Jeungpyeong and Chungju are a couple rural areas of central Korea a couple hours from Seoul – not usually areas that make up a waygukin’s (foriegner’s) journey across Korea, but interesting areas nonetheless.

Why come to these rural areas? My friend Hun Ji’s mom lives here – and it’s a nice opportunity to see the countryside! The express train makes a stop here, where I met up with my friend and started the tour.

A bridge of rocks you could walk across.

A look to the right – the river / stream froze solid enough to people to sled or otherwise push each other around on.

The look to the left – where the cars passed by and ducks swam in surprisingly liquid water. It’s freakin’ cold here!

Jeungpyeong

Jeungpyeong is definitely a small town – the sort of town you might find anywhere else in the world where the locals know each other and interact with each other on a regular basis. It’s part of it’s charm, although it’s hardly a tourist destination. For that, you’ll need to catch a bus to another area:

Of course, that presumes you can find the bus terminal. It’s here somewhere on this block… can you find it? (The side door is on the extreme left side of the picture just below an orange sign) Hun Ji knew the area – which is the only way I got on a bus that day.

We bought some tickets for a nearby city called Chungju – another small rural town, but with more to see, according to Hun Ji.

The revised Romanization of the Korean language hasn’t quite reached this neck of the woods yet… Since the hangeul hasn’t changed, just read that instead of worrying about how to pronounce all the diacritical marks.

An hour later, we emerged from the bus, picked up some tourist information (always entertaining to see a Korean act like a tourist in their own country!) We found a park within walking distance of the bus terminal, and off we went.

We eventually came across the UN Peace Park (유 엔평 화 공 원) several hundred meters down the road – a little cold, but we made it. According to the sign (which is a picture of how it look one day), the project began in 2003 but won’t finish until 2019! As planned, the park will take up 634,000 square meters – a HUGE park – and will cost 274,000,000,000 won – over $200,000,000 US dollars at today’s exchange rate.

The stairs leading up once you’ve walked through the parking lot (and past a guy renting out bikes). The park keeps going once you’ve climbed up the stairs through some monuments and sculptures.

We hurried past the monuments while trying to catch the sunset…

That’s better… sort of… we didn’t quite catch the sun setting, but the afterglow was still wonderful.

A park with lots of playground equipment – not the most visible since the light is going down, but still a nice area. Of interest was the almost military-style obstacle course – use the rope to pull you up the steep incline, climb over the metal bars, etc. etc. etc.

Without much more to see in the area, I can’t recommend either area as a place that’s really worth seeing. Not having many motels or yeogwan in the area makes it difficult to find a place to stay. If you know your hangeul you’ll probably make it around alright – but I would still choose to find something worth seeing as a tourist not connected to the area.