Gyeonggi-do Promotes 'Dark Tourism'... Visits to Disaster and Historical Sites

Gyeonggi Province has decided to promote the 'Dark Tourism Development and Revitalization Project' this year and is conducting related service work.

Dark tourism is a historical travel that utilizes sites and resources of incidents and disasters that occurred in Gyeonggi Province as cultural tourism resources to remember and overcome unfortunate pasts.

Gyeonggi Province plans to spend 90 million won to start the service work in April and complete it in November. Through this service work, Gyeonggi Province will review activation plans such as investigating dark tourism destinations and demand, gathering expert opinions and local residents' responses, linking with surrounding cultural facilities, and cooperating with related organizations and groups.

Dark tourism destinations under consideration include ▲ Ansan Seongamhakwon ▲ Goyang Geumjeonggul ▲ Hwaseong Jeam-ri ▲ Cheorwon Nodongdangsa.

Seongam Academy Cemetery

Ansan Seongamhakwon was a facility established in 1942 on Seongamdo Island in Ansan during the Japanese colonial period and operated until 1982. It was a detention center where children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 were forcibly admitted and subjected to forced labor, assault, abuse, and torture, violating human rights.

Goyang Geumjeonggul is a site where, during the height of the Korean War from October 9 to 31, 1950, more than 153 residents in Geumjeonggul, Ilsanseo-gu, Goyang City, were collectively executed because they were accused of collaborating with North Korea and their families.

Earlier, the Gyeonggi Provincial Council passed the 'Gyeonggi Province Dark Tourism Development and Support Ordinance,' which was proposed by Lee Kyung-hye (Democratic Party of Korea, Goyang 4) in February last year. The dark tourism project was also selected as a resident participation budget project this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.