A Video Introduction to Cheongju

This video was made by Tony Boyd, the bassist of the band G-Jay, a local Cheongju band. Check out their myspace page.

Welcome to welcome to Cheongju!

This website is currently being created with the goal of being the go-to place for information for anything and everything Cheongju-related. It is still in its infancy, so it’s kind of a mess right now. If you have any questions or comments, or you would like to contribute to this site, please e-mail me at ronink77 at gmail dot com.

Part 2 – Transportation in Cheongju

Cheongju is not a big city, but if you are new to South Korea, it can be a little difficult to figure out how to get somewhere. Here is some basic transportation information that you will need.

Walking

Walking is a great way to get around town, as well as get some exercise in the process. You’ll want to walk around your area to get an understanding about what kinds of shops are in your area. Just be warned – if you happen to live in an area very close to where you look, there is a very strong possibility that you will constantly run into your students. This gets old very fast, but I’m sure you’ll be able to handle it.

Also, I should probably point out that South Korea has the highest accident rate for pedestrians among OECD countries. So be careful when trying to cross a busy intersection.

Bicycle

Biking is a very convenient way to get around the city, if you don’t care how long it takes you to get from A to B. Pretty much all the roads have sidewalks, and you should be able to find places to lock your bike pretty easily. Do take care – un-secured bikes have a tendency to get stolen. Bikes are usually sold around 100,000 won, though you may be able to pick up a cheap one from a westerner who is leaving (and as you’ll soon find out, people are always leaving.)

Taxi

Taxi is by far the fastest and most popular way to travel. Taxi drivers, however, have no regard for human life and traffic laws. You sort of take your life into your own hands when you get into a taxi. (But as I mentioned earlier, walking isn’t exactly that safe either.) Hailing a cab is pretty easy, though during busy nights, it may take you a while to get one. Also know that Koreans will sometimes walk a few meters in front of you on the streets and steal a taxi from you, even if it is obvious that you have been waiting there longer than you have.

Once you are in your taxi, the initial cost will be 1,800 won for the first kilometer or so, then and extra 100 won every 200 meters or so after that. That being said, I don’t think I’ve spent more than 9,000 won on a taxi ride, and that was going from one end of town to the other. Korean taxi drivers seem to come in three groups. One first group are overly polite and try to have a conversation with you, normally in Korean. Even if you don’t know Korean. It’s best to smile and nod in these situations, while repeating that you don’t know Korean. The second group won’t say a thing, but if you talk to them in Korean, they will be rather polite. No muss, no fuss. The last group… let’s just say that some cabbies are anti-foreigner. They will be a little rude to you, not acknowledging your existence. They may try to cheat you and charge you more or take you the wrong direction (though this is something that happens more in Seoul than in Cheongju – Never take a cab that doesn’t run the meter unless you’ve agreed to a price before the trip, and then only if your traveling a long distance at night after all other public transportation has stopped.) Luckily, you won’t meet this kind of cabbie too often, since they normally refuse to stop for westerners.

Note that the price of taxis go up after midnight. The initial price become 2,300 or so won, with the increments increasing to 240 won. This is balanced out by the taxis driving faster and running more red lights, so you end up paying about the same.

Call taxis are also available, which can be handy if you need a taxi and you are somewhere that many taxis don’t normally go. The numbers of call taxis will be added as soon as I can find them again.

Some key Korean phrases you might need for a taxi:

____________ka juseyo. (___________ 가 주세요.) Take me ___________ please.

Jikjin haseyo. (직진하세요.) Go straight please.

U-hei-jeon haseyo. (우회전하세요.) Turn right please.

Jhwa-hei-jeon haseyo. (좌회전하세요.) Turn left please.

Yogi yo. (요기요.) Stop here please.

Scooter / Moped / Minibike

Some people prefer to get around themselves. The scooter is an affordable option. I’ve heard that you can buy one for about 300,000 to 500,000 won, but I’m sure that you can get them cheaper than that. I believe that under 100cc you do not need a license to operate one. So keep that in mind. Do note that Korean drivers are extremely crazy, and I personally would never drive on the road. Also, if you decide to drive, it is absolutely necessary to obtain some insurance. More on that in a bit.

