Publicly run bathhouses boom as population shrinks

Social Affairs

Publicly run bathhouses boom as population shrinks

Published: 05 Mar. 2023, 16:41 Updated: 05 Mar. 2023, 18:06

The public bathhouse that the Jung District office in Busan opened up in April last year. [JUNG DISTICT OFFICE, BUSAN]

Chung Young-ran, 63, a resident of Chupungnyeong-myeon in Yeongdong County, North Chungcheong, says she has high hopes for a public bathhouse to open in September.

The county office is spending 200 million won ($154,000) to build the 56 square-meter public bathhouse. Admission is only 3,000 won, less than half the 7,000 won charged by bathhouses in the county seat.

While 2,200 people lives in Chupungnyeong, there are no bathhouse in the hamlet.

“While every house has a shower, people who want to take a bath in hot water or a sauna have to travel 20 kilometers to Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang,” Chung said. “We have to change buses two or three times just to take a bath.”

The county government is working on another public bathhouse in a neighboring village to open in April. That bathhouse is a bit larger, covering an area of 330 square meters.

The Yeongdeong county office plans to commission private operators to run the bathhouses while allowing anyone in the county to use them.

Local governments in rural districts are building their own public bathhouses as existing facilities — once central to public sanitation — have been going out of business with demographic changes cutting into their profitability.

The Covid-19 pandemic only made matter worse, just as it did for small local movie theaters, many of which were forced to close.

Local governments are building publicly operated bathhouses in neighborhoods and villages were there are no public bathhouses within 20 to 30 kilometers.

The inside of a public bathhouse in Chupungryeong, North Chungcheong, which will open in September. [YEONGDONG COUNTY OFFICE]

According to Statistics Korea, the number of bathhouses peaked in 2001 with 10,098 across the country.

A decade later, that number had dropped to 8,446. In 2020, it plummeted still further to 6,439. By 2021, only 6,286 bathhouses remained open.

This is to say, in just 20 years, the number of bathhouses had shrunk 38 percent.

The situation is much worse in rural towns and fishing villages of 30,000 to 50,000 people.

“Because there’s no bathhouse here, I go all the way to Seolcheon-eup, Muju County in North Jeolla, just across the county line” said Choe Myeong-ryeol, a 71-year-old resident of Yonghwa-ri, Yeongdong County. “Since last year, I sometimes use the new shower room at the myeon office.”

The Jung District in central Busan, with the help of the Busan city government, built a four-story bathhouse, not including its single-story basement, in the district’s Daechang-dong neighborhood. The 599 square-meter facility opened last April and cost 3.5 billion won.

The bathhouse is as big as privately run public bathhouses but charges only 6,000 won.

“Daechang-dong is not only located on high ground, but many of its residents are elderly, too,” said Kim Soo-ran, an official in charge of welfare policy at the Jung District office. “Thanks to the bathhouse, fewer people are leaving the district to take baths.”

Another district in Busan’s Sasang District opened its own public bathhouse in August.

With other district offices opening their own public bathhouses, residents of Uam-dong in Nam District have urged their district office to build their own, too.

Local governments have been interested in building publicly operated bathhouses since 2006.

Park Joon-young, them the governor of South Jeolla, kicked it all off when he called for the opening of small-scale bathhouses in rural areas for the health of farm and fishing villagers.

Working with city and county authorities, the South Jeolla provincial government spent 31.4 billion won to build public bathhouses in 127 areas between 2006 and 2013.

The bathhouses were built next to village community centers, myeon offices and village gyms.

The North Jeolla provincial government took a similar step starting in 2012, building 51 small-scale bathhouses in the province through 2020.

“Because of the recent hike in heating costs, many public bathhouses have been closing shop,” said Kim Hoi-sik, a member of South Jeolla’s provincial council. “I have proposed to the provincial government that local offices buy public bathhouses that are driven out of business and run them themselves.”

However, local government-run bathhouses are drawing not only locals, but also large numbers of outsiders due to their low admission prices.

Hamyang County in South Gyeongsang plans to double the current 3,000-won admission at a bathhouse it built in Macheon-myeon in hopes of lowering the number of outsiders using the facility.

Opened last April, the bathhouse has not only a hot tub, but also a dry sauna.

“Because we border Jeolla province, outsiders — including residents of Namwon, North Jeolla, which is only a 10-minute drive from here — are flooding in,” said an official at the Macheon-myeon office.

“Of the 200 or so people who use the bathhouse every day, 50 percent are outsiders. Since too many people are using the bathhouse because it’s cheap, we are raising the admission.”

The public bathhouse in Sindeung-myeon, built by Sancheong County, South Gyeongsang, charges local residents 3,000 won to enter. Outsiders are charged 4,000 won.

“Not only do residents of Sindeung-myeon use the public bathhouse, but so do many people who live 15 to 20 kilometers away. including Chahwang-myeon, which doesn’t have a bathhouse,” said the bathhouse official. “We raised the price because 250 to 300 people come every day.”

The demographic changes wrought by the shrinking population are driving local governments to operate several facilities to benefit residents.

As with bathhouse, some local authorities are running small movie theaters.

This trend started when Jangsu County, North Jeolla opened the first local government-run movie theater in 2010.

The small theater in Dogye-eup, Samcheok, Gangwon drew 8,463 in 2021, its first year. The next year, it drew 14,745 people, a 1.7-fold increase.

Cheongju in North Chungcheong is currently working to establish a public dishwashing center.

The goal is to reduce the number of disposable containers from increased food delivery services. The facility will provide reusable containers to the city’s restaurant and coffee shops and wash dishes collected from households.

“As local governments are expanding their welfare services, there are an increasing number of cases where the local governments are constructing convenience facilities,” said Eom Tae-seok, welfare administration professor at Seowon University.

The professor, however, warned that local governments need to closely evaluate if such projects are sustainable and if they can provide services that are comparable to those provided by private operators.

BY CHOI JONG-KWON [choi.jongkwon@joongang.co.kr]