Creating a Second Jeongdongjin on the Gyeongui and Jungang Lines

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 17th that it will develop a "themed station" to lead tourism revitalization in northern Gyeonggi by selecting one of the stations on the Gyeongui and Jungang Lines connecting Paju and Yangpyeong.

The themed station development project, which will be implemented in full from next year following research and feasibility studies through October of this year, will be carried out by selecting one station from among the 31 stations in the Gyeonggi Province section of the Gyeongui and Jungang Lines that has high pedestrian traffic and can be linked with nearby cultural and tourist attractions.

The selected station will serve as a hub station, and the plan is to incorporate themes and items that stimulate tourists' curiosity into the station, combine creative spatial design and storytelling to attract visitor inflow.

The strategy is to build a creative ecosystem linked with surrounding areas centered on themed stations that connect architecture and culture, thereby creating sustainable and progressive tourism products in northern Gyeonggi.

In particular, Gyeonggi Province notes that the Gyeongui and Jungang Lines, which began direct operations in late 2014, have shown bright prospects as the number of users and pedestrian traffic in northern Gyeonggi continues to increase.

Successful cases of developing stations as tourism products in Korea include the "Santa Village" at Bunseon Station in Bonghwa County, North Gyeongsang Province, and the "Street of Memories" at Deulryang Station in Boseong County, South Jeolla Province, but this is the first such initiative in Gyeonggi Province.

To this end, the province will conduct "research and feasibility studies for establishing themed station development plans in northern Gyeonggi" by October 12, and plans to implement the themed station development project in full in 2016 based on the results of the study.

In particular, to derive novel and innovative results through this research initiative, the province plans to exclude its own opinions as much as possible and ensure that the research is conducted from a professional private sector perspective.

A provincial official stated, "Once the themed station is developed, we will establish a public-private cooperative development system through mutual collaboration among Gyeonggi Province, Korail, and relevant cities and counties to successfully implement the project."

Gyeonggi Province plans to improve hardware such as remodeling of the themed station, while Korail will handle development and marketing of themed train products, and cities and counties will develop local products around the station and create themed streets, with each organization taking on different roles in the project.