Never come to Jecheon if you want a mini version of a big city. I made the mistake of coming two years ago with people who measured the quality of a city by the number of coffee franschises it has. If this really is the measure than Jecheon is way off. If however you really do want to get away from it all and do want to experience a much slower pace of life than this city of 150,000 people is for you. It reminds me of those towns that you see in movies set in the 80’s and the 70’s. The highest building looks to be about 8 stories high (the same as my officetel in Seoul) the rest are just low rise ramshackle buildings that line the streets. The the Jecheon International Music & Film film Festival is held right in the downtown and they close a number of streets up and erect a stage to compliment the one built by the lake.
I will be honest, the beautify of Jecheon is in its surrounding district. Jecheon, from what I have seen only so far, works best as a hub for transportation and a place to stay and eat. The surrounding area including the stunning lake, the temples and what not are what makes this place great. The tourist map sums it up – usually tourist maps focus on the down town but on the Jecheon map, it is a tiny little pin point the in amongst a whole region of activities and things to see. There is an emart, a cute little covered market (I love Korean markets) and a medicinal herb market. T he area is also well known for its medicines, herbs and remedys and as such holds a giant expo every year. There is obviously more and I intend to do more exploring of the city itself and I will let you know about this when I do. I will also be exploring the region and the famous lake which I will also blog about.
