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I lived and taught in South Korea from 1995-2004. I first worked as an EFL instructor at Chonbuk National University in the city of Jeonju for two years. I then moved to Gunsan (45 minutes to the west) where I worked as a visiting professor first for four years at Sohae College and then at Kunsan National University in their English Language and Literature Department.

The Kunsan National University (KNU) Era - 2002-2004
May 22, 2004	Nick & Kyung-ju Ziegler's Wedding	30 photos
Spring 2004	Gunsan Spring Flowers	25 photos
April 2004	English Department Sophomores	8 photos
March 2004	Hui-ri Mountain - Membership Training	16 photos
December 2003	English Department Study Trip - Guam	24 photos

The Sohae College Era - 1998-2001
	coming someday

The Chonbuk National University Era - 1995-1997
	coming someday

The Great Flame monument overlooking Kunsan's port

GUNSAN CITY
North Jeolla Province

South Korea

THE FOLLOWING LINKS ARE TO WEBSITES OUTSIDE OF TRAVEL LIGHT BACKPACKING

Gunsan City - Offical Site		Population: 273, 819 (June 2002)
Current Weather Forecast		Kunsan US Airforce Base
		Kunsan Airbase - How It Was? This is a personal page operated by Kalani O'Sullivan exhaustively covering the history (past and present) of Gunsan city and the US Airbase.
? ? Gunsan or Kunsan ? ? In 2000, due to the introduction of the new Romanization system, the official spelling changed from Kunsan to Gunsan. However, some institutions carrying the city's named have decided to keep the old spelling as part of their title.
		About Joel - Gunsan Blog by a male American teacher at a private language institute - focuses on life in Gunsan, Korean language, culture, travel, and media.

Panoramic photo of the heart of Gunsan as seen from my old office at Sohae College

Gunsan's Claims to Fame

The city of Gunsan allegedly holds two distinctions of note internationally. Every Korean in town seems to take them as established fact, but credible documentation of these claims has yet to be found to insure their validity.

Gunsan has the largest number of Christian churches of any town in the world. This is not per capita mind you, but in raw numbers of individual church buildings. Supposedly this accomplishment is listed in 'a' Guinness Book of World Records, in other words 'a' Guinness Book of World Records which was not among the many I have have thumbed through in vain hopes of verifying this claim. The city is literally covered with church buildings however, 12 of them alone visible from my apartment window. They are impossible to miss due to the big neon red crosses mounted on monstrous tangles of metal scaffolding on every church roof.
The road between Gunsan and Jeonju is the most deadly stretch of road in the world. This 50 mile or so picturesque rural road, which is completely shrouded in early Spring with heavenly cherry blossoms, also claims more lives each year than any other road in the world of similar length. The traffic fatalities are mostly from reckless and drunken driving. Recently a whole slew of new traffic lights have been installed along the road, hopefully reducing speeds and lifting this notorious distinction from Jeonbuk Province (the last I heard, the new deadliest road has now switched to the east of Jeonju between it and the village of Namwon). Again, this information has never been properly authenticated.

Gunsan's name comes from the Sino-Korean characters
'kun' (multitude) and 'san' (mountain).
There certainly are a multitude of hills scattered around town,
but nothing that could be termed a mountain even by the most generous definition.

Gunsan and Literature

Ch'ae Man-sik (1902-1950)

Ko Un - poet

Gunsanites claim Ch'ae Man-sik as their most famous writer of serious Korean Literature. On the eastern outskirts of Gunsan there is a museum established in his honor adjacent to the Kum River Dam and Estuary area. One of his most famous novel's, Peace Under Heaven, is available in English translation and well worth a read.

"There is nothing quite like Ch'ae Man-sik's novel Peace Under Heaven (1937) in fiction anywhere. It seems to be almost a new genre, reminiscent of Dickens in the vividness of the hero's character; of Fielding with its intrusive narrator, and of pansori (Korean traditional opera) in narrative technique. It represents the marriage of realism to the classical romance, a novel full of hilarity whose hero, Master Yun, is the best characterized character in all of Korean fiction. Greedy, vain, unscrupulous, philandering, stingy, Master Yun manipulates and is manipulated by the family of wastrels, ne'er-do-wells and incompetents with which he has surrounded himself, but manages nevertheless to preserve an almost childish innocence so that it is impossible to stay angry with him. Through this genial monster, Ch'ae Man-sik is satirizing the foibles of the Korean people under the Japanese colonization (1910-1945)." [passage adapted from: www.iworld.net/Korea/culture]

Articles/Interviews with Ko Un

Harvard's Yesei Magazine Spring 2002 Issue

Asianweek Magazine November 2001

Koreaweb Review of Ko Un's "Beyond Self" July 1999

This heavily Beat-influenced poet is still living, writing and performing. His name has been short-listed lately for the Nobel Literature Prize, which a Korean writer has yet to win.