Ibike Korea People-to-People Program
Photo essay: Sangju to
Gimcheon
Sangju to Gimcheon (34mi, 55km) Beautiful rolling countryside and farmland.
Points of Interest: beautiful hills, rivers and valleys, locations significant
in the Korean War
Just out for a morning
ride, and here is a house that is more than 400 years old! This house was
built in 1601 by Jo Jeong (1555-1636), general of the militia during the
Japanese invasion, 1592. It was moved to the present site in 1661. Originally,
the complex of buildings had 40 bays (space between two columns).
Currently, the main building, guest house and a building for ancestral
ceremonies remain. 
The
vast and intensive agriculture continued. Between the rearranging of the terracing, the
mountains and the village settings the view change every few hundred meters,
mile after mile. Amongst the group we started to have jokes about how many
photos we took of rice fields. We wanted to remember them all. New in this
section was large orchards of persimmons and grapes.
Poking around in a
village during a snack stop, there was a school across the street. Schools
are common. South Korea has a 98% literacy rate. And school
architecture is not distinctive -- it seems like most rural primary schools are
constructed from the same architectural drawing. But tucked up under the
trees next to the gate of this school was a delightful sculpture of students.
I should check to see if there is art next to the gates of other schools. 
It was pretty quiet on the afternoon wander through this market. A variety
of shops were open, but there weren't many shoppers. Certainly the staples were
available: kimchi, dried fish and mushrooms.
It may have been the time of day because traffic on main street was also light. The traffic picked up at rush-hour.
The
sidewalk traffic was much heavier out on the main street. Like in most decent
size towns in Korea, consumers have have access to a variety of international
product. Gimcheon has shops Puma, Adidas, Nike, North Face and a dozen
other international manufacturers. Almost every block in the central city had a
boutique bakery as well. I would venture to say that the amount of bread
and sugar in the average Korean diet is increasing.
On
the topic of transport modality, Gimcheon has several: MacDonald's delivers
orders by motor scooters.
The train tracks run through the center of town and the rail yard is active with trains passing through.
In
the afternoon the sidewalks are crowded -- largely with groups of school girls
in uniform. It seems likely that there are some girls schools in the area.
The merchants are happy because they don't seem shy about going into the shop
and spending money.
Bicycling by locals is rare, but there were a few.
Here are a couple of additional street scenes:The light fixtures in the parking lot of the train station (left).
Looking down a side street across from the train station (right).
The US 24th infantry crossed the Nakdong River on Sept 19, retook Gimcheon Sept 25. Two months before this, not far from here, the US army is accused (disputed) of committing a major atrocity of the war, the No-gun-ri Massacre of civilians, Hwanggan-myeon, Yeongdong County, Chungcheongbuk-do.
200 large and small graves,
dating to the Three Kingdoms period. Burial objects excavated include gold and
silver earrings of Shilla and oil cups for lamps and pottery of Kaya Period. The
illustration (right) shows the extensiveness and density of the tomb area.
Nakdong River near No-ri, Bugok-myeon, Changnyeong-gun
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