|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
|
 Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:01 pm Post subject: Insa-dong loses cultural luster amid rising prices |
 |
|
If it's been a while since you visited Insadong I think you'd be surprised how it has changed for the worse. There are more and more makeup shops, cheap shoe stores, and coffee shops that are common everywhere else in Seoul. It's almost the same as walking around outside Jogno 3-Ga Station. It's only a matter of time before fast food restaurants dot the area.
It's not just a few makeup shops, either. In some parts of Insadong every other store is either a makeup shop or a shoe store. If the Korean government is giving subsidies and tax breaks to Insa-dong building owners who are renting to makeup shops and shoe stores then it's up to the government to put their foot down about what should be financially supported by taxpayers.As for cheap tourist stuff, it's the worst place to buy anything because most of it is junk and the prices are super high. There's never anything new for sale in Insadong. It's the same old same old souvenirs they've had since the fall of Saigon.
You can buy better Korean souvenirs in any of the museum gift shops or even in some of those back alley shops in Itaewon. http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20121127001099
| Quote: |
It has been 10 years since Insa-dong was designated a culture district, but criticism is growing that it has lost its unique character due to overcommercialization.
The area, famous for its traditional aesthetic, antique shops and art galleries, was the country�s first designated culture district in 2002. Daehangno, Incheon port and Paju Heiri are the other designated cultural districts in Korea.
Created in 2000, the culture district designation is part of the Culture and Arts Promotion Act of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in order to promote and expand culture and arts in significant areas.
Although culture districts are eligible for benefits such as tax breaks as well as eased construction standards, many criticize Insa-dong for becoming overly commercialized over the past decade.
Along the main Insa-dong road, many stores that sell pottery and old paintings are now in-name only, and display cheap, foreign-made souvenirs and K-pop idol posters in front of their stands while their original products are stashed in a far corner or nonexistent.
Further down the street are makeup shops, convenience stores and chain restaurants that can easily be found in other parts of Seoul. The alleys off the main strip host mostly Korean restaurants, with a few antique stores surviving.
Many store owners in Insa-dong refused to speak for an interview about their situation.
Lee Jong-un, the owner of antique bookstore Tongmunkwan, explained that most stores stopped selling traditional items since rent started rising in the �90s, when Insa-dong began to attract more tourists.
�People are selling cheap souvenirs as a desperate attempt to manage the property rent,� said Lee. �If the rent was cheap, there would be no reason to do this.�
Lee said the only reason that he was able to keep his family bookstore, which opened in 1934, was that they owned their own building, unlike most shop owners who were paying rent to landlords.
�The place used to be filled with antique bookstores and shops in the �70s and �80s,� Lee said. �I�m sorry to say it, but most first-floor shops around here don�t sell traditional culture anymore.�
Kim Yu-cheol, manager for Insa-dong at the Jongno-gu Office, echoed Lee�s statements that rising rent drove out traditional craft in Insa-dong.
�The landlords raised the rent price according to the market as more people visited Insa-dong, so traditional sellers could no longer pay rent or support themselves with traditional culture,� he said.
Despite the situation, Lee and Kim agreed that the government couldn�t force landlords to adjust rent prices for the sake of preserving culture.
Many art galleries and antique shop owners have allegedly moved to Samcheong-dong or parts of Gangnam, but Lee added that their prospects do not look bright.
�Even those places are turning into caf streets. The government won�t leave it alone if something is about to thrive,� he said.
The Insa Traditional Culture Preservation Committee, a civic organization that records statistics on Insa-dong, speculated that there were around 200 art galleries left, but many of them are in name only and sell cheap souvenirs to tourists.
Kim said both Jongno-gu and Seoul City had been trying to minimize the damage as much as they could, but were limited in supporting Insa-dong due to budget constraints.
�The central government should provide more support, but the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, who has authority over cultural districts, barely provided funding for the past ten years,� he said.
Kim said Jongno-gu currently provides a 50 percent reduction in property tax to cultural facilities for five years and reduced building costs for landlords.
However, he pointed out the benefits are not effective in the long run since a five-year tax reduction lacks continuity, and because over 90 percent of businesses in Insa-dong are tenants, the store owners themselves receive no benefits.
