Asia Culture Center and Yangnim-dong

Getting to the start

KTX from Yongsan to Gwangju Songjeong, then Gwangju Metro Line 1 to ACC Station. The exit connects straight into the centre's grounds, so you need not surface at all. The exhibitions are spread over several halls — pick up a map at the information desk first.

The route

1. 1

   Asia Culture Center

   ACC Station, Gwangju · 2h 30m

   A cultural complex built almost entirely underground, leaving the surface as parkland. Several halls handle art, performance and media from across Asia, with free zones mixed in among ticketed shows. The old South Jeolla provincial office, central to the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, is preserved on the site, so the history of the ground comes with the visit. The children's centre books separately.

   Official site →
2. Bus20m

   It is about thirty minutes on foot from the centre to Yangnim-dong, under twenty by bus. Walking, you simply follow the Gwangju stream south; the route is straightforward. Yangnim-dong itself is a hill, so expect more up and down once you arrive.

   2

   Yangnim-dong Historic Village

   Yangnim-dong, Gwangju · 2h

   A neighbourhood shaped in the early twentieth century by missionaries, who built Western houses, churches and schools here. Red brick from that period and hanok stand in the same lanes, and because the ground rises and falls the view changes at every corner. In the alley known as Penguin Village, residents have fixed collected household objects to the walls. People live here, so keep your voice down.

Map

• Asia Culture Center →
• Yangnim-dong Historic Village →

Good to do next

• Damyang Bamboo and MetasequoiaDamyang · Half day

  Loop through a bamboo grove, then walk an avenue of metasequoias that closes overhead. Both of Damyang's shades in one day.