Pauliegraphs
Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital
Back in 1996 there were several mysterious deaths of patients in the hospital. The head doctor was apparently insane. He fled to the United States. The hospital was abandoned in a hurry. The entire building is in disarray. There are overturned chairs, straight jackets dangling from closets, patient files scattered all over the desks and floors, and even towels still hanging in the public showers. There are some reports that the building is haunted. The hospital was listed by CNN GO as one of the 7 freakiest places on the planet.
17 years later, I tell my friend Joel about the place and we planned a little motorcycle trip to the site to explore it. The whole experience was rather creepy. We rolled into Gonjiam, a very small town, mid-morning and stopped at a coffee shop. After ordering our coffees, I asked the barista if she knew where the hospital was. She said she knew nothing about it. Joel and I did a bit of searching on our iPhones to get some more information. The only thing we could find were GPS coordinates. After plugging it into Google Maps, we discovered that it was only 8 minutes away from the coffee shop. We thought that the barista not knowing about the hospital was rather unbelievable. It's a huge 3-story building. Anyhow, we just figured that the whole subject was taboo in the town.
We headed out on our bikes and headed down the road. As we were riding along, I noticed a police car behind us. For some strange reason, I had a feeling that we were being followed. I pulled into a parking lot to "check my GPS for directions", Joel followed me, and sure enough, the police pulled in as well. A cop got out of the car, walked on over and said, "Nice bike. What is it?" I thanked him and told him it was a Suzuki. He then asked us where we were headed. I knew better than to tell him and said that we were meeting a friend and were waiting for him. I kept looking at my GPS while talking with him. He asked if we needed directions, and I said no, that we were fine, but thanks for the offer. He hovered for a little while longer and then walked over in the other direction. He walked past his car and kept going. That's when I told Joel that we should go while he was out of site.
We finally reach our destination but just did a ride by. There was nowhere to park our bikes out of site, so we rode back a ways back from where we came from, parked, and walked up. As we approached the front gate, some guy in the residential building next to the gate started talking to us. "What are you doing here? There's nothing to see here. I've got a CCTV camera so you'd best just head out. We don't want you out of towners nosying around here." This is a loose translation of what he said in Korean. We just told him that we were just taking pictures of stuff and ignored him. We walked around the area, but there was just no way of getting into the hospital grounds without being seen. After an hour of looking for a way in, and taking photographs of other things, we headed back to our bikes, and left Gonjiam.
The whole thing was rather surreal. We definitely were not welcome in that town. It felt like a movie where a small town has a secret that they're all in on and will do anything to keep strangers away. I sort of imagined that the police told all the town folks that if anyone asks about the hospital, to call them, and they'll take care of them. When the cop stepped out of his car, I felt like he was some county sheriff suggesting that we "mosey on out of here." That we would leave town if we knew what was good for us. In the movie, the strangers would have ignored all that, break into the hospital, and die some grisly death at the hands of whatever it was that haunts the place. Instead, Joel and I headed back home.
Unfortunately, this was the only picture I have of the place. Here's a link of photos from someone else's explorations, and a YouTube video.
www.flickr.com/photos/stevenchea/sets/72157627475012619/
Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital
Back in 1996 there were several mysterious deaths of patients in the hospital. The head doctor was apparently insane. He fled to the United States. The hospital was abandoned in a hurry. The entire building is in disarray. There are overturned chairs, straight jackets dangling from closets, patient files scattered all over the desks and floors, and even towels still hanging in the public showers. There are some reports that the building is haunted. The hospital was listed by CNN GO as one of the 7 freakiest places on the planet.
17 years later, I tell my friend Joel about the place and we planned a little motorcycle trip to the site to explore it. The whole experience was rather creepy. We rolled into Gonjiam, a very small town, mid-morning and stopped at a coffee shop. After ordering our coffees, I asked the barista if she knew where the hospital was. She said she knew nothing about it. Joel and I did a bit of searching on our iPhones to get some more information. The only thing we could find were GPS coordinates. After plugging it into Google Maps, we discovered that it was only 8 minutes away from the coffee shop. We thought that the barista not knowing about the hospital was rather unbelievable. It's a huge 3-story building. Anyhow, we just figured that the whole subject was taboo in the town.
We headed out on our bikes and headed down the road. As we were riding along, I noticed a police car behind us. For some strange reason, I had a feeling that we were being followed. I pulled into a parking lot to "check my GPS for directions", Joel followed me, and sure enough, the police pulled in as well. A cop got out of the car, walked on over and said, "Nice bike. What is it?" I thanked him and told him it was a Suzuki. He then asked us where we were headed. I knew better than to tell him and said that we were meeting a friend and were waiting for him. I kept looking at my GPS while talking with him. He asked if we needed directions, and I said no, that we were fine, but thanks for the offer. He hovered for a little while longer and then walked over in the other direction. He walked past his car and kept going. That's when I told Joel that we should go while he was out of site.
We finally reach our destination but just did a ride by. There was nowhere to park our bikes out of site, so we rode back a ways back from where we came from, parked, and walked up. As we approached the front gate, some guy in the residential building next to the gate started talking to us. "What are you doing here? There's nothing to see here. I've got a CCTV camera so you'd best just head out. We don't want you out of towners nosying around here." This is a loose translation of what he said in Korean. We just told him that we were just taking pictures of stuff and ignored him. We walked around the area, but there was just no way of getting into the hospital grounds without being seen. After an hour of looking for a way in, and taking photographs of other things, we headed back to our bikes, and left Gonjiam.
The whole thing was rather surreal. We definitely were not welcome in that town. It felt like a movie where a small town has a secret that they're all in on and will do anything to keep strangers away. I sort of imagined that the police told all the town folks that if anyone asks about the hospital, to call them, and they'll take care of them. When the cop stepped out of his car, I felt like he was some county sheriff suggesting that we "mosey on out of here." That we would leave town if we knew what was good for us. In the movie, the strangers would have ignored all that, break into the hospital, and die some grisly death at the hands of whatever it was that haunts the place. Instead, Joel and I headed back home.
Unfortunately, this was the only picture I have of the place. Here's a link of photos from someone else's explorations, and a YouTube video.
www.flickr.com/photos/stevenchea/sets/72157627475012619/