Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Gyeonggi-do's provincial capital, Suwon, is a pleasant city of just over one million only
30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Seoul. Like most South Korean metropolises, much of
Suwon is a relatively uninspiring mass of high-rise buildings and busy streets, but it does
have the distinction of being the only walled city left in the country. Its downtown core is
completely encircled by the over 200-year-old Hwaseong Fortress, and the structure's mag-
nificent towers and pavilions, as well as the green finger of Paldal Mountain near the city
center, make for some inspiring vistas.
Suwon is a major center for South Korea's electronics industry and one of the main pro-
duction bases for tech giant Samsung, meaning it has a sizable population of foreign soft-
ware developers and engineers, as well as language teachers, laborers, and military person-
nel. The Yeongtong-gu area just to the east of the city center tends to lure the most expatri-
ates.
An affluent, largely residential district of relatively new high-rise apartment blocks,
Yeongtong is well laid out and well served by public transit, and it offers close proximity
to the central Paldal-gu area, which Yeongtong was actually part of until relatively recently.
Paldal-gu is home to Suwon's central train station as well as AK Plaza, a major retail com-
plex, and government offices. Rents at newer apartments in Yeongtong-gu start at around
600,000 won for a one-bedroom unit, with deposits of 10 million won. Apartment prices
in Suwon are manageable by South Korean standards, with modern one- to two-bedroom
units in the range of 250 million won.
The city of Seongnam, just south of Seoul's ritzy Gangnam district, has witnessed exponen-
tial growth over the last decade as Gangnam's affluent professionals have pushed their way
into the neighboring jurisdiction in search of more space. Nearly all of them have flocked
to the Bundang area, an impressive amalgamation of green space and towering high-end
condominiums. With its expansive congestion-free roads and abundance of parks, Bundang
is one of South Korea's closest approximations to the suburbs found outside major North
American cities.
Bundang's expatriate community is also expanding quickly. Apartments here are gener-
ally priced similarly to comparable accommodations in Seoul—around 1-2 million won per
month for one- or two-bedroom units in refined complexes such as the SK Park View—but
are often better designed and offer more space and amenities (shops, restaurants, fitness
