The 2025 National Heritage Media Art: Former Gunsan Customs Headquarters, which illuminated Gunsan’s August night sky, welcomed 200,000 visitors. The ‘Night Exploration’ (2025 Gunsan National Heritage Night Walk) recorded an average of 30,000 visitors per day, concluding successfully with a highly positive response. Indeed, both events are being praised for opening a new chapter in Gunsan’s nighttime cultural tourism by leveraging the value of the downtown national heritage sites to provide opportunities to experience Gunsan’s history and culture.
The first event to kick off the August nighttime national heritage utilisation projects was the National Heritage Media Art: Former Gunsan Customs Main Building, held on August 8, around the former Gunsan Customs Main Building. This event, themed ‘Gunsan’s Light, Dyed in Flowers’, expressed Gunsan’s past and future through light, offering a unique beauty and experience.
Amidst the media art event, the decade-old ‘Gunsan National Heritage Night Walk’ took place. Marking its 10th anniversary this year, the ‘Gunsan National Heritage Night Walk’ ran for four days on August 22 and 23, and 29 and 30, under the theme ‘Walking the Street of Light: Modern Cultural Heritage,’ across the old downtown national heritage sites, including the former Joseon Food Corporation.
Despite its short hours from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and its timing after the summer vacation ended, the ‘Night Walk’ drew crowds so large that participants lined up to join the 44 daily programmes.
Above all, the Gunsan National Heritage Night Walk shone brightly with programmes led by residents. Elementary school students welcomed citizens and tourists as ‘Child National Heritage Guides’ and members of the ‘Children’s Musical Performance Troupe’. Middle school students also gained popularity by creating cultural products themed around Gunsan.
Gunsan City plans to prepare various events going forward, aiming for the nighttime utilisation of national heritage to contribute to revitalising the local economy and to provide vitality to the minds, bodies, and daily lives of citizens and tourists weary from the summer heat.
