Songwoldong Donghwa Village is literally “donghwa,” a fairy-tales town. The whole town is full of themes from fairy-tales. A big rainbow-board reads “Songwoldong Donghwa Village” welcomes visitors at the entrance. Take the left-side alley, where the village begins. Numerous main characters in fairy tales are waiting you in murals, sculptures, and photo zones. While walking through the village recalling the titles, main characters, and story-lines, visitors are fascinated by the village.It is natural for you lost the track of time.
There are photo zones here and there, but it is safe to say that the whole village is a big photo zone. Cute figures in various colors fill the town.
Visitors usually return to their childhoods by the characters in fairy talesThe Wizard of OZ, Little Red Riding Hood, the Snow White, Cinderella, the Sleeping Beauty, Frog Prince, Arabian Night, Byeoljubujeon – a tale of rabbit and turtle, an Old Man with a Lump, the Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and more. One day is not long enough, if you want to take pictures with all the main characters.
Shops are attracting you. All stores in the villageprovoke visitors’ curiosity with their own concepts.
You can take a rest at cafes or restaurants refreshing yourselves for further exploration.
One of the recommendations is “Trick Art Story,” where the characters look like real. It exhibits various works: vivid and life-like pictures in special paints, optical illusion zones, motion recognition pictures, mirror maze, black art, etc.
They began to call the town Songwoldong, where they could see the moon through thick pine-tree woods. Since the opening of Incheon Port in 1883, many foreigners started to reside. The town became a rich village. Yet over the last few decades, the young left the town. Empty houses are neglected and the village lost its energy.The community pushed forward urban regeneration projects, which led to the birth of Donghwa village in 2014.
Going Back to the childhood in the town would make you excited in spite of yourself. But there is one thing to be sure: this is a neighborhood where people are living.
Visitors should be considerate of residents who organized the village and invited the public. This should be the place where the generations to come take a trip out of daily life, as we do today.
Incheon’s China-town is very near. It would be nice to put the town in your itinerary.
The street of an open port, Sinpo Market, and Jayu (Freedom) Park can be included in one-day trip schedule.
Information on Trick Art Story.
Admission fee: adults 6000 won, teenagers 4000 won, children 3000 won. Residents of Jung-gu receive a 50% discount.
Operation: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. always open
[Source: Incheon itour Homepage]
