Once commonplace,... public bath houses are few and far between in Korea these days.
More than half of the country's registered bath houses have permanently closed in recent years.
However,... the government is attempting to bring the buildings that housed them back to life... as our Cho Sung-min reports.
Public bath houses in Korea were widely considered staple establishments in every neighborhood.
However, the number of bath houses has declined sharply in the past few years...mainly due to the lack of customers.
Recent data show more than eight-thousand out of around fourteen-thousand registered bath houses have permanently shut down.
This year alone around one-hundred-fifty have disappeared gone out of business completely.

In order to revive the dying sector, the government started making efforts to turn the out-of-service bath houses into facilities that offer various services,...as well as jobs to many unemployed women.

One of the ways that the government came up to restore the closed bath houses is by renovating them into rehabilitation centers.
Injured and disabled people can come by anytime to receive aquatic therapy.
The rehab facilities authorized by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family,...are run mostly by former nurses, female physical therapists, and career-stalled women who plan to pursue a new job in physiotherapy.

Other alternative solutions for the bath house remodelling include art galleries and cafes.
Experts say the renovated facilities attract particularly young adults because they offer contemporary designs against classical and vintage backdrops.

Government officials say they are planning to take additional suggestions from the public for reviving the remaining bathhouses.
Cho Sung-min, Arirang News.