Guryong Village

Guryong or Guryong Village (Korean: 구룡마을) is an illegal encampment (commonly called a slum or a shantytown) on private land in Seoul, South Korea, on the edge of the affluent southside district of Dogok-dong, Gangnam District from which it is separated by a six-lane motorway.[1][2][3]

Guryong, winter of 2013

It was first created in 1988 by people evicted from houses in other low-income areas demolished during the city's rapid development prior to the 1988 Olympic Games, and who came to this area as their last refuge.[1][3][4][5][6] Since at least 2011, there have been plans for re-purposing the area and relocating the residents, though little progress has been made due to disagreements between officials on the best plan of action.[1][4][7][8] Current government plans propose to demolish Guryong in 2015 and arrange subsidized housing for residents.[9] It has an estimated 2,500[1][6] to 4,000[3] inhabitants (all numbers are estimates as no demographic survey of that area has ever been conducted[3]), primarily impoverished elderly,[3][5] living in between 1,200[10] and 2,000 shacks and trailers[4] in a village area of about 286,929 square meters (about 70 acres).[4] Individual houses have the size of about 16 to 99 square meters.[3] The residents, who have established a postal service in their area, have received temporary residence cards in 2011.[11] The village has buildings like kindergarten and church, utilities like water, gas and electricity, for which payments are communal; and its own security, all organized through two village associations.[3][11]

Due to unsafe construction, the village has been affected by a number of fire accidents.[12]

It has been called "the last slum in Seoul's glitzy Gangnam district"[9] and "the last shanty town in Gangnam"[1] and, broader, "the last remaining urban slum in Seoul".[12]