Paju Book City, about an hour and a half outside of Seoul, is a must-see for architecture, arts, and book lovers. It is located in Gyeonggi-do just south of Panmunjeon on the 38th parallel. My love for books and the fact that most scenes of the recently concluded Korean drama “Romance is a Bonus Book” were filmed there made me decide to visit it one day.
Paju Book City is a city dedicated to books – from planning, printing, to publishing. It is a huge cultural complex that is home to 250 publishers and 10,000 workers. Walking its quiet streets has a similar intellectual feel to Boston sans the universities.
Forest of Wisdom
One of Paju’s highlights is the Forest of Wisdom, a 24-hour library with over 200,000 donated books that anyone can look through. The library is located in a huge concrete building three stories high. I gushed in delight upon coming face-to-face with the 8-meter high floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
The books there are not for sale, cannot be loaned out, and are not catalogued. About 95% are Korean books and the rest are foreign books, predominantly English and Japanese. The more popular ones are arranged in the lower level shelves while the top ones could be reached by a special crane.
We arrived an hour before noon on a weekday and had the place almost to ourselves. I even had time to browse some English books, sat down for a little while to know how it feels to be immersed with a book in this place of endless wonder.
We entered Forest of Wisdom from the main Paju highway passing through a path and found this marker with Kim Sowol’s poem “Azaleas”, the title poem of his sole collection of poetry. We exited on the other side of the building and found this 100-year old typecasting machine outside the Paju Letterpress Workshop.
Pinoseum
Across the street is the Pinoseum, a Pinocchio-inspired museum. We did not enter the museum because we headed to Heyri Art Village further north on the same day. I love Pinocchio’s story even if it’s a tearjerker. It would have been interesting to see the exhibits inside if we had more time.
Book Cafes
What is a book city without a book cafe? Thoughtfully-designed book cafes are in every corner where one can spend hours enjoying not just a good book but also good food.
The most well known cafe is Book Cafe Hesse or Hesse Boulangerie 152. It was named after you guessed it – Hermann Hesse.
This was also where scenes from Episode 2 of Romance is a Bonus Book were filmed. Before going inside and while waiting for our food to arrive, my cousin and I took turns in re-enacting the interview scene from the drama.
Fangirl goal checked – being on the same spot where Lee Jong Suk stood and sat a few months before.
A few steps away from Cafe Hesse is I-Style Cafe. This is where the second lead characters meet up in Episodes 8-9 to discuss signing a book contract when it suddenly starts to snow. It has three floors and is part of the Paju Pro Studio.
Bookfriends Cafe is easy to find since it sits on the main highway just two doors away from Ramerit Cafe. This was used as a location for Oh Ji-Yul’s unpleasant blind date.
Here are some random pictures we took including the mosaic-tiled stairs outside the Pinoseum.
How to Get There
- ā Address: 145, Hoedong-gil, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do (ź²½źø°ė ķģ£¼ģ ķėźøø 145)
- ā Directions: Take Bus No. 2200 from Hapjeong Station (Seoul Subway Line 2, 6), Exit 1 ā Get off at Eunseokgyo Intersection Bus Stop ā Walk approx. 5 min
These last two pictures are not in Paju Book City but in Hapjeong Station. Hapjeong Station indeed serves as entrance and stairway that leads to the delightful little place called Paju Book City.
Itchy Feet 