HOW IT IS: KUNSAN CITY (1995-Present)

Winter at our Kunsan Apartment (Kim Eun-Woo)	Cholla area fisherman (Kim Eun-Woo)

Cholla seaside
(Kim Eun-Woo)

Acknowledgement: The following photos are from Mr. Cheol-Kyun Shin's website, Cyber Gallery. They depict the daily lives of people in the Cholla area. Mr. Shin is an internationally recognized, award-winning photographer who resides in the Kunsan area.

Grandfather selling brooms. (Cheol-Kyun Shin 1997)	Lady selling her foodstuffs on the street (Cheol-Kyun Shin 1994)
Monastery scene. (Cheol-Kyun Shin 1997)	Monks talking heatedly (Cheol-Kyun Shin 1993)
Seaside scene. (Cheol-Kyun Shin 1990)	Grandmother walking by rice drying at the roadside. (Cheol-Kyun Shin 1998)

View of Kunsan from Wolmyong Park (toward the old center of the city) (Kunsan City brochure)	View of Kunsan from Wolmyong Park (towards Changhang across the Kum River) (Kunsan City brochure)
The Peace Torch Monument in Wolmyong Park -- With the cherry blossoms in full bloom (Kunsan City brochure)	Eunjeoksa Temple -- Built in the Silla Dynasty around 300 A.D. Old temple demolished and new temple built. (in Soryongdong) (Kalani O'Sullivan -- Jan 2000)
View of Cherry Blossoms and harbor at Wolmyong Park (Kalani O'Sullivan, April 1999)	Cherry Blossoms at Wolmyong Park (Kalani O'Sullivan, April 1999)
Yoon at Wolmyong Park (Kalani O'Sullivan, April 1999)	School kids out for a picnic (Kalani O'Sullivan, April 1999)
View of Kunsan Harbor looking towards Changhang (Kim Yeon-Kil)	Beoyung-ro Street (to Chonju) -- Famous throughout Korea for its cherry blossoms. (Ko Ki-Ha, PASK, 1996)
View of Okku reservoir levee (near Kunsan Airbase). -- In the foreground is a fishing net in the water and the tree in the background marks where the airport road joins to the road on the top of the levee from the other side. (Kim Yeon-Kil)	The new Kunsan City Hall (Shi-Chung) -- The sign on the front proclaims "Working for the prosperity of Kunsan." City Hall relocated to the western side of Kunsan in 1997. The old City Hall near the harbor front has been leveled to make way for a department store. (Kalani O'Sullivan 1999)

