One of the places I was excited to visit in Seoul was the Ihwa Mural Village. However, when I got there, I was disappointed. I had imagined a place where the walls were covered with art. There were murals around, but much less than I had anticipated and many of them were in bad shape, worn away by weather. Perhaps the locals purposely let the murals waste away, as they brought a stream of loud, unwanted tourists to their quiet neighborhood.
Instead, if you’re going to Jeonju, I would say skip Ihwa Mural Village, and come to the one in Jeonju instead: Jaman Mural Village.
Jaman was everything I thought Ihwa would be—lots of beautiful murals adorned the twisting walls of the little neighborhood. The murals were detailed, colorful, and well maintained. As a bonus, the slopes were less steep and there were less stairs to climb in general.
At the beginning, I ran into a kind Korean ahjussi (older male) who offered demanded my phone to take a photo of me. I think he found a very nice scene and wanted to share. However, as I could not speak any Korean beyond “Kamsahamnida” (thank you), and he didn’t seem to know any English, I spent a lot of time nodding and smiling as he rambled and gestured.
We walked together for a bit and he took a bunch of photos for me, before we arrived at the parking lot where he parked his car. Waving goodbye, he gestured me to continue my journey through the mural village.
I spent roughly an hour wandering through Jaman, mainly taking pictures of the murals, but occasionally wrestling with my mini tripod to take a photo of myself. It was fun getting lost in the twisting passageways and finding surprising and beautiful murals around each corner. I’m not sure if I missed some murals, since I didn’t see some murals I found on other blogs, or the murals get repainted on a regular basis. I think the latter may be true because a lot of the murals were in pretty good shape, especially compared to Ihwa mural village. There were also some murals that looked slightly different from other photos I’ve seen, like the Spirited Away one above.
If you’re in Jeonju and have even 30 minutes to spare, I definitely recommend stopping by and checking out the murals here! Remember to do so quietly and to be respectful of the actual residents of the village.
Jaman mural village also provides a nice view of the hanok village!
Also, don’t limit yourself to the mural village. There are lots of pretty street art around the hanok village!
PloddingPanda 