Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BS.Dos.]

Can anyone give me the low-down on Changyeong in the Gyeongnam province as this is where I'll be heading in a few weeks.

I'm aware that it's pretty much out in the sticks and that it's (roughly) 40 or so miles from both Daegu and Busan, but I haven't been able to find any info on the Changnyeong town/village/shed itself.

Anyone who's worked there or visited/driven through it who can let me know what I've let myself in for would be appreciated.

I'd welcome any info on the size, population etc as well as any other info on the ammenities found there (a gym would be nice) etc.

Thanks in advance.

[Ya-ta Boy]

If you are ready for scum-covered swamps, then sign that contract right now!

Changnyoung is waaaaaaay out in the sticks. You won't be paid the extra 'country living' bonus apparantly because there are places even more remote, but I haven't seen 'em.

The town itself isn't all bad. There are two main streets. It's right next to the expressway and a free local highway. The people are nice enough.

It's 'famous' for the Onion Festival and the 'oldest' swamp in Korea, or maybe Asia. They also burn off a mountain side in the fall. This is the year for that. Enjoy.

There are 7 high schools in the district. (I think this is the year one boys high school merges with a girls high school, so maybe only 6 now.) Most of them are filled with the kids without the gumption to go anywhere else. One of the high schools is for the real university-bound. If that job is on offer, it may be worth your time. The others are less so. A lot less so.

The two truly nice things I can say about the place: a) the guy at Nong-Hyup Bank is a good guy and speaks great English and b) the mountain is kinda cool.

[BS.Dos.]

Great. Onions and swamps for the next 12-months.

Suppose I'll have plenty of time to study, thats if I don't go insane first.

Please tell me there's a gym there. May as well buff-up in between preparing onion salads for my (solo) swamp picnics.

[cruisemonkey]

Yep, onions! Changnyeong-gun is proud of its onions!

I used to work in the sticks outside of the hicktown of Changnyeong.

There is a gym on top of the KT Plaza building in the town of Changnyeong.

At what school are you going to be?... or is it English Camp?

[BS.Dos.]

^The Changnyeong National Scientific Institute of Onion Research.

Only joking, Changnyeong High School.

I'd rather not hear if you've heard bad things about it. I'm having enough trouble dealing with the onions at the moment.

Glad to hear that there's a gym though.

Any swinging bars? Or is the local salad cart the main social focal point?

[BS.Dos.]

So, just to re-cap on the high points so far:

1. Onions (Lots of onions)
2. Swamp, one of. Old
3. Nice chap who works at the bank
4. A gym
5. A Mountain (Torched)
6. A freeway

[just because]

One thing i noticed about Changnyeong when i go there is the smell...

Maybe it is the combination of onions and the Upo swamp(which is not the most exciting thing in the world) but the few times I go there I also remember the smell...

It does have a cool mountain in hwawangsan(where they do the fire lighting) and very easy access to daegu(40 mins), busan(90 mins) and Masan(40 mins) at the bus terminal which all are not too far away...

good luck with it...it is the deep country.

[BS.Dos.]

Smell? What kind of smell? Eggy, sulphuric?

[cruisemonkey]

There's a type of tree that really stinks for about a week in the spring. That, combined with the river, i.e. open ditch, that runs through town and the occasional whiff of sewer gas wafting up from the grates can be offensive to the nose.

Changnyeong is not that bad though - I spent two years there (I'm moving to Tongyeong in Sept.) - and you'll meet several other foreign teachers - send a PM to Yu Bum-suk. No rock'in nightlife unless you all get plastered at the hoff (Baek-du-dae-gon) and end up in a sleezy norebong.

I'll be in Changnyeong Sept. 1st to get all the stuff I've left in storage for a month. If you want to meet, I'll introduce you some of the 'gang'.

[BS.Dos.]

It's sounding better already.

I'll PM you if thats ok.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Ummm....that was not 'swamp' singular; it was meant to be 'swamps' plural. There are a series of them in the neighborhood. They are the high spot of school trips.

Other things not mentioned so far:

They have preserved a terrific mound of dirt in downtown Changnyeong, right smack beside one of the two main streets, near Lotteria. It's an 18th Century 'refrigerator'. I was duly impressed that someone was impressed enough with a root cellar to preserve it. I guess Koreans invented refrigeration.

There is also a collection of tombs preserved. These are bigger mounds of dirt than the root cellar. The cemetary is just up the road from the root cellar.

Get friendly with whoever is teaching at Namji High School these days. There is a terrific dak-galbi restaurant in Namji. Best in Korea that I've found. (Namji is about 10 miles down the road from Changnyeong)

You can always go to Bugok for evening frivolity. Bugok is also about 10 miles down the road (5 miles or so south and turn left and up over the hill another 5 miles). Bugok is home to Bugok Hawaii, a major draw in that part of the country. From all over the country, actually. Dozens of places to take a bath.

Back in Changnyeong: the check out clerks and stock boys at Uri Mart (or is it Win Mart?) on the main street down near the south end of town, are very friendly and some can speak decent English. The guy who wears dreadlocks seems pretty cool.

If you last your year, you should be around for the big international conference (or whatever it is) on the environment that is (or was) scheduled for '08. They're expecting a bunch of scientists from someplace like Botswana to come and ooo and ahhh over their swamp.

[cruisemonkey]

The 2008 UN Ramsar wetlands conference will be held in Changnyeong because of its proximity to Upo Wetlands. Delegates from all over the world will be coming (I wrote an English language tourist guidebook for the county as a make-work project one week I had no students) and may be just a 'tad' disappointed.

The local government is really excited... but I don't think they'er going to be prepared for the throngs of dreadlocked, sandal-wearing, tree-hugging, whale-loving, eco-freaks who will descend apon this quaint, rural berg to protest the fact that Korea has raped and pillaged, drained and filled 99.8% of its 'swamps'. Upo wetlands are a series of four shallow lakes that have been bermed, dyked; and are now full of pesticides and heavy metals. Upo is, however, home to about 340 rare or endangered species of plants and animals.