Jinyeong-ri, Jinyeong-eup, Gimhae City, South Korea. This is our new home. The population is around 26,000 and we have been told by our boss is quickly growing. That's why the school we will be teaching at was opened here. Glen, our director, says the small town is becoming "trendy." We saw evidence of this as we walked through the old city and then the new city today. Jinyeong-ri became well known because it is the last Korean President's home town. Just north of the main highway running through the city fast development has occurred. Just within the last handful of years hundreds of new buildings: apartments, offices, stores, and high-rise towers have been constructed. Many buildings around our apartment are still under construction and we are pretty sure there will be continued development for years to come. In fact, Glen also told us that the tall high-rise apartments that occupy the entire northern part of the town will be copied, and an identical area will be built just north of that. In short, it's insane.
See images of our town at my FLICKR site.
It would be interesting to contrast the level of density of the high-rise blocks to a typical American suburb. After doing some rough measuring and calculations, I've determined the area that the high-rises occupy is about .15mi x .25mi. This is about 33 acres. Within this area there are about 30 high rise apartments that are about 20 floors tall each. It's difficult to say how many units are on each floor, but I think it's safe to say it's more than a couple. The lifestyle in Korea is very different from that of America. This is for sure.
Hello there, great blog. I've a quick question. I may soon be living in this exact town. I would be by myself for the year. How did you find it? Was there enough to do? What did you do socially? Which school did you teach at. How was it? Feel free to respond to my email if you like - tris_palumbo@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteThank you Andrew :)