Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village

Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village, or Songwol-dong Donghwa Village, is a themed area of Songwol-dong, Jung District, Incheon, South Korea.

Background
Originally an old village in Incheon, it was reorganized and decorated with the main characters and backgrounds from Korean traditional fairy tales and world famous fairy tales. In every alley of the residential area, backgrounds and characters from fairy tales are drawn,  murals and sculptures with characters from Korean traditional fairy tales and world famous fairy tales.If Jung-gu is a table, Donghwa Village can be said to be a sweet and sour ice cream. Songwol-dong was called Solgol or Songsan because there were many pine trees, but now it is called Songwol-dong because of the beauty of the moon seen through the pine forest. After the opening of Incheon Port in 1883, foreigners began to live there, forming a wealthy village. However, as young people left to settle and work in other regions like Seoul and elderly people lived in the village decades ago, the village lost its vitality and became stagnant, and empty houses were neglected.

In 2013, Songwol-dong Donghwa Village was born by installing sculptures and drawings of fairy tales on old walls and retaining walls. In order to improve this poor residential environment, a flower road was made, and the walls were painted with the theme of world-famous fairy tales to transform it into a fairy tale village. Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village was a result of a residential environment improvement project, also known as an urban regeneration project, in 2013. The entire village was colored, and sculptures were installed under the theme of world-famous fairy tales. A total of 11 themed roads were created, such as Dorothy Road, Little Red Riding Hood Road, and Traditional Fairy Tale Road. The village has become a tourist attraction that is constantly visited by tourists.

The heroine and other characters of the fairytale that had been sleeping in some part of the visitors' memory are brought back to life again in Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village. Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village is a village created around the theme of world-famous fairy tales. Passing through the big arched sculpture that says "Songwol-dong Fairytale Village" in Korean with vibrantly colored letters at the entrance, one can experience 11 themes, including Dorothy Road, Little Red Riding Hood Road, and Traditional Fairy Tale Road. The main characters of Beauty and the Beast are on the wall; Peter Pan is sitting on the bench; and the stairs of the rainbow, to name a few. For those who cannot make it to the village, they can visit the official Incheon website, which already provides virtual reality (VR) tours for all the themed alleyways, and Dongwha Village introduced augmented reality (AR) services to eight representative exhibits in January 2019.

Most of the houses and buildings are decorated like a fairy tale village. For example, the gas meter of a house is the body of the Tin Woodman in "The Wizard of Oz" at Cafe Oz. Unlike other mural villages, it is not flat but three-dimensional, and the telephone pole is the beanstalk in "Jack and the Beanstalk." Due to the active cooperation of the residents, a telephone pole was decorated with bean tree trunks to create a scene from Jack and the Beanstalk. Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village is decorated by recycling the facilities that local residents usually use as much as possible. and many more. The life of measuring gas usage is real, and the assimilation is unreal. The coexistence of unreality in reality, the nostalgic essence of childhood.

Unlike museums and theme parks, residents still reside in Songwol-dong and will continue to live there. It is a fairy tale village, so visitors are advised to keep this in mind, have fun, care about the lives of the residents, and not cause disturbance.

History
A small town in Jung-gu, Incheon, is named 'Songwol' because of the beautiful moon in harmony with the pine forest. Songwol-dong is located in Jung-gu, Incheon. Incheon was the third city in Korea to open a port. Its center is Jung-gu, which embraces Incheon Port. After 1883, the Jemulpo port, foreigners flocked to Korea and set up shop mainly in Jung-gu. Japan and the Qing Dynasty lived in Jungang-dong and Seonrin-dong, close to the port, and foreigners from the United States, Germany, France, and Britain gathered together in Songhak-dong and Songwol-dong, which leaned against Mount Eungbong. Songwol-dong prospered greatly at the time, this historical district was once a wealthy neighborhood frequented by foreign merchants in the late 19th century, with the opening of Incheon Port in 1883. The area, however, began to wane in the 1970s, as the regional economy collapsed. Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village was not a fairy tale world from the beginning. In Songwol-dong, which was mainly inhabited by foreigners after the opening of the port, only the elderly remained as young people fled to the surrounding areas of Incheon and Seoul in the 1970s. This is because young people left for newly developed cities around Incheon and Seoul. The underdeveloped village was revived as a fairy tale village through the residential environment improvement project of the Jung-gu Office in 2013 and has established itself as a new attraction in Incheon.

To revive the neighborhood, Incheon City embarked on an urban regeneration project in April 2013. With careful efforts not to damage the historic buildings and standing structures, Songwol-dong was transformed into a village of fairy tales, becoming one of the favorite tourism spots in the city.

Description
The residential environment improvement project, which started in 2013, has completely transformed Songwol-dong into Donghwa Village over a period of about two years. Donghwa Village in Songwol-dong, which reached its second heyday after the opening of the port, was born that way. About 300m along Jemulpo from Incheon Station on Subway Line 1, one is greeted by a large arch-shaped sculpture announcing Songwol-dong Fairy Tale Village. It is located at the northern end of Chinatown. This place, created with the theme of world masterpiece fairy tales, has 11 themed roads, including Dorothy Road, Little Red Riding Hood Road, Badarae Road, and Traditional Fairy Tale Road.