Korean Job Discussion Forums

[danmdrums]

I'm looking to move to a coastal city with some kind of really awesome, tasty, salty, brine-y seafood tradition. Basically, I want to live as close to the beach as possible and eat fresh, sometimes weird, seafood all the time. Any suggestions? I know of the obvious big coastal cities like Busan, but there seem to be so many "satellite" cities and suburbs that I don't even know where to start looking.

Having a mega crowded, western culture overload isn't really that important to me. I'm a New Yorker...lived here most of my life, so I'm used to tons of people everywhere and zaney night life. I'm not sure I'd like to end up in a huge city like Busan or Seoul, but I'm not completely opposed to it either. Ideally, I'd like to strike a balance between things that are familiar (good night life, decent sized foreigner community), and things that are new - some sense of scenery (beaches that are accessible, mountains...good food) and lots of Korean culture.

Am I being too picky? Any suggestions?

[hagwonnewbie]

geoje

yeosu

mokpo

jinhae

in that order of preference

[Squire]

I can only speak for Yeosu, but it's a pretty cool place to live in my opinion. There are beaches here, plenty of hills to climb, dozens of islands to see etc. It's considered one of the most beautiful cities in South Korea. It's not great if you are one of these foreigners who wants to teach abroad but have all of their home comforts and 'culture' (what ever that means) at their fingertips, but most people seem to be a bit more open minded than that.

[alysiamarie85]

Samcheok is also beautiful, granted its kinda rural in relation to other large cities, the population 76,000...

also look at Donghae.

[sallymonster]

Gangneung. Cute town with nice beaches where you can eat lots of seafood. If I wasn't such a city person, I would totally live there.

[melvaughn]

Tongyeong is a pretty cool coastal city on a peninsula. There are ferries that head out to numerous famous islands/beaches from the city. I loved living there.
http://eng.tongyeong.go.kr/main/default.asp

[Canuckophile]

be in touch by private message if you're interested

quite a nice small city - small foreigner groups (couple unis and a few hagwons)

and beaches and mountains and beaches and mountains (and North Korea, too - if that floats your boat - right up the road)

[GreenSky BlueGrass]

I am glad I found this thread...great information. Thanks all!!


Canuckophile....I saw your post and am intrigued. Would you be willing to share this information with me?
Unfortunately I am new to this forum and tried to PM you and it is telling me that i must write 25 posts before being allowed to PM.....so.

[GreenSky BlueGrass]

also.....

I was offered a job in Seosan City....would this be considered an awesome coastal town??

[Canuckophile]

Seosan OK - I don't remember it as anything special though. If you don't like the big city it might be all right. (I didn't work there - just passed thru.)

[sirius black]

Pohang and Ulsan may be good. Both have a very tight knit and friendly foreigner community, both have beaches and both are close to big cities like Busan and Daegu when ever you need big city life.

[Canuckophile]

I do think that the East Sea (Sea of Japan) area is much prettier than the West (Yellow) Sea. It's also less populated - mountains more imposing - beaches much prettier. I think some of the historic towns in West might be interesting, but I'd much rather live on the East Coast.

Right now the recommendations that our Coastal City person is getting are all over the place - so she might want to look at map first and see what areas spark more interest.

[GreenSky BlueGrass]

[Beeyee]

Seosan isn't bad but it's not really coastal. It takes at least 30 minutes drive to get to beaches, and even then, they aren't very nice. I wouldn't recommend it.

[GreenSky BlueGrass]