Okpo
Encyclopedia
Geoje
Geoje is a city located in South Gyeongsang province, just off the coast of the port city of Busan, South Korea. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering in Okpo and Samsung Heavy Industries in Gohyeon are both located on Geoje Island. The city also offers a wide range of tourist sights...
in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
. The village is located on the eastern coast of Geoje Island
Geoje Island
Geojedo or Geoje Island is the principal island of Geoje City, on the southern coast of Gyeongsangnam-do province, South Korea. It is joined to land by two bridges from nearby Tongyeong. Sinhyeon is the largest town on the island...
and a center of the island.
The Daewoo
Daewoo
Daewoo or the Daewoo Group was a major South Korean chaebol . It was founded on 22 March 1967 as Daewoo Industrial and was dismantled by the Korean government in 1999...
Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) http://www.dsme.co.kr shipyard is located close to the town. A large portion of DSME employees live in Okpo, and DSME jackets are a common sight in the town at night.
There are very few standalone houses in Okpo and most residential accommodation is fulfilled by high-rise apartments.
Rent is high.There are a number of local accommodation agencies offering apartments for rent to incoming foreigners, as well as other supporting services.
Okpo has a large foreign transient population due to the shipyards and as a result there is a 'Foreigner's Club' by the Admiral Hotel which is run by the local expat residents themselves, as well as over fifty Western bars and two dozen western restaurants serving a variety of 'western style' meals. There are also Indian, Pakistani, Vietnamese and Turkish restaurants, and local franchises such as a 'Dunkin Donuts', 'Quiznos', 'Baskin Robbins' and 'Lotteria
Lotteria
Lotteria is a chain of fast-food restaurants similar to McDonald's headquartered in Japan, and now with branches in South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Vietnam. It takes its name from its parent company, Lotte. Lotteria opened its first shop in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan in September 1972.-History:The...
' (Korean fast food burger chain).
A chapter of the Hash House Harriers - The Geoje-do Hash - was born in 1981 and every other Sunday at 11 a.m. it still meets at the Foreigner's Club, is family-friendly and usually includes a meal at the end.
Getting To and From
There are ferries to and from Busan
Busan
Busan , formerly spelled Pusan is South Korea's second largest metropolis after Seoul, with a population of around 3.6 million. The Metropolitan area population is 4,399,515 as of 2010. It is the largest port city in South Korea and the fifth largest port in the world...
four times a day with a journey time of approximately 50 minutes, with additional services from the next port town, just south of Okpo and just a short taxi ride, called Jangseungpo. From Busan airport, the journey time by taxi, by way of the new Geoje-Busan Bridge (10,000KRW toll each way), is under 1 hour, although heavy weekend traffic can be up to 90 minutes.
There is an international school called the Okpo International School - which is very convenient choice for foreign workers bringing their families to Okpo.
Okpo has an amusement park, Okpo Land, on the outskirts of the city. It went out of business in 1999, but because the land has been zoned for environmentally low-impact projects, it remains abandoned.