Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bish]

Hello, my first post!

Im from the UK and am moving to Siheung City in Aug to teach English in a Middle School. I know it's very close to Seoul can anyone tell me a litle more about the place.

Also, are there places to play Soccer/Football and go to the Gym?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[huffdaddy]

I don't live in Siheung, but I bike through there frequently. Some of my fav spots:

Ok-gu Park is great. They have a sweet football pitch. I've only seen school kids playing games there, but there might be some open time when you can get into a pick-up game.

There are some great places to bike around there. The Greenway is a 7.5 km running/biking path with only one street crossing. The Sihwa Seawall is 11 km of uninterrupted path (aside from a few bottlenecks where people gather). Beyond the seawall are some nice islands you can bike around or camp out on.

It's close to Ansan, which is the Asian food capital of Korea. They've got some great restaurants - Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Uzbek, Chinese, Indian, Mongolian, and more. Lots of accompanying foreign food markets.

Sorae is nearby. An awesome seaside fish market. Wolgot and Oido are also good fish mongering spots as well.

In short, get yourself a bicycle and explore the area. There's a lot to see.

I've got most of these spots mapped out on my blog (click on the www button below).

[Trumpcard]

Siheung City is a large sprawling place. Depends where you'll be. I never went to Ansan, but it sounds cool. In the Eunhaengdong/Dayadong areas next to Sorae-san, you can live a very simple, peaceful existence but be incredibly bored after 3 months. Small foreigner community there is one of the worst cliques imaginable.

[Ilsanman]

Shiheung is one of the most undesirable places to live in the Seoul area. In my opinion, of course. I would rather live in anearby city and go there to see nature.

[gyopogirlfromtexas]

I got a GEPIK offer for that area too. I requested Anyang, but I got that area instead. Is that a decent place to live? Is it close to nearby cities? Is it a city or sort of a hicktown? I looked it up on wikipedia, but there is not much information about it. Anyone frequenting or living in that area who can share their in depth thoughts?

[jaganath69]

[cottageloaf]

it totally depends where you are in siheung. it's a huge area. i'm in daeya dong near unhangdong and i like it. i've not had any problems with cliques here. siheung is an easy enough spring board to go other places as well.
there is a nice park here but mainly we end up hanging out, maybe the odd bevvie and nori bang as there is not a huge amount to do in this area, but i like it.
the foreigners here are mainly from the UK (which is a bit strange in korea) so you'll fit in fine.
see what you think when you get here.

good luck

oh and there are lots of gyms that you can get memebrship really easy to. in daeya dong we've just had a new council sports centre open, with gym and swimming pool that you can join or pay W3,000 per time. a princely �1.50.

[gyopogirlfromtexas]

I am getting dissapointed, some posts here say Siheung is an hour from Seoul. I was hoping 30 minutes at the most. Someone also said you need to ride the bus to Bucheon, and then it's an hour from Seoul. But gepik already put me there:(.

I'm somewhat sad that I'd be that far away and not many people post about it, so it must be a small place. I don't see how an hour + bus and subway ride is considered, "close to Seoul."

But when I look at the subway map ( http://canopus.cnu.ac.kr/lsap/jk07/subway.jpg it is the purple line between Bucheon and Anyang and 3 or 4 stops above Anyang), it appears lot closer to Seoul than the Gyeonggi map ( where it is shown way below Anyang). So should I follow the subway map or the gyeonggi map?

[Return Jones]

[Ilsanman]

Bucheon is not an hour from Seoul. More like 30-40 minutes.

[bish]

[Trumpcard]

where Cottageloaf lives is quiet and has lots of nature but SFA to do other than get pissed. There is no subway station but one will open in about 1.5 years. It takes 1.5 hours to get to Itaewon, for example, and that's by taking a bus to Bucheon, then 2-3 trains. The mistake I made when I first came here was not listening to the sound advice of living in Seoul. Daeyadong and Eunhaeng dong suck big time. If you must live far out, at least be near a subway station and civilization.

cottageloaf, have you got laid yet?

[gyopogirlfromtexas]

Ok, maybe I was confused. I was so sad yesterday thinking how far out I'd be. The bus ride plus an hour subway to Seoul sounded bad. Someone told me there is Siheung and Sinheung. People confuse the two. And that Sinheung was where I was depressed about, thinking that's where I was going.

Geesh, people learn to spell it right please (so we can differentiate the 2 different places) and not confuse the two. I was so sad thinking about it, but I'm not even going there. Whew! I'm going to Siheung and not Sinheung.

[Return Jones]

[Morton]

I live in Siheung Daeyadong. If anyone in the area is up for doing something PM me.

Sinheung is on the East/South side of Seoul and is further out. I've never been though.