One of my goals while I am here in South Korea is to visit at least one other province. A few weeks ago, I went to visit my friends from Utah in Seosan. Seosan is in Chungcheongnam province (Seoul is in Gyeonggi province). The city is about a 90-minute bus ride from Seoul. My friends told me that Seosan is “really countryside.” When the bus was entering the city, it didn’t seem countryside at all. It looked like a small city with lots of buildings. As the day went on I definitely saw major differences between the two cities.
In Seoul, the streets are always crowded. The only time when it isn’t crowded is Saturday and Sunday mornings, when everyone is sleeping in. Seosan streets are deserted. The only points of interest with many people were the market and Lake Park (pictured above). Even the shops in the “city” looked abandoned. Population density versus Seoul is about 11/1000. Despite the “countryside-ness” of Seosan, I still saw all the major cosmetic stores available in Seoul. My favorite part of Seosan is Lake Park. It’s an area with a nice pagoda, pond, walkways, and colorful fountains. The area surrounding it is more developed with a Lotteria (McDonald’s of South Korea), café chains, and new apartments. Seosan is where the modernism of South Korea meets the countryside.
