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Where is a better place to live? (Seoulites)
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Where is a better place to live? Seoul or the surburbs
Seoul
77%
 77%  [ 17 ]
Suburbs
22%
 22%  [ 5 ]
Total Votes : 22

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Ilsanman



Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea

PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:05 pm    Post subject: Where is a better place to live? (Seoulites) Reply with quote

Just curious, and why?
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kelly



Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Seoul

PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:11 pm    Post subject: .... Reply with quote

You know I guess it depends on your taste, whether you like a quiet life or not. I lived in the suburbs for almost two years, and it was fine if not pretty boring. Now I live in Ichon dong, which is right in the center of everything, I prefer it because no matter what you want to do, whether its going out partying or just going for a nice quiet walk by the Han, its all easily accessible!! But as I said it depends on the kinda life you want......
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hadeshorn



Joined: 30 Jul 2003

PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I live in Hae Bong Chon and im starting to hate it.

its too cramped, too dirty, the shops around me suck ass!

I am thinking the suburbs would be nice, however that commute would suck ass as well.
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kangnamdragon



Joined: 17 Jan 2003
Location: Kangnam, Seoul, Korea

PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 8:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think it is hard to tell unless you have lived in more than one place. I have lived in the country, in Bundang, and in Seoul. I would say Bundang is the best place to actually live, but Seoul is the better place to be on weekends. I live in Seoul now near my office, but would move back to Bundang after I get married and buy a new car.
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insamsaram



Joined: 16 Jul 2004

PostPosted: Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm enjoying life in Daechi-dong (Kangnam). It's quiet and clean but usually plenty to do and people around throughout the week. It can get really quiet though at times. For example, there seems to be no place open to get a coffee early in the morning (but maybe that's typical here? Starbucks opens at 11 am on Sunday). Went to Bundang last Sunday and liked it, but it's too far away for my taste. I already hate when I have to go anywhere that takes more than 30 minutes.
But I've only been here a week and so far only been to Shinchon, Apgujeoung, Yeouinaru, Mapo, Bundang, etc.... Some places I wasn't too impressed with (for living conditions) in comparison to Daechi.
My point is that Seoul itself is not uniform in its conditions etc... but I enjoy being "on the fence" between city and suburb. A 15 minute walk or 5-10 minute subway ride and I can be in a bustling environment. Or I can stay in my neighborhood and walk around casually without much interference.
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bibimbap



Joined: 14 Dec 2003

PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

daechi-dong is a great area. good location.

ilsan (where i live) SUCKS ARSE.

it's all middle-school kids and ajummas. for a good time, foreigners go to La Festa - which is basically a glorified mall... yawn. a million people here and nothing to do.

i like the lake though.... and they say the air is cleaner here than in seoul. i don't notice a difference though.
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casey's moon



Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: Daejeon

PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 10:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you're going to live near Seoul, you might as well be in Seoul. But my first choice is living in a small city far far away from Seoul. Jeonju was nice....
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peppermint



Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.

PostPosted: Wed Sep 15, 2004 11:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I used to live in Sadang,and the area's main selling point is that it's easy to get elsewhere.
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JongnoGuru



Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep

PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 2:28 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I've lived more places than I care to remember in Seoul, but only felt really comfortable with my surroundings when I moved to this sleepy corner of northern Jongno-gu. It certainly has a "suburban feel" to it, though it's only 10-15 minutes from Gwanghwamoon. Really quiet, houses rather than apartments, trees outnumber the people, more Buddhist temples than PC bahngs, more squirrels than miniskirted girls with microphones hawking mobile-phone service contracts on the pavement. (Does this really qualify as "Seoul"?)

(scroll down to the entry for 30 Aug.)

http://korealife.blogspot.com/archives/2004_08_29_korealifeblog_archives.html
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sistersarah



Joined: 03 Jan 2004
Location: hiding out

PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
ilsan (where i live) SUCKS ARSE.


really? i really like ilsan. last year i lived in mapo, just a stone's throw from shinchon and hongdae...i didn't like it. it was really dirty and the streets so narrow....also, drinking every weekend at the "happenin places" got boring fast 'cause i'm not much of a drinker.
here in ilsan, i find thing cleaner, convenient....i can walk my dog in a park without worrying that he'll be run down. and if i feel like going to seoul, i hop on a bus....40 min takes me right to shinchon, no problem.
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PEIGUY



Joined: 28 Mar 2004
Location: Omokgyo

PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

for me i wanted to live in Seoul because coming from a small town. I live in Omokgyo right now and i love it.. i live right behind a "western bar" that has great service, a PC bang is 5 steps from my doorstep along with a family mart where i can get a beer at 4 in teh morning.. it's close to everything (hongdae etc and not too far from downtown) nice area really i'm enjoying my time in this area..
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Ilsanman



Joined: 15 Aug 2003
Location: Bucheon, Korea

PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:41 am    Post subject: yes Reply with quote

I got tired of commuting.

I also hate Ilsan. Overrated and the expat community sucks ars there.
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JongnoGuru



Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep

PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 6:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm very interested in hearing more (& in more reasoned detail, if possible) why several posters "hate" Ilsan or Bundang or wherever.

These are recently created, relatively well-planned suburbs (though still generally viewed as upstart "new towns" by us more...ahem... established Resident Aliens of the Republic). And they are by and large considered refreshing, rare exceptions to the rest of this often poorly-planned, badly-executed, nature-unfriendly, pedestrian-merciless metropolis.

Broad tree-lined streets and even neighbourhoods of American-style houses, public green areas, lakes, streams, handy retail outlets, well-connected to the capital, etc. This is what Koreans saw when they traveled to the West, and it's what they wanted for themselves.

They built them, and the people came. So did the English teachers, many who claim to "hate" them. Too many ajummas & children for you? The ex-pat community there (yourselves excluded, I suppose) "sucks"? There are even (oh, horrors!)... shopping malls?!

What were you expecting Korea to be like? Ox-driven ploughs, rice paddies and thatched-roof huts? Tokyo on soju? Club Med??! Excuse me, but are you for real?

That said, I would probably agree with any critics of these "satellite towns", but for entirely different, highly personal and (IMO) more valid reasons.

My landlady years ago was an old grandmother who lived alone in the same Korean-style house, built in the late Joseon/early colonial period, where she was born. It was always a treat to visit her house and look at her old photograph albums and hear about life in Seoul from the 1920s-1990s.

She'd frequently say (in a slightly haughty tone) that she lived her whole life without ever setting foot outside the four gates of the city. (No, she wasn't being literal, but close to it.) Beyond them, to her, were only peasants, brigands and the untamed wilderness. (She says Koreans laughed at the Underwoods when they decided to move Yonsei Univeristy from wherever it was out to the countryside -- Shinchon! Shocked Laughing )

That's a pretentious yangban prejudice which resonates very much with my own regarding such extremities of "Seoul" as Gangnam and the like. But Bundang, Ilsan, Pyongchon, Pangyo... yagaddabe kiddinme!

Still, I can understand these suburbs' attraction for many Koreans, especially those for whom real estate in the capital has become too expensive. ("Economic no-hopers! We're well rid of 'em!" I can almost hear my landlady say. Actually no, she was really quite sweet.) But what I don't really understand is the significant number of ex-pats who insist that these places "suck" bodily orifices. The reasons I've read so far are lame. Try harder.

The Guru
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sistersarah



Joined: 03 Jan 2004
Location: hiding out

PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Still, I can understand these suburbs' attraction for many Koreans, especially those for whom real estate in the capital has become too expensive. ("Economic no-hopers! We're well rid of 'em!" I can almost hear my landlady say. Actually no, she was really quite sweet.) But what I don't really understand is the significant number of ex-pats who insist that these places "suck" bodily orifices. The reasons I've read so far are lame. Try harder.


i'd like to hear some too. i mean, to each his/her own, but i'm interested to hear what sucks.

i have an idea that it's just not being in the centre of things; maybe feeling like you're out of the loop. me, i don't go out much, except to work, walking my dog, and i go into seoul occassionally on weekends to shop or meet friends. that's enough for me. but i've talked to people who live in seoul who say they wouldn't live anywhere else...they like the dirty, crowded, chaotic side as much as the exciting, social side....ilsan and the suburbs are missing that chaotic element, the feeling that anything could happen. works for me, not for others. that's my opinion.
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peppermint



Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.

PostPosted: Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

JongnoGuru wrote:

. . .Broad tree-lined streets and even neighbourhoods of American-style houses, public green areas, lakes, streams, handy retail outlets, well-connected to the capital, etc. This is what Koreans saw when they traveled to the West, and it's what they wanted for themselves.


I live in a town thats on the edge of Seoul, and is sorta like what what you described, though it's not so well connected to the central areas of the capital, and the nearest e-mart is a half hour by bus. It's peaceful there which is nice, but I could live without a huge cab fare home when I want to go dancing.

These areas are suburban, and most people in their twenties dont generally like suburbs, no matter what country they're in.
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