Osan

Lodging: motels in every direction

Tourist Office: no, but there is a decent tourist map at the station

Of interest: downtown Osan

Nearest bank: Nonghyup is straight down the road in front of the station

I have been to Osan three times, but every time I forget my camera. So sorry no pictures. Hopefully, I will remember next time because Osan actually has some pretty interesting parts. (Although if you look at the crappy picture I took of Sintanjin, maybe that is not such a bad thing.)

Several historical sites are located in Osan. The closest to the station is a Confucian shrine, one of two major ones in Korea. Someone who is good at reading maps and has a good memory can walk there in less than 45 minutes. Other sites are further away, but Osan is small enough that a taxi ride shouldn't be too expensive.

I also climbed to the top of a hill that is close to the center of town.

Osan is a working class town with a large foreign population. (Foreign meaning non-Korean.) There is a Central Asian/Russian restaurant to the left of the station and something else to the right.

Osan station is mainly served by subways and commuter trains that follow the subway route. There are a couple of trains daily to Busan and a couple to Seoul.

Jeongeup

Lodging: multiple motels

Tourist Office: Yes

Of interest: river walk, Jeongeupsa Park, Chungreolsa temple, Jeongeup Hyanggyo

The name Jeongeup comes from a Baekje era song, one of only five songs that survived to today. The country of Jeongeup is full of historical monuments. In the city itself there are two areas of interest.

Turning right when you leave the station will take you to a small river with paths along both banks. Go left to walk into the city, walk right to walk away. If you walk left along the river for about twenty-five minutes, you will come to Jeongeupsa Park which contains the Jeongeupsa Art Center.

Turn left when you leave the station and then right at the first major street will take you toward City Hall. Chungryeolsa and the Jeongeup Hyanggyo are behind the city hall. Hyanggyo were Joseon-era public elementary schools.

I didn't actually see any of the above. I walked along the river and then through the city instead. It is possible to walk from one end of the city to the other in less than an hour. There are not a lot of sidewalks, but drivers are very polite to pedestrians. I did find the town's central "pedestrian" area. Unlike most pedestrian areas, this one formally let cars drive down it. But there were actually less cars than on some other "pedestrian" areas in Korea because the road was curved like a river. It was also painted blue. There was a exhibition of traditional Korean painting along the road.

I had a hard time finding a restaurant to eat at, but once I did, I was very happy. I just went to a local kim bap place where I had excellent turnip green (yeol mu) bibimbap. One of the things that I like about Jeolla-do is that you can go to the simplest restaurant and eat better than at an expensive big city restaurant.