Yesterday, a friend gave me information about an abandoned school located not too far from where I live. I looked up the bus route last night and decided to head out the following morning. Once I arrived at the location, there was one thing I immediately noticed; dogs. Since they were mostly leashed near the old school gate, I scouted for an entry point and found one near the back of the school grounds. The school itself was quite clean to my surprise and I later found out that someone actually lives there. On the second floor, there was a golf practice set-up in one of the classrooms, something I did not expect to see. After exploring all the classrooms in the building, I headed towards to what used to be the playground but I had to turn back and run. The dogs which were leashed near the gate had been barking non-stop for the past hour had alerted the person who "occupied" the school grounds and that guy was heading towards my direction. After making my escape, I hid in the bushes for a bit until the footsteps were gone. Seeing that it was safe, I took a different route out and headed towards the main road.
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The main school I work at has just finished constructing a new building, therefore they're going to tear down the old one after we finish clearing it out. Although it has stood for a good 40 something years, it has had it's share of structural problems. According to my co-teacher, the roof was severely damaged during a storm and they had to replace the whole thing. It was not until they took out the air conditioning unit could I see that the basic structure of the roof was made with raw timber. Here are some of the photos I took today. I reckon they'll start tearing it down in a few weeks time.
Pictures: A few weeks ago when I was walking to the bus terminal, sometime caught the corner of my eye while I was waiting to cross the street; three buildings, each approximately 6 stories tall stood in the distance. Using daum map, I quickly located what I saw and I knew immediately it was a good location for urban exploring. After a few weeks and a bit of planning, my friends and I set off from the bus terminal to what is known as Jinyeong Apartments. It was approximately a 30 minute walk to the site. Once we arrived, we started scouting for an entry point since the site was still guarded. From what we could observe from the outside, the apartments started construction on the 1st of October 1999 and was supposed to have finished on the 31st of December 2000. On the outskirts of a city in Chungcheongnam-do, there is a small abandoned construction site which consists of two apartment blocks with 6 individual flats on each floor. With my friend, Kevin, we headed out early in the morning to explore this site. There was a gate which blocked the entrance, but since there were no fences, we easily walked onto the site. There were two container structures which were supposed to be the guard house. On our right, there was a white one story building, which we speculated was the storage since there was a large pile of charcoal blocks used for heating. After we explored the building, we made our way towards the first apartment block. One of the first two units that were on the first floor was what used to be a display unit, judging by the fact that most of it was furnished. However, it was littered with pots, pans, and even a blanket and some pillows, so we knew someone was either currently living or used to live here after construction came to a halt. Making our way up to the roof top, the units starting on the second floor were more or less the same: bare concrete walls with wiring sticking out and window frames and construction materials scattered on the floor, waiting to be installed. As some of you may not know, I’m currently teaching in Taean, located in the province of Chungcheongnam-do, off the west coast of South Korea. One thing I love about my job is that on Monday mornings I head off to a small elementary school in the fishing village of Uihang (의항/蟻項) which is situated in a small peninsula north of the well known Manripo beach. Right beside the school there is a trail called the “Haebyeongil (해변길)” “Haebyeongil,” which literally means “The path by the sea,” is a trail system which more or less follows the coastline of Taean. The Uihang peninsula is part of the “Sowon” section of the trail, which allows hikers to walk along the shores of the peninsula.
Ngau Chi Wan (Which literately translates as “Cattle Pond Bay”), is one of the original village settlements in New Kowloon of Hong Kong. The area is now known as “Choi Hung,” for the Choi Hung Estate which is adjacent to the original village. Ngau Chi Wan is one of those few forgotten gems which are overlooked by modern development. Interestingly, it wasn’t redeveloped and was left in its original state. To be honest, I stumbled upon this market by chance. Usually I would get off at Choi Hung station and head directly for the mini bus stop. Last week however, I got there early and since I hadn’t had breakfast, I explored around to see if I could find something to eat. Being sandwiched by two arterial roads, I had very low expectations of finding an eatery. However, once I stepped into the market, it felt like I just found a treasure chest (of food). The market itself is divided into two areas; the original market where there is a mixture of the small eateries and market stalls, and the modern three story market where a variety of meats, produce as well as clothing and textiles are sold. Not knowing about the traditional market, I headed into the modern market seeing that it was near the MTR exit which I came out of. The market itself is divided into sectors where each sector specializes in a certain area such as fresh seafood, produce, live poultry, Chinese BBQ meats etc. The array of colors, smells, and sounds were mesmerizing. However, being on an empty stomach, I continued on my quest to fill my belly and made my way out of the modern market and I found myself in the traditional market. It has been two weeks since I first visited the unfinished Yuseong Apartment Complex. Due to the weather, I haven’t had the chance to venture inside until now. Today, seeing it was sunny, I decided to go again. The vegetation has once again covered the previous point of entry, therefore I ended up with getting scraped and stabbed by the thorny plants that have doubled their size since my last visit. Once I broke through nature’s security fence, I managed to get myself in the courtyard and headed towards building five. All the windows and hallways are heavily guarded by spiders which try their best to deter people from entering with their massive webs. It is not a pleasant feeling when accidently walking into a spider web, but being undeterred, I continued to make my way up building five. Every footstep I took echoed through the building as if I was not the only one there. When I stood still, the only things that I could hear was the wind gently caressing the bare concrete walls and the drops of water that slowly trickled their way down from the cracks and crevasses from the floor above. The site seems as though it has stopped in time, with bricks waiting to become walls and window frames waiting endlessly for their windows to be put in.
Somewhere in central Korea, stands a massive complex which consists of 14 half built “abandoned” apartments. They used to be known as the “Yuseong Sola Apartments(유성소라아파트).” The original developer for this project was “Hanguk Property Trust(한국부동산신탁(주)).” From the information that is posted on what used to be the construction gate, work commenced some time in 2007. The average height of the apartment buildings ranges from 12 to 14 stories, depending on the building. It is visible when one is taking an arterial road which is separated by large rice fields and to what seems to be an old unused airstrip. Being curious about the apartments, my friend and I set off on our own little urban exploration. We ventured into what I would call building six, from an aerial photo which I labeled for better tracking purposes. The amount of space that the complex occupies is immense, with the longer buildings being able to take up an entire city block. From what we observed, with the amount of construction equipment, bricks and mortar that were placed in each floor, it seems as though the construction workers simply just got up and left. Even the molds that are used to construct each floor hang precariously on the last floor that they constructed. We managed to climb up to the twelfth floor, with the thirteenth and the “rooftop” being blocked off with ruble and construction equipment. |
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