A Map for Non-Korean Bundang Residents

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I started this map in early 2013. Many in the Bundang and Yongin area have contributed to it. It’s publicly editable so please feel free to add locations.

It’s also not limited to Bundang, so if you know good locations anywhere in Korea, please add them.

Super-Badass Train Will Connect Seoul to Busan in 90 Minutes

From the Korea Times, a new train is being tested with a top speed of 430km/hour (267miles/hour)(!!!).  For my North Carolina readers, of which there are at least two, that’s Asheville to Raleigh in one hour.  Fuck. Yes.

The super-badass looking HEMU-400X is coming to Korea if it passes government testing.

The story says government testing will be thorough due to unforeseen problems with Korea’s current high-speed train, the KTX.  From the article:

In particular, the latest “KTX-Sancheon,’’ which was built through the country’s own technologies, suffered various mishaps including derailment and stoppages although there were no casualties.

The KTX currently tops out at 300km/hour (186m/hour). That’s not too shabby on its own, though I’d sure hate to be on one of those derailments!

Speaking of derailments, the high-fallutin’ US plan to introduce high-speed trains appears to have fallen off the tracks without ever moving forward.  Guess I might have to sign up for a car-share program if I don’t want to blow my savings when I get back from Korea.

Bundang Line Opens Stops in Yongin

Three new stops opened on the Bundang Line this week recently, part of a plan to eventually connect to Line 1 in Suwon.

The new(ish) stops are Guseong, Singal and Giheung, opening up Yongin as a convenient new area for Bundang residents to work and play.

The Bundang Line is in yellow on the pictured map.

On a related note, Popular Gusts dug up a 1988 article about Seoul’s plans for the metro. Notice that 24 years ago, Seongnam was very peripheral.

--Daniel Daugherty

Sin Bundang Line Opens Today

After a few last-minute delays, Sin Bundang express subway line opened today, connecting Jeongja to Gangnam in 16 minutes. Anyone worried that Seoul was too far away from Bundang will now have a speedy option to complement the extensive bus coverage already available to Bundang residents.

–Daniel Daugherty

New Sin Bundang “Tentative” Opening Date: Oct. 28

After a bout of floods in Seoul, the opening date of the Sin Bundang express subway line has been pushed back yet again, to October 28.  That’s a bummer because it’s a week after my birthday and I wanted to go party in Gangnam.

Apparently, the date is an optimistic estimate.  My guy who knows things says “it’s possible but things will need to go very smoothly until then.”

Even without the flooding, it looks like they’d be pushing back that September 21 date.  I’ve been by a few of the other stops on the line, including Gangnam, and noted that essential installations were still going on, specifically handicap-access elevators and sidewalks.  I snapped some pictures with my phone, some while riding the bus, so the quality’s lacking.

The new Gangnam station entrance for the Sin Bundang line. Note the absence of sidewalk.

And here’s the new Yangjae station. Still in its original wrapping.

Yangjae Station looks much more ready for the opening date than Gangnam.

–Daniel Daugherty

Survival Football Pool

This ref's a survivor.

Anyone want to play survival pick ‘em for the NFL season?  I’ve started a league at Yahoo!  If you don’t know how to play survival pick ‘em, JFGI, because I don’t feel like explaining it.

Click “join a league”.

League ID: 10549

Password: survive

The winner gets a Cass on me at Traveler’s in Bundang.

More of Pangyo’s Trippy New Metro Station

Here are some more pictures from inside Pangyo’s new nightclub metro station.  Check the end of the post for the new line’s operating times.

Who brought the glowsticks?

Too bad those harsh florescent lights will really kill your buzz.

You gotta admit, it looks pretty cool.

Along with the new views, I’ve also learned that the line will run on the same daily hours as the rest of the Seoul Metro, 6 am. to 12:30 am.

As for my last Sin Bundang post, I’m still trying to find out about a new opening date.

–Daniel Daugherty

Watching NFL Games in Korea

I posted about this last year, but I wanted to do a quick update on my situation.  As I said, it’s difficult and/or expensive to watch NFL games in Korea, with no perfect solution.  You’re either watching games live at ungodly hours of the night or watching them on demand/delay, avoiding friends and the Internet, perhaps for days at a time.

I got tired of waiting for people to post NFL torrents, so this season I rounded up some friends and we split the NFL Game Pass for KRW80,000 each, including the playoffs.  The idea is that this way we can get together and watch games each week in a social atmosphere on my buddy’s sweet TV/PC setup.  It’s still not perfect, but it’s the most workable solution I’ve found so far.

–Daniel Daugherty

Sin Bundang Line Set Back by Floods

What a difference two weeks makes.  That’s how long ago CNNGo confirmed the expected September starting date for the new Sin Bundang Line.  Then the flooding happened.

Now I have it on good authority from someone involved with the project that further delays are likely.

Right now they are still planning for a Sept 21 opening and that was possible 2 weeks ago. Now they have had 2 incidents in the last 2 weeks so that date may change. Right now there is still a meter of water at track level at Gangnam and there is a pile of electronics that are full of water (muddy water in some cases). Yangjae also has some wet electronics that has not been turned back on.

The trains on this line will be entirely computerized.  That’s right:  No drivers.  That means they’ll need extra testing to work out kinks and ensure public safety.

Very possible that this stuff will not work when it dries out and the opening date will be pushed back. There is the time it will take to replace this stuff and retest the new stuff and there is all the lost testing time while nothing is happening right now.

Basically, Bundang residents are probably gonna have to wait a little while longer to take this sweet ride into Gangnam.

To hold you over, here’s a picture taken from inside the new Pangyo station.

A picture taken from inside the still-unopened Pangyo Station.

Ooh, shiny …

–Daniel Daugherty

More Speculation on the Sin Bungang Line

Waaaaay out in Chuncheon today (Kim Yu Jeon Station, to be exact), I found this Seoul subway map on the trail platform. It had a curious addition missing from the maps I’ve seen in Bundang. You guessed it: The Sin Bundang Line! I’m just glad the residents in the deepest reaches of Northeast Seoul will find it useful.

The purple-ish line running vertically from top to bottom is the future route of the Sin Bundang Line.

It may not be fully visible to readers, but the stops along the Sin Bundang Line had yet to be numbered when it was added to the map as a “future route.” However, some of you may recall that the new station exits in Jeongja are numbered D12, while the original station currently in use is K230.

As I wrote last week, I really want to know what’s up with the new station exits — are they for an entirely new station or will Jeongja Station be expanded in the future to connect both lines?

Also on the topic, reader Faith Walpole writes:

this is the gossip I have received about the new line; it will eventually go to ori and suwon. well the ppl in migeum are pissed and have been signing petitions to get it to stop at migeum (um do we need a definition of ‘express’) there was even a petition in my building! so now there is a big fight about it which has delayed the opening!

Faith’s information is corroborated by a student of mine, who told me she has seen angry signs around Migeum station.  I’ll have more on this in the near future.

As far as I can tell through research online, there are no formally announced plans to take the Sin Bundang line through Suwon, although the Yellow Line is planned to extend there and connect to Line 4.  Either the people circulating the petitions are sorely misinformed or they know something the rest of us don’t.  Either is possible.

I did find an entertaining thread over at Dave’s ESL Cafe on the topic.  Long story short: It’s just a lot of speculation and nobody knows anything unless they can read Korean.

About the map:  Apologies for the poor photo quality. It had been posted for so long that the colors faded. I had to pull them out by dialing up the contrast and saturation.

–Daniel Daugherty