Bus

Buses are very convenient ways of getting around the city. There are many bus stops throughout the city, and almost every stop is equipped with a video monitor that tells you which bus is approaching and how long until it will reach the stop. A bus trip costs only 1,000 won, and you can buy a rechargable bus pass for 6,000 won, which will knock 100 won off the cost of your ride, and allow you to transfer for free. The downside of taking the bus is that if you can’t read Korean, it is almost impossible to figure out the bus line. Information in Korean about the bus service can be found here, and the route maps can be found here. If you want to take a bus from one end of town to the other, I recommend you take the 502 bus. But be careful, if you ride it out farther to than the bus terminal, it will take you to the town of Jochiwon, and will cost you an extra 700 won.

Car

If you live and Cheongju and commute to a school in the country, it might be a good idea for you to get a car. You can pick up new cars for as little as 1,000,000 won ($1,000) but the quality is nothing to write home about, and it will have absolutely no power. Used cars are a better method, with used car dealerships existing in the city, though I am not sure exactly where.

If you have a license, you can get a Korean driver’s license. Simply go to the Korean DMV, submit you license from your country, and they will issue you a Korean one. Technically you have to give up your domestic license which can be a pain (especially if you are an American and your license doubles as your personnal identity card), but if you make a big deal about it, you should be able to keep your license no problem.

As I mentioned before, I would not drive in Korea. First, drivers here are atrocious, and accidents occur here more frequently then they do in the States. Second, the roads are extremely narrow, and parking is in limited supply. This, gas is expensive, costing around 4,500 won a liter. Finally, and perhaps the biggest reason, is because of car insurance.

In an accident in the States, whoever is at fault in an accident pays for the damage of both cars. In Korean, both parties are always at least partially at fault for an accident. So if you get rear-ended by another car, you still may be deamed 20% responsible for the accident, meaning you have to pay 20% of the repairs. Now, if your car is some small POS, and the other driver owns a BMW, that 20% may end up costing you quite a pretty penny. Check the this entry from Korea Law Blog for more details. Suffice to say, if you drive, you’d better get insurance.

And thats about it for traveling inside the city. I will try to update this when I get more information. What about traveling outside the city? Well, that will be in part three of out series – Escape from Cheongju. Expect that to be up sometime this week. And feel free to leave any comments or questions you might have.

Life in Cheongju Part 1 – Welcome to Cheongju!

It has come to my attention that I will be leaving Korea soon. One of my friends remarked that after I leave Korea, they will lose one of their best sources of information in Korea. That got me thinking that, as a public service to the peoples of the internet, perhaps I should write some of my information down. My goal is to make this the number one site that people hit when they search “Cheongju, South Korea” in google. I want them to find information on “Nightlife in Cheongju”, “Restaurants in Cheongju” and “Entertainment in Cheongju”. So without further ado, here is part one in my multipart series, Life in Cheongju.

Life in Cheongju Part 1 – Welcome to Cheongju!

Congratulations! You have just decided to spend the next part of your life living in Cheongju, South Korea. This section of my blog has been dedicated to give you, the new resident to Cheongju, information that you may need to survive and even thrive in our fair city. So without further delay, let’s get started.

Job – Which job are you going to do in Korea?

If you have come to teach English in Cheongju, there are basically four types of jobs that you will be working in – teaching in public/private elementary/middle/high schools, teaching in private schools academies, known as hagwons (학원), teaching in a university or teaching at a company. Each job has its positive and negative aspects, and for a good overview of everything, check out Teaching English in Asia.

Quick Note: On Learning Korean

Depending on where you work, your co-workers may or may not expect you to know much Korean. And you can survive here knowing next to no Korean. However, I cannot stress how much it helps to know some basic Korean. Not only will your co-workers and students think better of you, but also, it will make your life infinitely easier. However, as you will quickly find out, learning Korean is not easy.

