The name Haebangchon compresses this neighborhood's history.
Where return and refuge overlapped
People who returned after liberation, and those who fled here as refugees during the Korean War that followed, gathered on this hill below Namsan and formed a village Fact. People who moved at different times for different reasons settled in the same place.
The history of movement held in a name
Knowing that one name holds two periods of movement and settlement overlapping changes how you see this neighborhood. The alleys and stairs visible today are terrain left by this history of movement.