How Many Times Can I Visit Goyang

From where I was living in Paju, it would take me about an hour to get to the edge of Seoul, so instead, I would often visit Ilsan, a district within Goyang city.  It would still take me about an hour to get to Ilsan, but at least an hour would get me right to the core of Ilsan, whereas an hour on the bus to Seoul would only get me to the edge before I needed to transfer to the subway to get into the heart of Seoul.

Ilsan is absolutely beautiful and I fell in love with it from the very first time I visited.  In hindsight, it’s really nothing that special – it’s just a district where the population density is much higher than where I was living, which meant that there would be many more stores, and conveniences around.

One of places I visited the most was La Festa, a big open shopping area full of restaurants and cute little stores.  It is located a short walk from Jeongbalsan Station (정발산) on Line 3.  Many of our gatherings would be around this area as there is also a movie theatre here that places English movies.

Another great thing about Ilsan is that there is also a Costco located within walking distance from Baekseok Station (백석).  It was great because aside from some local specialities, Costco sold everything that I was used to seeing back home.

In the spring, we decided to finally visit Lake Park, in hopes to see some cherry blossoms.  The lake within Lake Park is the largest artificial lake in Asia and we had planned on purchasing some food nearby and taking it to Lake Park for a picnic.  We weren’t the only ones with this idea as many families seemed to be enjoying the nice day outside.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t quite warm enough for the blossoms yet, as most trees were still bare.  We ended up spending a wonderful few hours at the park, playing dodgeball with some of the local kids.

For more photos, please see my Photo Gallery of Lake Park.

Goyang is also home to the annual Goyang Horticulture Festival where various displays of exotic plants and flowers are on display.  The festival is considered Korea’s representative flower exhibition and is definitely worth a visit.  They have everything you can imagine – fresh flowers, plants, pressed flowers, potpourri, flowers made from metal and much more.  And of course it wouldn’t be a festival without some sort of performance.

For more photos, please see my Photo Gallery of the Goyang Horticulture Festival.