Gwangju, South Korea
It was nice to wake up in an apartment. Scott had to work, so I had the day to myself to explore Gwangju. As South Korea’s fifth largest city, this home to 1.4 million people has a lot to offer. I was excited to see how people live in a regular city, away from the hustle of Seoul. Again the city takes on a familiar shape with a rough idea of the city center being dominated with taller buildings and commercial interests, and the periphery dotted with massive apartment blocks. As in Seoul, houses are scarce, and from speaking with Scott, most live in apartments, even outside the cities.
While sometimes the architecture of Asia, both modern and traditional, tends to blend together, the varying uses of land provide striking differences in atmosphere. In this regard Korea feels very spacious. The apartment dominated living standards allow for more parks, green space, and wide streets and expressways. The result is a more expansive feeling as opposed to the cluttered neighborhoods of Japan. Hoverer, by taking more of an American approach to road building, where wider and more seems to be the prevailing trend, gridlock and crazy driving is ubiquitous. It doesn’t take long in Korea to realize that red lights are optional and cars rule. If you can’t get across the street in the minuscule amount of time the walk signal gives, look out.
Today I avoided buses and taxis and took Gwangju’s sole subway line down to Yangdong Market. I enjoyed Seoul’s markets and found Gwangju’s to be even better. It seems this is where the savvy Korean shoppers find bargains, and so did I. I’ve been lucky in my travels in Asia to have had at least one experience in each country to cook. I should rephrase this because I’ve never really cooked anything particularly local, but having a kitchen at my disposal has gotten me out in the markets and grocery stores, an experience I consider vital to feeling out the lifestyle of a new place. While I hate shopping for souvenirs and clothes, I do enjoy grocery shopping.
The market straddles the river and branches out from the subway station in a grid of covered alleyways. In the stalls are heaps of kimchi, bins of mushrooms, and bundles of dried seaweed. There is pork alley, where the butchers display the freshly severed head of the unlucky pig as a welcome sign. In fish alley they stack piles of frozen stingray, hang thousands of fish like a silvery woven quilt, and tend to the tanks of live octopus and eel. Other sections of the market include live birds, ginseng, dried fish, and produce. I stocked up on fruits and veggies before heading downtown for a stroll, then returning back to Scott’s place. Gwangju seems like a nice enough place.
Tags: Capitals tour of Asia, Korea
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