At a minimum, you should learn to read and write hangeul (한글.) Hangeul is the Korean alphabet. Basically, it is essential, if you want to travel, or know how to read a menu, to know hanguel. Luckily, it is very easy to learn. For my early studied, I used the Seoul National University online Korean course. This is a good introduction to the sounds and how to write each letter. Also, provided below are the different letters and their approximate English equivalents (something that is absent from the SNU site.)

Consonants:

(g, k), (n), (d, t), (r or l), (m), (b, p), (s),

(ng), (j), (ch), (k), (t), (p), (h)

Vowels:

(a), (ya), (eo), (yeo), (o), (yo), (u), (yu), (eu), (i)

(Taken from Korea.net’s history of hangeul.)

(You will notice, that when I introduce something in Korean for the first time, I will try to include the hangeul as well. Practice often using the signs on the street, and you will be amazed how quickly you start to understand the signs around you (especially since many are written in Konglish, English words that have been adapted into Korean, with sometime vastly different meanings.)

The more Korean you learn, the more you may realize that self-study simply isn’t your thing. As far as I know, there are two places in Cheongju where you can have cheap English classes. The first is at the YMCA, Saturdays from 10:00am to 12:00am. The cost is 30,000 won (approx. $30) to register for the YMCA and 20,000 won for the textbook. (To go simply get in a taxi and say, “Shi nee YMCA yo. (시내 와이엠시애요.)” After you go inside, the people will take care of you from there.) The other class is more intense. It is a Monday-Friday course held at Chungbuk National University (충북대학교.) The cost is free, but is from 7:00 – 8:30 pm (not the most ideal for academy teachers.) A book (approx. 15,000 won) must be purchased from the campus bookstore. Registration is also required. For more information contact:

Hwang Seon-young,
International Education Center,
Chungbuk National University
Telephone Number +82-43-261-3299
E-mail – jiayou at chungbuk dot ac dot kr

Basic introduction to Cheongju:

By now, you’ve probably searched for Cheongju on wikipedia, maybe stumbled upon the information on Galbijim, and perhaps even looked at some Cheongju message boards at Dave’s ESL Cafe. However, you may discover that some of these sights are lacking specific information. Still, I feel it is necessary to give you a brief overview of the city. So, here is a brief overview of Cheongju.

Cheongju is the capital of Chungcheongbuk-do (충청북도), also known as North Chunchcheong Province, or simple Chungbuk. Chungbuk is the only landlocked province in Korea, and it’s people are generally known for being farmers. There are three “cities” in Chungbuk, Cheongju (청주, the capital), Chungju (충주) and Jecheon (제천, the smallest, and closer in size to a large town.) There are also many different counties, towns and villages. In some places in the province, the people in town have never seen foreigners, which can be fairly interesting the first time you head off to a country village. Information on Chungbuk can be found here (in Korean) and here (in English).

(A note on Korean web pages. If you want to use a Korean website, be it in English or on Korean, you’re going to have to use internet explorer. Korea is the only country in the world that relies entirely on active x controls for the construction of their web pages, which basically means that if you use firefox as your main browser, or if you have a mac, many Korean web pages won’t work for you.)

Cheongju has roughly 500,000 to 600,000 people, and approximately 300+ foreign English teachers living in town. The town is located 30 minutes from Daejeon (대전), and 90 minutes from Seoul (서울, both by bus.) Cheongju has a fairly developed bus system, but taxis are cheap and plentiful. Also, Cheongju is connected to a major rail line that links with both Seoul and Daejeon, from where you can easily transfer to Busan (부산). Cheongju is the leading educational and industrial center for Chungbuk, with many people in other parts of the province transferring to Cheongju if possible. Cheongju is home to one of ten national universities, Chungbuk National University, a national museum and the Korean Air Force Academy. Also connected to Cheongju is the Cheongju International Airport, which is known for flights to Jeju-do and to China and Japan. (Information take from Moon Handbooks South Korea.)

For more information on the city visit its web page here (Korean) or here (English).

If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment. I will be constantly looking to improve the quality of this site as a resource, so anything that you want to add will be greatly appreciated.