Those who have visited Paju Book City will know that this place is far from the prejudice that an industrial complex would be hard and boring. Instead of a forest of tall buildings in the sky, green vegetation, grass insects, and a stream full of cries of frogs next to futuristic and distinctive buildings harmonize, creating an urban and idyllic atmosphere. At least, it is certain that you can feel a sense of relaxation that is completely different from the city center, which is dominated by buildings. As a travel destination near
Seoul City has a strong fan base and has many unique buildings, so architecture students often visit for a tour. Travel Plus has visited to capture the charm of this place, which has a unique location as an industrial complex where people want to go on a trip.
Asia Publication Culture Information Center125-22 Hoedong-gil, Munbal-dong, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-doIf you ask where the landmark of the Book City is, many people will answer that it is the Forest of Wisdom in the Asia Publication Culture Information Center. The feast of books that tightly fills the walls three or four people in height exudes admiration from people. Among the book-related spaces in Korea, there seems to be no place other than the Byeolmadang Library in COEX, Samseong-dong.
The books owned by the Forest of Wisdom are donated by publishers, research institutes, and individuals. The Forest of Wisdom can be divided into three zones. In Forest of Wisdom 1, you can see books donated by research institutes and scholars, and in Forest of Wisdom 2, where the cafe is located, you can see books donated by each publisher.
New books that come in regularly can be found in the bookshelf near the conference room in the Forest of Wisdom 2. The last area is Moonbal Salon, the lobby and lounge of Jijihyang, an accommodation facility where you can enjoy a book stay, and is only available to Jijihyang guests.
The Asia Publication Culture Information Center has a total of two bookstores. One is the Booksori Bookstore connected to the Forest of Wisdom, and the other is Treasure Island, a beautiful store located on the second floor of the building. The Booksori Bookstore is a bookstore of the Booksori Social Cooperative, established with the participation of 61 domestic publishers.
Inside, countless books hanging from the ceiling along with several shelves attract attention. Overall, there are books in a variety of fields, but especially young people and children’s books are well stocked. Perhaps that is why most of the customers who visited the store that day were parents and children.If you head to the second floor of the building through the elevator inside the Forest of Wisdom or the external stairs next to the entrance, you can find Beautiful Store Treasure Island. This is the first used bookstore created by Beautiful Store, a social enterprise launched in 2002. As befits a place run by Beautiful Store, which mainly sells items donated by people, all the books on display here are donated.The condition of most of the books was neat and looked like new. The same was true of books that were not yet displayed and were put in boxes. In addition to books in a wide range of literature, science, philosophy, and religion, as well as the environment, women’s studies, and parenting, there are also DVDs and albums on the bookshelf. Proceeds from the bookstore are used as a support fund for neighbors in need or cultural libraries in our society.In the basement of the building, there is a movable type printing museum. As the name suggests, it is a place where you can experience the history of printing using movable type. The interior is filled with 25-ton, 35 million movable movable type and a casting machine transferred from Jeil Type, which was the last movable type manufacturing plant and store in Korea. In addition to this, the Boseongsa Temple, where the Declaration of Independence was printed, was restored by KBS for a documentary commemorating the 100th anniversary of the March 1st Movement.
The Yeolhwadang Book Museum, a 5-minute walk from the Asia Publication Culture Information Center, is a hidden gem of the Book City. It started as a library and bookstore prepared for the employees of Yeolhwadang, a publisher specializing in art books, and is now used as a museum that conveys the beauty of books themselves to all visitors.
The exterior looks bland compared to the surrounding buildings, but the interior space is very beautiful. Although the building has two floors, the two floors are not completely divided, so the sense of openness is excellent, and it feels like a continuous space visually and auditoryally.The contents of the museum’s exhibits change every year. This year, an exhibition is being held to convey the history and flow of Korean literature under the theme of ‘Stories of the Age, Songs of Longing’. In the first exhibition room with the entrance, relatively recent books published since the 1960s are categorized by genre, such as novels, poetry, and criticism, and are displayed in chronological order.The second exhibition hall inside, which stores ancient books from the East and the West, shows works from the Samguk sagi to the Japanese colonial period. The shelves are mixed with the originals and the originals, and only the originals are collected in the bookshelf.
