Gyeryeong

Lodging: Not next to the station, but lots of motels in the town itself

Tourist Office: No

Of Interest: Town of Gyeryeong

Computers in station: No

The town of Gyeryeong is a suburb of Daejeon. It is a small group of apartments surrounded by mountains. There is a HomePlus and a wide variety of restaurants. The train station is a little to the north of the town. To get to lodging from the train station, take bus 202 from in front of the station parking lot.

The KTX trains go from here to Yongsan in Seoul and south to Gwangju and Mokpo.

Iksan

Lodging: No
Tourist Office: No
Of Interest: peach jam

Iksan is the point where the Jeolla and Janghang lines meet the Honam Line. The most interesting thing near the Iksan train station is the covered market. I went in the early evening when it radiated the color of sunset.

But what I remember most is peach jam. I have been looking for peach jam everywhere. I used to be able to find all kinds of good jam in the basement of the Galleria department store in Daejeon, but not anymore. The grocery stores have strawberry and grape which I don't like. The snooty bakery downtown has things like mangopassionfruit (alloneword). In Busan I found fig. (Note: the peach jam was gone the last time I was there.)

Iksan is about an hour and forty-five minutes from Yongsan (Seoul) and fifty minutes from Seo-Daejeon by KTX. Those times are three hours + for other trains to Yongsan and an hour+ for Daejeon. Going the other way, it takes an hour to go to Gwangju and an hour and a half to go to Mokpo by KTX. By Saemaeul or Mugungwha, it takes 75-90 minutes to Gwanju with a trip to Mokpo taking about two hours. There is also a line to Yeosu that is Saemaeul/Mugungwha only that takes two hours to get to Suncheon and two and a half to arrive in Yeosu.

Onyang-oncheon (Asan)

Lodging: Yes, walk to the left when leaving the station

Tourist Office: Yes, in the square in front of the station

Of Interest: Multiple spas based around the local hot springs, City Tour (really county tour, on weekends)

ATM: To get to the nearest station, walk straight out from the station

Computer in station: No

Oncheon is Korean for hot springs. Onyang oncheon is one of the more famous hot springs areas in Korea. It is also one of the hottest. The local hotels in the area all have hot springs in their basements. There is also a famous sauna near the train station. The train station and the hot springs are at the edges of Onyang's small downtown. There is a pedestrian area that starts one block north of the station.

The tourist office is in the plaza to the right of the train station. A tour of the Asan area leaves from this plaza on Saturday and Sunday mornings. The most significant stops are at the local folk museum and a confucian shrine which is partly dedicated to Yi Sun Shin, an admiral who is famous for repeatedly defeating the Japanese when they attempted to invade Korea between 1592 and 1598. He grew up in Asan. There are several monuments dedicated to him in the area as well as a yearly festival.

Onyang-Oncheon is on the Janghang Line that runs south from Seoul and then curves west at Cheonan to run through South Chungcheong Province to the coast then south to Gunsan, then east again to Iksan where it turns north to Daejeon (Seodaejeon Station). The line almost makes a circle around the Geum River. If you are going to Iksan or Daejeon, it is quicker to go to Cheonan-Asan (KTX) or Cheonan Stations (Saemaueul and Mugungwha) and change trains. Cheonan is fifteen minutes away, Pyeongtaek half an hour, and Suwon forty-five minutes. This trains stops at two locations within Seoul, Yeongdeungpo (an hour and fifteen minutes) and Yongsan (an hour and a half). These are most of the stops on this train. Korail assumes that people will take the metro within cities in Gyeonggi-do.

Going away from Seoul, Yesan is fifteen minutes away. From here there start to be significant differences between the time by mugungwha and samaeul as the mugunghwa stops at some of the smaller locations that are served by the metro closer to Seoul. Hongseong is half an hour by saemeul and forty-five minutes by mugunghwa. Trains to Daecheon take an hour to an hour an a half to get to that coastal town. Janghang used to be the end of the Janghang line, and it takes between an hour and a half and two hours to get there. Add fifteen minutes to that time to get to Gunsan.

Onyang-Oncheon is also on line 1 of the Seoul Metro. This line runs alongside the Janghang line from here to Yongsan Station. Sinchang, one stop away, is the end of the line and the location of Soon Chun Hyang University. (I used to work for them.)

Jochiwon

Of Interest: Freight yard, downtown Jochiwon

Lodging: motels

Tourist office: none

Jochiwon is a little town that grew up around the convergence of the rail lines connecting Seoul and the rest of the country with the lines that connect Daejeon with Chungcheongbuk-do and the mountains of Gangwon-do. It is a typical Korean small town with a lot of lodging right next to the train station. Overall it feels like an industrialized area.

You can take buses that go out into the countryside and to Gongju from the bus stop across the street from the station.

Besides being on both the Seoul-Busan and Yongsan-Gwangju/Mokpo main lines, trains from here go up into North Chungcheong Province. The three stops that serve suburban Cheongju are from ten to twenty minutes away. Jecheon, where you can change to trains Gangwon and Gyeongsang Provinces, is a little more than an hour and a half away along an attractive route near many mountains. There is good hiking from some of the stations on this route.

If you are going toward some of the more urban parts of Korea, Seoul is about an hour and a half away while you can reach Daejeon in about thirty minutes. Go to Daejeon Station to transfer to the Busan KTX and to Seodaejeon Station to transfer to the southwest KTX. Saemaeul and Mugungwha trains to southern Korea are cheaper, but they are also slower.

The three stops that

Cheonan

Of interest: station square, old downtown

Lodging: Hotel on station plaza

Tourist Office: Yes

Computers in the station: yes, but may be hard to find

Cheonan is a city of about 500,000 people. It is the largest city in Chungnam. It is near Gyeonggi Province on the major transportation routes connecting Seoul with the rest of the country. Trains for Chungnam Province (Janghang line) branch of from the main Seoul-Busan line here. This makes the station a little confusing. There are actually two stations in the building, the main one and the one that serves the Janghang line and the subway. So if you can't find your train, go into the hallway and look for the other station. Do not leave the station.

Like many Korean cities, Cheonan has an old and a new downtown. The new downtown is located near the bus station. The old downtown is just southeast of the train station. Explore far enough, and you will run into a traditional market.

There are large public spaces on both sides of the train station. The tourist office is located in the one that flanks the main station entrance. There are sometimes musical performances in this area. I think this is exit 1, and it exits from the east of the station.

Note: There is a store on station square that advertises international goods that it does not sell. The original store was sold and the new owners never took down the old signs.