Life on Tracks Where the Whistle Stopped: Memories of Gyeongam-dong Railroad Village and Impi Station

Step into the area around 14 Gyeongchon 4-gil and buildings hug the tracks so closely that two or three adults walking side by side fill the gap. This is Gyeongam-dong Railroad Village. It lies on a 2.5 km private spur line opened in 1944 to link Gunsan Station with the factory of Paper Korea (formerly Bukseon Paper Chemical Industry), a newsprint maker.

Around the 1970s, poor residents built shacks on the leftover land on both sides of the tracks and lived together. Whenever a train passed, a whistle blew and they gathered in laundry and household goods, a curious sight that continued until trains stopped in 2008. The tracks, also a filming location of the film Man in Love, are still open at all times, letting you walk on the sleepers and look into the texture of past daily life.

If the Gyeongam-dong tracks show a slice of urban industrialization, the Gunsan Impi Station Building at 2-5 Seowonseokgok-ro, Impi-myeon, east of the city, shows how the colonial rail network meshed with grain shipments from farming areas. Built around 1936, the small station building blends a Western-style small station structure with a Japanese-style interior. It is preserved as National Registered Heritage (No. 208).

Rarely among stations of the time, even its toilet building survives in its original form, which gives it high value in architectural history. It is open free of charge 10:00–18:00 (closed on Monday). Along the passenger car exhibition hall and Sisilli Square beside the station, you can slowly walk the settings of Chae Man-sik's novels.

To see where the Honam Plain rice brought in by train was controlled and managed, turn back to 43 Guyeong 2-gil in the old downtown. The Former Joseon Food Corporation Gunsan Branch Office is a 2-story reinforced concrete building with an L-shaped plan. It was the office of the agency that ran the forced requisition and rationing of rice after the Sino-Japanese War, during the colonial period.

The rounded corners of its outer walls and its vertical rows of windows clearly show the features of 1930s–1940s government buildings. It now opens its interior free of charge 10:00–17:00 (closed on Monday). It calmly walks you through the history of food control between the railway and the port.

To see all three in one day, a natural order is to start with the Former Joseon Food Corporation Gunsan Branch Office in the old downtown in the morning. Then drive 10 minutes to Gyeongam-dong Railroad Village and stroll along the flat tracks.

In the afternoon, head east to Impi-myeon and look around the quiet Gunsan Impi Station Building and the railcar exhibition hall for a calm afterglow different from the busy downtown sights. The former Joseon Food Corporation branch office and Impi Station close on Mondays, so plan your visit between Tuesday and Sunday.