More Koreans consider exit from urban metropolises

By Kim Ji-soo

Hur Sang-kook, 38, made the move several years ago that others are now contemplating. Hur now lives with his Japanese wife Keiko Chiyonobu and three children in Pungwha-ri, near Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, running cafe and guesthouse Antwerp. The entire family relocated from the city in 2015; Hur first came down to build the house in 2013. While Tongyeong is a popular tourist site now, Pungwha-ri remains the small fishing village it was with some 20 households. Hur moved to provide a better environment for his children in terms of education and life experiences.

"Everything is monosyllabic in Korea. I wanted my children to have one place other than Seoul, where more than 50 percent of the Korean population lives, to call home, and where they can encounter the sea, the fields, the nature," he said.

Originally from Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province, he had considered returning to his hometown, only to find it partly urbanized and no longer identifiable as the rustic community that he knew.

Hur had all the right credentials to succeed with urban family life. He graduated from Seoul National University and worked at a conglomerate, which was at times painful for him.

"It was work, the same grinding work. Practically all people do in the city was to work," he said. The only "fruit" was that he got to meet his wife. His reverse migration story even made him a star of a television morning documentary in 2015. Almost two years later, Hur is digesting his new reality.

When returning to rural life, people should be prepared to have less income. "But everything is so much cheaper," he said.

What is difficult for him is the broad gap between how the locals view him and how his parent's generation regards his move.

Hur Sang-kook, 38, owner of a cafe and a guesthouse in Pungwha-ri, South Gyeongsang Province, poses with his wife, Keiko Chiyonobu and their three children. / Courtesy of Hur Sang-kook

"There are undeniable inconveniences, like not having that neighborhood dentist," he said. Also, as a city migrant, he has to learn to find his place in the community, where conflicts may arise over the smallest daily things.

Speaking honestly, he said he saw many people in their late 50s actively seeking for a place to spend their later years with relatively more abundant funds having the possibility to drive up property prices. Hur also advised people looking to relocate to a more rustic place to be really specific and honest about what they hope to get with the relocation.

Kim Young-gwon, 56, also moved out of Seoul six years ago. A native of Seoul, Kim spent 22 years as a journalist in Seoul before relocating to Hwacheon, Gangwon Province, at the age of 50. Kim is very satisfied with his "second-stage" life.

"I had a lot of skepticism about urban life, the social system of our times ... whether it was making me happy and healthy," Kim said. Kim also heads the one-man Small Economy Research Lab and regularly writes about living in Hwacheon in Gangwon Province on 1.2 million won a month. The fact that he is single, his younger sister who also lives with him is single, and that he was willing to sell his urban dwelling were some vital elements that prompted him to make the move.

"Now, I am confident that this life of earning less, spending less, wasting less is sustainable," Kim said in a telephone interview. By that Kim means to say that he was able to shed off the need to continue working and the anxiety about not having work, and learn to live with what he has. He finances the 1.2 million monthly from two small officetels he bought and now rents after selling his apartment. These days, he does "what I want to do such as read or take walks, and the things that must be done," he said.

"In the future, I may even opt to experiment with a more simplified lifestyle," Kim said. For those looking to exit out of cities, he advised "if you shed the urban mindset, then your ‘return-to-village' will succeed, but if you continue to hold on to the same lifestyle of earning more, spending more, wasting more, you're most likely to fail," Kim said.

Local governments in Korea are actively courting would-be new migrants. As a result, some 329, 368 households or more than 480,000 Koreans have returned to rural or provincial communities in 2015, and the figure is expected to rise. There is a general center, which falls under the central government, that advises and supports people looking into and making the reverse-migration.

In that vein, the reverse migration away from cities may well be a rising and dominant trend. Many are considering such a move as a 55-year-old executive at a media outlet in Seoul. Surnamed Cho, he said he is considering with "interest" of returning to the village. A native of Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, he trekked to Seoul for education and a job but now he is looking at various options including a more rustic life if not necessarily farming.

Hur in Pungwha-ri said, "it would be ideal if the local governments and the would-bere-settlers could work together for synergy and contribution to the village as well."