�We have proposed reducing income and additional tax for the business owners instead, but the current government seems reluctant,� Kim said.
He believed that the biggest factor causing Insa-dong to lose much of its culture was the general lack of action toward preserving tradition.
�As a culture district, it had regulations regarding what is allowed or not, but this was not held up because there were no real penalization for violations,� he said.
�Seoul City and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism were negligent with restrictions.�
In response to the concerns and criticism, Kim said Seoul City was planning revised legislation that would improve the situation.
Among the proposed changes is the �traditional culture certificate,� where authentic traditional stores would be given a certificate that tourists can identify.
�One of the problems is that tourists want to buy traditional products, but have difficulty because of the cheap souvenirs,� Kim said.
Because banning cheap souvenirs altogether is against trade laws, they decided the best alternative was to promote the authentic products so that tradition does not die out.
Other changes planned in the revised legislation include changing the names of stores that no longer sell products they claim, providing more direct support to the businesses and including makeup shops and massage parlors on the list of businesses prohibited from entering Insa-dong, with a maximum penalty of 10 million won ($9,200) when violated.
�What is hopeful is that several congressmen showed much interest in Insa-dong, and we hope the revised legislation can gain momentum with their support,� Kim said.
However, Lee said, despite media focus on the loss of culture in Insa-dong, nothing has changed.
�They�re repeating problems that won�t be solved. It�s the same old story for years,� he said. �It�s difficult to manage a location once it has turned into a tourist spot. Even tourist spots overseas are filled with souvenir shops. It�s unrealistic to bring change.�
�What is clear is that you can�t go back to how it used to be,� he said
Kim acknowledged that multiple factors caused Insa-dong to deteriorate, but emphasized that Jongno-gu had not been idle all this time.
�We are trying to fix what has gone wrong under the new Jongno-gu office director, though it is not enough with willpower alone,� he said.
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
jonpurdy
Joined: 08 Jan 2009
Location: Ulsan
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:25 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I recall finding traditional Korean tea sets in Insa-dong for much cheaper than anywhere else in Korea. I now regret not buying them while I was there. Were these lower quality than the rest? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Stan Rogers
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:20 pm Post subject: |
|
|
It's sad to read about money overpowering culture. This trend has intensified over the years and I'm surprised to see Koreans do little more than pay lip service to the issue.
But with the Olympics coming to Korea I expect to see this trend reversed if even for a short while. They will want to show the world more than Korean food, brand name stores and coffee shops. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:34 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| jonpurdy wrote: |
| I recall finding traditional Korean tea sets in Insa-dong for much cheaper than anywhere else in Korea. I now regret not buying them while I was there. Were these lower quality than the rest? |
Other shops in other parts of town are now offering better merchandise at lower prices. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
JustinC
Joined: 10 Mar 2012
Location: We Are The World!
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:22 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| I've only visited recently and have to intention or returning, unless it's to walk through to Samcheong-dong. Even there, there's a place that's selling coffee for 12k a cup. WTF? There are a few good places to eat there but you can see it's already becoming the latest, greatest place to be seen. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Swampfox10mm
Joined: 24 Mar 2011
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:43 pm Post subject: |
|
|
When they killed-off many of the street vendors this past year or two, I lost interest in going. History lost.
Part of the reason for killing these vendors off was to pave the way for stores to make money (and with that, rents rise, etc.).
We've seen a lot of similar things happen in the Itaewon area, eh (although the street vendors are still around). |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Stan Rogers
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
|
| Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 10:28 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| fosterman wrote: |
| jdog2050 wrote: |
I've said it before and I'll say it again--the whole problem is the Kwaligeum system (buyout money).
When the actual deposit and rent of a place are 10,000,000 and 900,000, BUT, the Kwaligeum is 100,000,000...no one's going to do anything with that property that is adventurous, new, or a risk.
THAT'S why every young Korean with some cash in the bank opens a cafe. They're basically just sitting there waiting for some new sucker to take the spot and open something similarly "safe".
