Bucheon, a characterless but attractive place


     


Bucheon is a city located an hour's drive from downtown Seoul Korea, home to a population of 0.9 million. For most people here in Korea, it is nothing but a featureless city of arrays of concrete chunks of apartment complexes and the like. But for me, this is the place where I always wonder if anywhere else in the planet can provide same degree of amenity I am enjoying now.  I think the city can be summarized by the combination of initials “2AC”.  Here, 2A represent accessibility and availability. And C means “Cheaper”. 

First, let me talk about accessibility. Bucheon is between Incheon and country’s capital Seoul thus you can easily go many tourist attractions or hot places, conveniently via subway line 7 that goes through the main drag parallel to 8 lane road GiljuRo.  Once you take subway here, then the train takes you to downtown Seoul, Kangnam, Hongic Univ where many clubbers gather during weekend and scenic mountainous areas of Dobongsan station.  Bucheon is also close to international airport and Kimpo airport which is main transportation hub for domestic destinations, Japan and China.

For availability, I can tell you that you can enjoy almost ~80% of things that are in Seoul. There are tortuous alleys packed with endless restaurants, karaoke places and business hotel style accommodations.  If you don’t look for something very luxurious, then it is the right choice to be. 

Everything also seems to be arguably cheaper than other parts of metropolitan areas including real estates, foods & drinks, hotels.




At night, it will be enchanted forest of neon signs with rhythmic K pop music emanating from speakers and the drunken crowds fill the sidewalks.  Although there are still many people wearing facial masks, the joyful mood dominates post COVID19 blues. It is safe to get around the downtown even after midnight.

Of course, this is not to say my hometown is immune to any crimes and there are dark vibes, especially near residential areas.  I don’t mean any chances of stumbling over something terrible or getting mugged, but the neon signs and ads of private educational institutes all over the areas front of apartments and gated residential communities.  Whenever I was dazzled by hostile rays from infinite constellations of such ads at night, I sighed and think about meanings of life and civilization again.  Probably same for many families here, something like spending more than 1000 ~ 2000 USD per month for kids to make them better or more intellectual ( I want to put a capital Q question mark instead of period here). Living in the industrialized society could be stressful. For now, I have a question and do not have an answer. That is one of the reasons, a driving forces that push me to continue this journey…A journey to find out something about apparent meaninglessness of daily life and frailty of us.  There may be something that I don’t understand lying deep beneath the surface of what is going on.  And I hope going to different places, talking to people, and drinking beers and spirits can be of great help to explore.

       

 

 

 


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