Once commonplace,... public bath houses are few and far between in Korea these days.<br />More than half of the country's registered bath houses have permanently closed in recent years.<br />However,... the government is attempting to bring the buildings that housed them back to life... as our Cho Sung-min reports. <br /> Public bath houses in Korea were widely considered staple establishments in every neighborhood.<br />However, the number of bath houses has declined sharply in the past few years...mainly due to the lack of customers.<br />Recent data show more than eight-thousand out of around fourteen-thousand registered bath houses have permanently shut down.<br />This year alone around one-hundred-fifty have disappeared gone out of business completely.<br /> <br />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.<br /><br /> One of the ways that the government came up to restore the closed bath houses is by renovating them into rehabilitation centers.<br />Injured and disabled people can come by anytime to receive aquatic therapy. <br />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.<br /><br /> Other alternative solutions for the bath house remodelling include art galleries and cafes.<br />Experts say the renovated facilities attract particularly young adults because they offer contemporary designs against classical and vintage backdrops. <br /> <br /> Government officials say they are planning to take additional suggestions from the public for reviving the remaining bathhouses.<br />Cho Sung-min, Arirang News. <br />