My theory is that the high cost of kwaligeum makes Korea a *much* more boring and static consumer culture than it should be. |
yes,it's now a business to gwaliguem flip! I have seen it from Cafe Street in Sinsa dong back in 2002, when no one was there, prices started under 100Mill, then 2005 the prices were at 200Mill, then 2008 they were at 400mill, now 2012 they are close to a 800-900 million. LOL LOL
itaewon on the main street, down from RMT where no one wanted.
was at 100K back in 2010, just started to spring up etc..
now 300K. THE SAME PLACE! LOL
it's a joke, and it's a national trend, flipping for Gwaliguem. they don't even care what their business takes in every month, they are wanting for the easy sale and double or triple their money.
just ruins it for everyone. |
Yes, I agree. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jdog2050
Joined: 17 Dec 2006
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:40 am Post subject: |
|
|
| fosterman wrote: |
| jdog2050 wrote: |
I've said it before and I'll say it again--the whole problem is the Kwaligeum system (buyout money).
When the actual deposit and rent of a place are 10,000,000 and 900,000, BUT, the Kwaligeum is 100,000,000...no one's going to do anything with that property that is adventurous, new, or a risk.
THAT'S why every young Korean with some cash in the bank opens a cafe. They're basically just sitting there waiting for some new sucker to take the spot and open something similarly "safe".
My theory is that the high cost of kwaligeum makes Korea a *much* more boring and static consumer culture than it should be. |
yes,it's now a business to gwaliguem flip! I have seen it from Cafe Street in Sinsa dong back in 2002, when no one was there, prices started under 100Mill, then 2005 the prices were at 200Mill, then 2008 they were at 400mill, now 2012 they are close to a 800-900 million. LOL LOL
itaewon on the main street, down from RMT where no one wanted.
was at 100K back in 2010, just started to spring up etc..
now 300K. THE SAME PLACE! LOL
it's a joke, and it's a national trend, flipping for Gwaliguem. they don't even care what their business takes in every month, they are wanting for the easy sale and double or triple their money.
just ruins it for everyone. |
Oh god, the kwaligeum prices in Itaewon are insane.
When you need to be damned near a millionaire just to start a small business, something's broken.
By the way, for people on this thread who think we're talking about the property value or construction costs...we aren't. Remember kwaligeum is *just how much it costs to get the person to leave*. Although this isn't unheard of in the west, a buyout is usually done to purchase that company's employees, technologies, assests, etc. With kwaligeum, you don't get any of that. You're just getting the person to vacate the property...that's it. You've still gotta pay key money, rent, renovations...it's crazy. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
coralreefer_1
Joined: 19 Jan 2009
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 1:17 am Post subject: |
|
|
Frankly, I dont see any issue with this system. It rewards people who have the money to invest, and yeah it is their right to leave a space if the price is right. If you want the space bad enough, you pay what they ask. Its no different than buying a plot of land just outside of the city for cheap, then selling it 15 years later at 500% of what you paid for it just because the subway line was extended or a new apartment complex was built. Sure someone might buy that land to build yet another kimbab place or Paris Baguette, but from the investor point of view, I dont care the slightest bit what gets built there..the motivation was to make money, not define or otherwise diversify the common landscape.
Granted it does seem to lead to a rather boring landscape as others have noted, but I believe that is more a result of the market itself (coffee sells, makeup sells, shoes sell) and not really an effect of this system of payment/acquisition. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
jdog2050
Joined: 17 Dec 2006
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 1:46 am Post subject: |
|
|
| coralreefer_1 wrote: |
Frankly, I dont see any issue with this system. It rewards people who have the money to invest, and yeah it is their right to leave a space if the price is right. If you want the space bad enough, you pay what they ask. Its no different than buying a plot of land just outside of the city for cheap, then selling it 15 years later at 500% of what you paid for it just because the subway line was extended or a new apartment complex was built. Sure someone might buy that land to build yet another kimbab place or Paris Baguette, but from the investor point of view, I dont care the slightest bit what gets built there..the motivation was to make money, not define or otherwise diversify the common landscape.
Granted it does seem to lead to a rather boring landscape as others have noted, but I believe that is more a result of the market itself (coffee sells, makeup sells, shoes sell) and not really an effect of this system of payment/acquisition. |
I totally see what you're saying. The system wouldn't exist if people weren't willing to put up with it and if it didn't make money. The point is that as a country, after a point, money isn't the only consideration when it comes to what type of businesses should move into certain areas or what the people of that country want the business landscape to look like.
