Jinju: The charm of South Korea

My new home in this small-great country is a city not many people I've met seem to know about, and I am including Koreans themselves. However, the funny thing is that that is what makes this city even more special than it already is.

Located in southern Korea (1 hour away from Busan and about 1 hour 30 min from Geoge City), Jinju City, also known as "Charming Jinju", is quite small (712.62km2) with around 350,000 people living here. In the cleanest city I have seen in Korea so far, people praise its tranquility and coziness.

During this conversation I had the other day with a Korean taxi driver here, I mentioned how much I loved the city and its unique atmosphere. He then interrupted me by saying that Jinju was changing too fast, that things were getting "worse" here... I couldn't possibly imagine what he meant by all that, since I've only been here for a month now and Jinju seems perfectly fine to me: safe, clean and peaceful (if that's what you're looking for in a city). As he continued, with a tone of disappointment from a man who is originally from Seoul and chose Jinju to work and raise his family, he managed to make himself clear (his English was surprisingly good), "5 years ago there were not as many cars as today; I don't like this". He showed some anxiety, but then added, "but I still prefer to live here". Korea is indeed changing and growing too fast and that somehow ends up not favoring some people who try to escape from all the noise and stress in the big cities.

Despite all the changes, Jinju finds itself deeply immersed in the Korean culture and has beautifully managed to preserve for decades pivotal memories of one of the most important chapters in this country's history: the 1st Jinjuseong Battle (1592), one of the 3 great victories during Japanese invasion, which took place in the imposing Jinjuseong Castle - which is actually a fortress.
Located right along the beautiful and quite famous Namgang river, Jinjuseong looks like a paradise on Earth! Lots of green and huge trees everywhere, children playing freely all around, cute friendly elders resting the Korean way (sitting on the floor of one part of the castle, barefoot of course) and this amazing wide view of the river are all just some of this castle's greatest delights.

The castle's backyard features the modern Jinju National Museum, opened in November, 1984. In a fairly small movie-theater-like fancy room, right past the museum's entrance, a fun presentation video and a short animation movie about the 1st Jinjuseong Battle (both in native American English! - I was surprised) run every day in scheduled times. According to this fluent English- speaking female Korean guide, who introduced herself as Allie, foreigners from all over the world come down to visit the fortress and the museum every week. Well, I have proudly just become one of them.

- Schedule a guided tour around Jinjuseong Castle & Jinju National Museum with the fun English-speaking guide Allie: 82(0)16-9611-9491 (cell phone)
- Check out the following Web site for all about Jinju City: http://english.jinju.go.kr/main/

I leave you with more photos I took on some beautiful sunny days in charming Jinju: