Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Free World]

Anyone know whether Dongducheon is a suburb of Seoul or a city north of Seoul? Anyone live there who can tell me what it is like?

[Sucker]

It is a relatively small city / large town about 40 minutes north of Uejongbu (the Northernmost "suberb" of Seoul).

The town also hosts one of the largest US bases in the country that is being phased out.

Also famous for the Russian/Filipino/etc girls that are brought over in slave like conditions to work in the brothels. In fact a large number of the brothels in that town have closed over recent years due to media exposure (from Time magazine no less).

Dongducheon is not such a nice place to live - the locals mostly speak ENglish, but are rather hostlie to foreigners (compared to Seoul). There are protests every other week.

I won't go back there.

[pet lover]

A friend of mine works there and I get real sick of her telling me about all the great shopping that is there, the classes one can take, the restaurants, etc. She ought to just start buying me samples and PROVING how wonderful it all is.

[Dawn]

I work there and am happy there. That said, the school I'm at is in Jihaeng-dong, the new part of town (everything constructed in the past two years). The side of town where the military bases are located is, in my opinion, a total dive.

As far as experiences with locals, I've had no real problems. An old man did start mouthing off about foreign teachers when I walked into a local restaurant one day shortly after Spectrum-gate broke, but the adjuma running the place immediately immediately shushed him up and told him in no uncertain terms that I wasn't one of "those" foreigners. That said, I'm female, so I'm more likely to be mistaken for a Russian prostitute than a G.I.

Shopping and restaurant selection are about on par with other Korean towns with populations of under, say, 200,000. No department stores or fancy western-style places, but plenty of good Korean places and the usual assortment of fast food chains. There are some foreigner bars that cater primarily to G.I.s, but only one that I've heard rave reviews about. (I don't drink, so I can't really comment on night life.) One of my coworkers, however, has found some Korean watering holes that were quite hospitable.

[Free World]

Thanks a lot for all the input, I really appreciate it! Does anyone know how far from the DMZ it is or is it right on the border?

[Dawn]

I haven't been to the DMZ since moving to this part of the country, but Dongducheon certainly isn't right on the border. The rural train that runs through Dongducheon to Uijongbu (and Subway Line 1) also extends up to some little town in the north that's at least 45 minutes past Dongducheon proper.