hankyoreh

Ojuk hanok village

A village of traditional Korean houses, called hanok, was opened on Dec. 7 near Ojukheon in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, the scheduled host city for ice sports at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Built during the reign of King Jungjong of the Joseon dynasty, Ojukheon is a hanok that was the birthplace of Sin Saimdang (1504-1551) and her son Yi Yi (1536-1584). In its yard is a thick forest of black bamboo, known in Korean as ojuk. With son Yi featured on the 5,000-won bill and mother Sin on the 50,000-won bill, Ojukheon is the birthplace of the world‘s first mother-son pair each featured on banknotes.

Built on a 14,000 square meter site at a cost of 8 billion won (US$6.9 million), the Ojuk hanok village has 19 units and 32 rooms in a new style adapted to address heating and noise issues that have traditionally been drawbacks of hanok structures. The project received 3.5 billion won (US$3 million) in government support after being selected in Aug. 2014 as part of South Korea’s first competition for building a certified “new hanok” complex. While the houses include state-of-the-art technology with internet and card systems for each room, heating is still generated through the traditional method of warming the floor with oak firewood. The new units also retain the hanok style‘s unique spatial characteristics, including the daecheong (main hall), toenmaru (outer porch), numaru (loft), and gambrel roof.

As of Dec. 30, operation of the Ojuk hanok village is to be entrusted to the Gangneung Tourism Development Corporation, with reservations available on site and online. An additional hanok village with 14 units and 20 rooms is also scheduled to be built nearby by October 2017, at a cost of 5.1 billion won (US$4.4 million).

“Once all 33 hanok village units have been built near Ojukheon, they will be a great tourism resource for sharing Korean culture with domestic and foreign tourists visiting Gangneung for the Olympics,” said Gangneung City Hall urban renewal officer Choi Jae-yong.

which opened on Dec. 7 near Ojukheon in Gangneung

By Park Soo-hyuk, Gangwon correspondent

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