Haebangchon Lightning

I came out of the tunnel and took this photo looking back. The fence on the right is for a GTX construction site.

Next stop was the overpass at Noksapyeong Station.

Now here are the kimchi pots and Trump/Kim heads.

This is the former Workshop building.

Looking inside, they tore out the floor in order to build this staircase down to the basement.

My dad played at HBC Fest in the exact spot where the floor was ripped out.

No lineup at Bonny's.

The original Phillies building is still standing, after almost a year of being totally vacant.

The Al Matto building is unveiled. Apparently it doesn't have a tenant yet.

From higher up the slope.

Down the other side, toward my neighbourhood.

And the historic stairs.

The lighting scheme was almost Christmassy.

Then I noticed this map outlining a potential redevelopment site.

Turns out they just had a meeting to discuss how to move forward on redevelopment, which still would probably be far off.

I looked into the building there, and couldn't really interpret this picture. But I was unwilling to try going inside...yet.

I followed these stairs up higher.

At the top, there was this projection on the ground.

I think some of the stairs had been covered up with wood.

Uncovered, but the railing must be newish.

An old wall.

Destroyed house.

I'm pretty sure I saw these before.

The destroyed house from above.

I tried going higher but couldn't go much farther. Online maps refused to show that there was a taller apartment building back there.

Wandering around.

The view.

Somewhere down that way, I heard a woman scream.

I approached cautiously, and heard two more screams, coming from an unidentified unit in the building immediately to the left. No idea what it was about but I heard nothing else.

This guy just drove right up the ramp.

He kept going.

There's a house tucked into the side of this building.

Lots of English signs about the garbage.

Heading down the way I came.

Time to go in here.

This is clearly fire damage.

I would say the fire must have started in that corner.

It also burned all over this table, where there had been a lot of books.

Upstairs, I found a suit.

And other stuff.

The view from the roof was good.

It wasn't easy to move around.

Here's the view out the back, including that phantom apartment building.

And a thing I found on the way out. I couldn't open it and don't know what it was.

A scooter driver pulled up and left this scooter there, engine running, but when I emerged, no one was to be seen.

I went up into Sinheung Market. Wasn't there a cake store here before?

This image sort of sums up the aesthetic places like this are chasing.

A truck was blocking the way forward. The driver raced out and apologised, promising to move. I just turned around and went another way.

This must be the phantom apartment I saw: military housing.

To the right is the wall of the garrison.

I entered this building trying to go on the roof, but there was no access.

Looking over the fence.

Then I found a construction site where I was easily able to get high up and see over the fence.

A parking lot.

A road down to civilisation.

Here's the construction site. Looks like it needs tenants.

Back at Workshop, I had hoped to look around more, but I saw this tent with a computer left on.

I went up to this roof for a view of the area.

That stretch of the main road was lit up like Las Vegas, I thought.

Click for full size.

The moon being out was appropriate.

I moved over so the road would be a little more squared.

This panorama attempt failed miserably.

Success.

What was this tower for?

Looking toward the tunnels and GTX construction site. There used to be an artillery range up there.

The stairs inside this building.

When I passed by the CU, I found Chris trying to open a soju bottle with a knife.

Photo Heim.

This was my attempt to make a map of the area.