Among the 40,000 books here, religious scriptures from the East and the West caught my interest. In particular , you can find books that are hard to find, such as the first collection of writings by Martin Luther, who led the Christian Reformation, a collection of Gregorian chants printed in small quantities in the 18th century, and a local copy of the Heart Sutra from the Goryeo Dynasty. .To fully enjoy the exhibition, please join the guide’s docent at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. The history contained in each book and the stories of the people involved in it, and other hidden stories that could not be known when looking around the exhibition hall alone, continue one after another. Even after the docent, the commentator hovers around the visitors and answers their questions in detail, so you can spend a very beneficial time.
Basically, it operates on a reservation basis, but it doesn’t matter if you visit without a reservation. Admission is 10,000 won for adults and 7,000 won for students. Hours of operation are 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM every day except Saturdays and Mondays.
Gallery Parkyoung37-9 Hoedong-gil, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-doIf you think that Paju Book City will only be filled with books-related spaces, you are mistaken. Gallery Park Young, which opened in 2008, is the first gallery in the Book City and presents various exhibitions throughout the year, including planning exhibitions, collection exhibitions, and contests. Recently, in the Netflix drama ‘The Glory’, it appeared as the house where the male lead, Joo Yeo-jeong, lives, drawing public attention.A total of three exhibition halls, from Gallery 1 to Gallery 3, make up the building. On the day of my visit, a new exhibition titled ‘Park Young the Shift 8th Part 2: Selflessness’ was about to start. In Gallery 1, where there is an entrance, you can first see the works of 4 out of 5 artists who participated in the exhibition. Paintings were hung not only in the wide corridor, but also on the second floor where the toilet was located. Benches were placed on one side of the exhibition room so that visitors could enjoy the artworks at a leisurely pace.In Gallery 2, where the ceiling is low and the lighting is a little dark스포츠토토, there are installation art works that stand out in color. Colorful sculptures were hung with invisible threads, and the visual contrast was maximized by placing the surroundings in a particularly dark space in the exhibition hall.
Gallery 3, which appeared in ‘The Glory’, feels like coming to a different world from the previous two exhibition halls. It is truly a masterpiece to see a huge work resembling a hanbok installed in the center of the hall receiving light pouring down through a two-story tall window. However, it is necessary to consider that the inside is not very cool even though the air conditioner is turned on in the weather like these days because the window is made so large.
There is no separate admission fee for Gallery Parkyoung. Feel free to stop by any time between 11am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday.
Mimesis Art Museum253 Munbal-ro, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-doThe Mimesis Museum, which opened in 2009, has emerged as the hottest place in the publishing complex by word of mouth on social media . Álvaro Siza , a Portuguese architect who won the Pritzker Prize in 1992, boasts such outstanding architectural beauty that he declared it to be the best work he designed.The huge gray-white building has the duality of straight lines when viewed from the side and dynamic curves when viewed from the front. In particular, it has become a must for visitors to take a certification shot to capture the blue sky above the curved central part of the building.The exhibition space, which spans a total of three floors, minimizes artificial lighting and draws in natural light from windows on the walls and ceiling, changing the atmosphere according to the time of day. In particular, the third floor, which was designed to play a role of lighting by making a plate right below the large window on the roof and spreading light through both walls, shows the most clearly the characteristics of this building.The lobby is decorated as a cafe and bookstore. All the books on the bookshelf are for sale, and the books that can be read freely are stored in a large wooden box by category. If you use the cafe after viewing the exhibition, you will receive a 1,000 won discount.It opens at 10:00 am every day except for Mondays and Tuesdays, when it is closed, and opens until 7:00 pm from May to October and 6:00 pm from November to April . Admission to the exhibition hall is 8,000 won for adults and 6,000 won for students.