Jaman Mural Village

Jaman sits on the slope of Seungamsan directly above Jeonju's hanok village, and it was built by families who arrived here with nothing during the Korean War and put up small houses on land nobody claimed. From 2012 art students painted the alleys - cartoon characters, film references, murals of varying seriousness - and cafes and guesthouses followed. The climb from Omokdae pavilion is short but steep, and what makes it worth doing is not really the murals, which are uneven and frequently repainted, but the position: from the top lanes you look down over the tiled roofs of the entire hanok village, which is the view the guidebooks use and which you cannot get from inside it. People live in these houses. The lanes are narrow, some are private, and the same crowding problems that other Korean mural villages have hit apply here too.

What you actually see

• The rooftop view - down over the hanok village tiles from above.
• The painted lanes - murals of mixed quality, repainted often.
• The hillside houses - built by wartime displaced families.
• Omokdae - the pavilion on the way up.

When to go

April to June and September to November, in daylight. Mornings before the hanok village fills. The view is best in late afternoon light.

Honest expectations

The murals are the weakest part - uneven and often painted over. The climb is steep. It is residential: keep quiet, stay out of private lanes, do not photograph into homes.

Nearby

Jeonju hanok village, Gyeonggijeon and Pungnammun are directly below.