Gangchon, the stop on the Gyeongchun Line where more young travelers once disembarked than anywhere else before reaching Chuncheon, has languished for more than a decade. Now Chuncheon is pushing to bring it back.
The city announced Monday that it has designated the commercial strip in Gangchon-ri, Namsan-myeon, as an official alley shopping district — a status intended to help revive the local economy.
The designation was made under the Special Act on the Promotion of Traditional Markets and Shopping Districts and a corresponding Chuncheon municipal ordinance.
In April, the city amended its ordinance to lower the minimum store-count threshold for alley shopping district designation, broadening the range of small commercial areas eligible for government support under the system.
The Gangchon alley shopping district covers roughly 9,000 square meters in Gangchon-ri and encompasses more than 80 stores. Merchants gave their consent, allowing the area to meet the designation requirements.
With the designation in place, businesses in the district will become eligible for a range of support measures — including registration for the Onnuri gift voucher program, participation in government grant competitions and facility modernization projects.
"This designation is a hard-earned achievement born of the efforts and cooperation of local merchants," Chuncheon Mayor Yuk Dong-han said. "We will spare no administrative or fiscal support to grow Gangchon into a premium commercial district where tourism and culture come together, and to make alley commerce a solid pillar of the local economy — linking it to Gangchon's urban regeneration project and national grant programs."
Gangchon was once celebrated as a hub of youth culture, but shifts in transportation and changing tourism trends have left its commercial district in prolonged decline.
In response, Chuncheon designated the Gangchon-ri area an urban regeneration activation zone in 2024 and has since been pursuing regeneration projects that draw on the area's existing assets.
This year, the city applied for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's region-specific regeneration program and signed agreements with Songgok University and Gangchon Rail Park to build a cooperative framework bringing together education, tourism and the private sector.
The city is also working to secure new growth engines for Gangchon — including a project to develop the Gangchon covered tunnel area into a tourism asset, selected under the Korea National Railway's idle railway land utilization program, and a separate tourism development plan for the Bangha-ri area.
Building on these efforts, Chuncheon plans to compete for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' regional commercial district development grant in 2027. The city also intends to link those efforts to a 25 billion won (about $18.4 million) urban regeneration project for Gangchon, pursuing commercial district branding, specialized content development and merchant capacity-building as it works to establish Gangchon as a destination for extended-stay tourism and a competitive local commercial hub.
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