Life in Gwangmyeong City: Part 2

In case you've not read it yet, click here for Part 1 of this post.

This is the Anyangcheon, a tributary of the Han, and another great place to go for a walk or a cycle.

It's also a good place for families to hold picnics, apparently.

Some kind of local school event.

In the distance you can see the skeleton of a building still under construction.

This guy was playing with a remote-control helicopter by the river. 

Guil Metro Station. 

Some men fishing by the canals nearby.

Commuters heading for the station.

Getting closer to the mysterious, unfinished arena. 

I never did find out what this building's supposed to be, but maybe I'll find out if it's finished before I leave.

A construction yard I stumbled onto during my explorations of the area. There was no one here as it was a Sunday. 

A Lotte Mart across the Anyangcheon.

 

A sign for the Seoul Trail, which I might cycle along later in the year.

Some apartment blocks near Cheolsan.

A cool, hyper-modern church.

Another cool, hilltop park I explored.

There was a little pavilion at the top...

...with nothing but a clock inside.

Well, that gives you an idea of some of the places one can visit in Gwangmyeong. But before I wrap up this post, let's not forget that Gwangmyeong isn't just a cool place to explore by day. It's also very popular for its nightlife, and there are a ton of bars and amusement spots in the glowing fruit machine streets of Cheolsan.

Here's an arcade with lots of sport simulation machines straight from the 80s.

Some friends and I letting out a week's worth of pent-up stress on a punch bag.

Next to the arcade, you can practice batting as a machine fires balls at you (I was terrible at this, for the record).

Cheolsan also has a PS3 bar where you can sit down in a booth and play videogames with some friends. 

You can't tell from this photo but we opted for Winning Eleven, the Korean name for Pro-Evolution Soccer.

There's also a ton of regular bars in Cheolsan, many of them overlooking the bright lights of the district. 

Some of the bars have electric darts, which is like regular darts except the darts are plastic and there are dozens of mini-games. It also tracks the scores, so you don't have to keep writing them down, greatly sustaining the world's chalk supplies.

And that's the end of my whistle-stop tour of Gwangmyeong City. Looking over these photos reminds me that it's really quite a pleasant place to live once one gets away from the drab, overpopulated streets near my apartment. And there's probably a ton of other stuff here that I don't know about yet. So don't be surprised if I make a follow-up post next year!