Incheon cancels a plan for dosshouse life experience center

Dong ward office in Incheon has canceled its plan to open a center to let tourists experience life in a dosshouse at Gwaengiburi village, a representative shanty town in Manseok-dong.

The ward office`s welfare, environment and city committee held a standing committee meeting on Monday and rejected the bill to setup and run a dosshouse life experience center at Gwaengiburi Village, which was submitted by Dong ward office in Incheon. ”There has not been a process to collect sufficient opinions from the public,” said the standing committee members explaining the reason why the bill was voted down. As it was thrown out by the standing committee, the bill was automatically scrapped without being submitted to the plenary session.

Previously, Dong ward office made a pre-announcement for legislation to set up and run a center to experience life in a dosshouse. The ward office planned to open a center that simulates a private house in 1960s and 1970s, where families with children from other districts can experience life in a dosshouse with an admission fee of 10,000 Korean won (approx. 8.8 U.S. dollars). However, around 160 residents of the village opposed the plan. They submitted a signature letter to the district and the district council urging to stop commercialization of poverty. The Gwaengiburi village in Incheon is the place which Kim Jeong-mi’s novel of “Children of Gwaengiburi village” is based on. This shanty village has been grown with old and shabby dosshouses built since the Korean War.

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