gwangju-si

The town is live in is called Gwangju. If you google Gwangju, South Korea, however you will find a much bigger city to the south with the same name. My city is much smaller. It has around 200,000 people living here, but in Korea that is a semi-small town. South Korea is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with 48,379,392 people crammed into an area the size of Indiana. My city, therefore, may sound as big as Madison and there may be just as many people, but it feels much smaller. Most Koreans live in apartments and not houses, so the city is much smaller area wise.

Map of South Korea: The orange part is Seoul, and Gyeonggi-do surrounds it.

My city is located in Gyeonggi-do province, which is the province surrounding Seoul. Most cities in Gyeonggi would be considered suburbs of Seoul. In order for me to get to Seoul I have to walk about a block to a bus station and take a red inter-city bus for 40 minutes. This bus drops me off at Gangbyeon Station, which is on the Green Line on the subway. The Green Line is the central loop through Seoul so from there I can get almost anywhere in about 30-40 minutes. It's really easy to get downtown and the subway is HUGE but really easy to navigate since it's all in english. I go to Seoul at least twice a week nowadays.

Map of Gyeonggi-do: My city is to the Southeast. Gwangju.

As for my actual city, I don't live in the main downtown drag, but on the main street we have faves like Baskin Robbins and Dunkin Donuts. An E-Mart just opened which is like a Korean version of Target meets Meijer. We have most things you could need.