Gunsan on a Monday: Scenes That Grow Clearer When the Museums Close

Travelers who avoid the weekend crowds and come to Gunsan on a Monday morning are first dismayed by museum doors shut tight. Most major exhibition facilities close regularly on Mondays. They include the Gunsan Modern History Museum, Gunsan Modern Architecture Museum, Gunsan Modern Art Museum (Former Japanese 18th Bank Gunsan Branch), Honam Customs Museum, the Chae Man-sik Literary Museum and the Japanese-style House in Sinheung-dong, Gunsan.

But if you know this data in advance and redesign your route, Monday becomes the most comfortable day in Gunsan. You can have alley sights that usually draw long lines, and lake and island courses with crowded parking lots, almost to yourself.

Chowon Photo Studio on Guyeong 2-gil is a good starting point on Monday morning. This small wooden photo studio is a restored filming location of the film Christmas in August. It opens at 09:00 all year round, Mondays included, and admission is free.

A walk of a little over 10 minutes from Chowon Photo Studio brings you to Dongguksa Temple, which is open all year. After looking around the quiet main hall courtyard and the giant bamboo grove, head to Haemanggul Tunnel, the semicircular tunnel below Wolmyeongsan Mountain that links Jungang-ro and Haemang-dong. Haemanggul Tunnel, opened in 1926, is 131 m long and 4.5 m high. It is also an outdoor modern heritage site that is always open, where you can see up close the modern design of both entrances and bullet marks from the Korean War.

After lunch, head to Gyeongam-dong Railroad Village on the east side of the old downtown. This village grew up around a 2.5 km railway laid in 1944 to link the Paper Korea factory and Gunsan Station. It is an outdoor walking path that is always open. On weekends the tracks fill with people taking photos, but on Monday afternoons you can stroll at leisure along the narrow rails between facing shacks.

At sunset, Eunpa Lake Park Mulbit Bridge awaits on the west side of the city. The park was built around a reservoir once called Jungdong Lake. The pedestrian suspension bridge across its middle is 370 m long and 3 m wide and is open at all times, all year. The sculpture on the plaza at the bridge's end and the waterside path are good spots for watching the calm lake at sunset.

If you want to add sea views to a half-day walk in the old downtown, the clear answer is to take the Gogunsan Connecting Road into Seonyudo Island. Linked to the mainland by bridge, Seonyudo Island is always open, whatever the day or hour.

On weekdays especially, you can travel without traffic jams past the fine sand of Seonyudo Beach, the rocky cliffs of Mangjubong Peak and the coastal path leading to Seonyu Bridge and Jangjagyo Bridge. In a paradox, Monday, when the museums rest, is the day Gunsan's alleys, lakes and West Sea islands open their arms widest.