A system like kwaligeum inherently punishes risk. It's easy to sit back and say "don't play if you can't pay", but taking risks and encouraging entrepreneurship is what makes countries grow not only in economics, but in stature.
Yeah, coffee shops make money (actually...they really kind of don't, but that's a different subject), make-up shops make money, etc...but they don't export. They don't foster new ideas. They don't inspire.
Like, I'm not pooping on cafe's just because they're cafes. I'm saying that if kwaligeum didn't exist you'd have more people willing to take a risk with *what a cafe can be*. A good example is Take-Out Drawing in Itaewon. It's a cafe, sure, but they also run a press, sell indie 'zines, and make really weird, awesome drinks. The downside is that the people who own T-O D *obviously* have a ton of money. You can NOT play around like that in Korea (Seoul especially), when you're working with a budget that has to allow paying upwards of $100,000 just to get started.
To the article in question, Insadong is a perfect example. At some point in the 90s, the government said "it's much more important to have an area that preserves our culture instead of just printing money". Unfortunately, that completely clashes with kwaligeum, which rewards *foot traffic*. So, you get an area that draws in the tourists, as it should, but the foot traffic innately goes up, and so does kwaligeum and rent. Thus, the entire purpose of that area gives way to just making money and, once again, "safe" businesses.
One good thing about Itaewon is that, so far, the people setting up shop there have been much more willing to take risks and do different things...but the Smoothie King and Make-Up shop where Quiznos used to be are a bad sign, honestly...we'll see how that goes. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
fosterman
Joined: 16 Nov 2011
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 3:50 am Post subject: |
|
|
its not gwaliguem which is the real problem, it makes sense to sell your business, you sell a restaurant you sell everything in it and that is the gwaliguem.
empty stores have no gwaliguem. then you have to do interior.
the big problem is..
Bogingguem! KEY MONEY. now this is just plain crazy.
landlords ask 100million won for a security deposit. for a small place!!
it can go as high as 500million or 1000 million won. it's just plain stupid.
so let's say you want to open small cafe in Itaewon.
well, that's 100 million for the key money, then well now 200 or 300 million for the premises . then re do the interior another 100.
so nwo you just invested 500 million won for a small cafe! LOL
of course you can do it on the cheap.. but on the cheap here means
still 100-150 million, and for that money you are really getting nothing.
and it really will be a risk. 150 million won for a small snack bar in a not so desired location.
kyung gi dan, or HBC will still run you 200-400 million for a good place.
400.000 dollars... for a small restaurant or bar in HBC!? HELLO!
something is whack here, when you have to give the landlord 100K
then buy the place for 100K then use 100K for interior and float money
just to open a small little business. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 1:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
There's a bigger picture here. For all of the frantic talk by the Seoul government about wanting to "preserve smaller, traditional shops" those shops are being forced out by larger market trends, such as the ones being discussed in this thread, that have nothing to do with Lottemart and Costco opening on Sundays.
It's even happening in Insadong, despite designation as a "tourist shopping area" and tax breaks along with subsidies. It's time for the Seoul government to quit wasting taxpayers monies and people's time and focus on the root causes of the end of smaller, traditional shops. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
fosterman
Joined: 16 Nov 2011
|
| Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 6:41 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| dairyairy wrote: |
There's a bigger picture here. For all of the frantic talk by the Seoul government about wanting to "preserve smaller, traditional shops" those shops are being forced out by larger market trends, such as the ones being discussed in this thread, that have nothing to do with Lottemart and Costco opening on Sundays.
It's even happening in Insadong, despite designation as a "tourist shopping area" and tax breaks along with subsidies. It's time for the Seoul government to quit wasting taxpayers monies and people's time and focus on the root causes of the end of smaller, traditional shops. |
Koreans are not really into their heritage I know that sounds crazy. but it's true. they destroy all their historical areas, they don't take real pride in their historical buildings or kingdoms. they only focus on their achievements, dokdo, and hallyu. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
