Gunsan Impi Station Building

About this place

The Impi Station building, located in Sulsan-ri, Impi-myeon, Gunsan, was constructed around 1936 as a railway station on the Gunsan Line. The Gunsan Line was completed in 1912 as a branch line of the Honam Line. According to local oral history, the station was originally intended to be built in Impi-ri proper, but Confucian scholars (yurim) in the village opposed it on feng shui grounds, causing the line to be rerouted through Sulsan-ri. During the Japanese colonial period, the Gunsan Line served as a vital transportation route for extracting agricultural products from North and South Jeolla Provinces through Gunsan Port to Japan — a painful history of exploitation. The Impi Station building is a fine example of the typical architectural form and technique of small rural wayside stations of the era, and its original form is relatively well preserved, giving it high architectural and railroad-historical value. Designated a simple staffed station in April 1995 and halting freight operations in September 2005, it now draws visitors through a vintage railcar exhibition, the Sisilia Plaza, Bangjuk Park, and recreations of an old-style toilet, well, and cannon platform linked to the works of local novelist Chae Man-sik.