striking red lighthouse that is the central feature of the complex. This lighthouse sits next to a aquatic ecology pond just next to it and beside the lighthouse pond that features a single tree growing in the center.
As you walk around the grounds, also look out for the public telephone booths. Telephone booths that were used in the 80s have now been reborn as public telephone karaokes. Step inside, close the door and sing sing sing or if you just want to declare a message to the masses, pick up the phone inside and say how you feel to those in the outdoor space.
These pictures don’t even showcase all of the different outdoor spaces. You could spend quite a bit of time walking around the complex seeing remnants from the past and the new installations and how they work together with the natural surroundings.
Take The Kids To Amuse World
When we visited, unfortunately this space wasn’t open because of Covid but it looks pretty amazing if you’ve got little ones with you. Amuse World is a cultural playground where children and adolescents can have unique experiences to promote creativity, imagination and curiosity through play. There are various halls with experiences and you should reserve online through their website which is listed above.
In the lifestyle hall, children can visit the Media Hall or the Cooking Hall to make something delicious to eat or find the Block Village Hall to build their own fun lego world. In the entertainment zone, kids can make slime, make unique creations with 3D pens or have a VR experience.
There’s also a safety and sports area to learn about the 119 services or run, jump, and compete to win at various games. The science hall has a dinosaur fossil discovery experience, fiber optic flower making or soap making and finally the art hall, though really so many of the experience have already been quite creative, where kids can paint their own Matryoshka dolls, make cherry blossom frames, merry-go-rounds, pencil cases and more.
There’s really so so much to do if you have kids, so plan to spend some time there and don’t forget to register for the experiences before you go make sure there’s room for you because there are limited spaces for participants.
Notes:
- Children should be between the ages of 7 and 19 but children that are 5 or 6 can attend if they are accompanied by an older sibling.
- Admission: You can purchase tickets just for specific experiences if you want to do one and info is on their site for each, but there are Amuse World free passes to go in and do multiple experiences which are better if you want to do more. 2 hour passes are W28,000 and 4 hour passes are W40,000.
- You can come alone, however, experiences are only available if there are a minimum of 5 people signed up.
- Reservations are required a week in advance.
- If 5 people are in a group, you can get the 6th person FREE.
- The experiences are scheduled in blocks with the first time being from 10:00am ~ 12:00pm; the second from 12:00pm ~ 2:00pm; the third being from 2:00pm ~ 4:00pm; and the fourth slot being from 4:00pm ~ 6:00pm.
Look Around The Art Gallery
There’s also an art gallery on the grounds that you can walk inside to peruse the current exhibition. The building used to be a paper mill where 300 workers produced paper. The art gallery space wasn’t actually open when we visited but we were the only people in the entire complex when we stopped in, so we asked the barista if it was possible to check it out and he happily let us in. Take chances sometimes.
We enjoyed the artwork but there’s also more to the space that we didn’t see including a Mirror’s Room where lighting is maximized because of the numerous mirrors… wish we’d seen that, and there’s also a Black Room where black light has been used to showcase the many fluorescent scenes on the walls. Finally, there’s a White Room that uses CMYK lighting so that you can create your own shadows on the wall. All of these spaces are meant to be photo zones whereas the gallery itself is a space to enjoy the artworks without touching, etc.
Where To Eat
Seunseun Cafe
Inside one of the buildings on the complex is a pretty massive cafe where the industrial vibes of the once-factory have been softened with cozy seats and wooden accents. There’s hand drop coffee, waffles with ice cream, and plenty of space to spread out and take a rest while enjoying the classical music that plays overhead.
- Hours: 10:00am ~ 7:00pm
Though the spaces weren’t completely open when we visited on a recent roadtrip to Jeolla, we absolutely enjoyed the stop. We walked around the outdoor installations, enjoyed some coffee and checked out the art. I would definitely go back when headed south again to visit the other spaces that are also in the complex because they sound just great for kids and very creative for adults as well.
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