Departing the base (heading towards Okku Village) Myself and fellow EA Controller, TSgt Rodney "MacDaddy" Crowe decided to take a bike ride to see what was off base at Kunsan. When we were done, we had rode 27 miles! Below and on two more pages is a quick and dirty set of pictures to show you what we saw. The local Korean environment we serve in has a few surprises. I hope you enjoy this. Ok, this is the main road leading out of Kunsan Air Base. There is a small community ahead of which seems to have no name. It's a bee hive of activity and one can only imagine what they're doing. Keep peddling!	Entering Okku Village (turn right at intersection ahead) The local off base community is always busy. As I said before, we don't really know much about their history or current culture but it's only fitting to assume they are working to better themselves. The drivers are courteous to us bike riders and move around to the left to avoid us. We see an occasional wave or a verbal hello. Some of them try hard to communicate with Americans. There is a sign post ahead, one leads you to Kunsan City, America Town (otherwise known as "A-Town) and to other points beyond, both to the left. We chose to take a right hand turn and head into "Twilight Kunsan".
Heading down road towards Osang After the right turn we see the local commodity before us. Rice and more rice. During our bike ride we were in the early portion of the rice season. The fields had been planted and shortly afterwards they were completely flooded with water needed to help the rice grow. Our riding objective, for now, are the hills in the distance. The quest for the hills! That's TSgt Rodney Crowe in front me, and what a piece of work. He's here from Scott AFB, Illinois where his wife and kids are waiting for his remote to be over with. When he's not voicing his own philosophies about "anything", he can be found with me and other EA Controllers at the Command Post playing Half Life. His words are usually comical and equally sobering. This is a long road with not much to look at so stay busy with the peddles. The wind is at our backs! Beware the Binjo ditch to the right, it's raw sewage.	Left turn to return to Road to Kunsan (Osang) Ok, we've seen the main road outside the Kunsan Air Base gates, the farming district, the hills that are still heavily defended with UXO's, and the same road has led us to the Yellow Sea. The road sign basically leads us back to where we came from. We've reached a dead end of modern road work. To the right is the Yellow Sea at low, low, low tide
View of the Mud Flats at Fishing boat landing (Osang) Personally, I think the Yellow Sea looks better from the flightline at the air base. Rodney and I discussed the depth of the sea at this rest stop (our own, nothing public about it) and came to the conclusion that it's dirty and shallow. Korea (and this is my own personal view) doesn't seem to care much about it's own ecology. There is trash all over the place and one would think that a ocean/inland environment so close to one another would be looked after closely and pampered. Not here. It's nothing impressive.	Scott along Mud Flats (Osang) Ok, ok. May as well have a picture of me by the Yellow Sea (at low, low, low tide) just to savor the moment. The wind is picking up as you can see by the strap on my helmet. Nothing new there. Well, enough of this. Let's ride to Kunsan City
Scott at Minefield Sign (Okku-gu) What a Kodak Moment! Who would have guessed that we'd stumble upon a mine field? It doesn't really seem surprising due to the fact that during the Korean War, mines were planted all over the country in the hopes of offing North Korean invaders. I guess they never quite got around to sanitizing every hill. So, as it turns out the hills we were riding for are saturated with Unexploded Ordinance. I doubt anyone dismisses the sign as bad information and goes hiking through the hills. By the way, neither did we	Guard post along the way (Okku-gu) About a hundred yards from the mine field warning sign we found yet another Cold War relic! An honest to goodness Korean Gunner Tower. We figured it's been here since the Korean War since the hill would present itself as a strategic advantage in any war. Can you imagine how many Korean soldiers had to pull duty in that thing, day in, day out, in case North Korea decided to launch a surprise invasion on the Kunsan coastline? I pondered the notion of exploring the tower, but remembered the UXO warning sign down the road, and immediately decided against it.
Kunjang Wedding Hall (Taehak-ro across from Eunpa) Is It Disneyland Or The Las Vegas Hilton? Neither, you know what this is? A larger than life, Wedding Store. Yup! Everything you need. Wedding dresses, tuxes, musicians, decorations, limos, cakes, you name it. Think of it as a Mall Of The Newly Weds. Koreans are big on weddings, some of them done in mass. It didn't surprise us to see this after we figured out what it was. We didn't go in but stood outside and wondered for a moment about the mentality that went into this structure. One can only imagine.	Across from Eunpa Resort (Taehak-ro) Well, it was a long ride but we made it. Kunsan City is about a 1 hour bike ride from where we were by the Yellow Sea. We eventually made it into the city streets and I suddenly found out that Kunsan City is actually a metropolis. This picture is at a quiet part of the city. We eventually got in a portion that had so much traffic and people on the sides walks that it was impossible to take a picture while riding.
Intersection of Taehak-ro and Industrial Road Well, it looked busier when I took the picture. We were trying to get over to the other side of the street because Rodney had rode this route before and was pretty sure he knew where he was going. I'll leave that one alone. We made it safely across but not before I caught the local Korean people taking their life into their own hands crossing the street.	Fish Market (Yeong-Hwa Dong) Pinch your nose or take a deep breath! It smells like fish through here. The USFDA could have a field day here with violations, but it's a part of the culture to dry fish out in the open for all to view and buy. The fish are filleted and in rows. I'm not sure about the significance of the process but if it's not killing people, it must be ok. No thanks from here though. From my point of view it looked like fish jerky. Nah! I'll pass. We are now making our way home, with a scheduled stop in A-Town for some lunch. Nothing but boring road from here.
Wolmyong Park entrance (Yeong-Hwa Dong) Rodney rode ahead of me as I took this picture of a Buddhist Temple on the outskirts of Kunsan City. It got very hilly again and the trail leading up to where the temple is definitely walking material. He stopped and purchased a snack from a local merchant that highly resembled a long, fat "Pay Day". It was a home made treat that I didn't sample, only because I was more thirsty than hungry. I believe he paid about 2,000 WON for it, or 2 US Dollars	Hamburgers on base after the trip Is that all the pictures I took? I guess so. After the Kunsan City Fish Market we tackled a long, and boring, ride down a stretch of road that must've been 5 miles in length with nothing to look at. We rode into A-Town and had got something to eat and eventually ended up back at Kunsan safe and sound. The above picture was actually taken weeks before when MSgt Joe "Austin"Powers (red shirt), TSgt Rodney "MacDaddy" Crowe (the other guy) and myself (taking the picture) decided it was time to cook hamburgers in the kitchen of bldg 1408, where myself and MacDaddy live. And did we ever. We couldn't eat it all between the three of us. And so ends another day at Kunsan Air Base.