The poet Kim Yeong-nang was born and raised in Gangjin. His birth house still stands today behind the Gangjin county government building, its main house, guest quarters, gate house, earthenware jar terrace, and well all preserved in their original form — recognized as an Important Folklore Material designated by the national government. Peonies said to have been planted by the poet himself still grow around the house today. According to tradition, he planted hundreds of peony bushes around his home and took great pleasure in admiring them.
This personal attachment is understood by some to be the emotional backdrop for his best-known work, "Until the Peonies Bloom" (Moran-i Pigikkajineun), published in 1934. Built around the line "Until the peonies bloom, I'll go on waiting for my spring," the poem channels a universal feeling of waiting and loss through the concrete image of a single flower, and is counted among the defining works of modern Korean lyric poetry. Stone monuments inscribed with this poem, as well as another of his well-known works, "Sunlight Whispering on the Stone Wall," stand around the birth house today. What began as one poet's private taste in gardening, cultivated in this one corner of Gangjin, expanded into a poetic sentiment now shared by an entire nation — a transformation this birth house lets visitors trace firsthand.