Gyeonghwa station and Masan fish market
Today I completed a full loop of Changwon, joining the 3 parts via bus. This took in Changwon proper where I am staying, as well as the blossom festival of all blossom festivals at Gyeonghwa station in Jinhae and then finally the fish market and art village in Masan. Those are all basically random words, but the important bit is that I have now seen all of Changwon (from ground level), tomorrow I will look down upon it again from a medium height.
First up was the most popular cherry blossom festival in all of Korea (allegedly), complete with crowd control, just like the one in Seoul. This one was better because it is on an abandoned train track, complete with a train that houses the history of how it became a cherry blossom festival location. On a Monday morning, there was almost no one there.
About 40 minutes away by a convenient bus is Masan. This has a very large fish market. Fish is just part of the market, it is an everything market, but since it is right by the ocean, they call it a fish market. Most of what Korea calls fish is not actual fish, but more like crustacean innards combined and mashed into a slurry inside a bag.
Very nearby in Masan is what is advertised as art streets. It was a bit hard to tell as this area was mostly closed on Mondays, but there do seem to be a lot of galleries around.
Then finally, I could have taken a bus in either direction to get back to my hotel, but I had to complete the loop! So I let 2 buses that would have been quicker in the other direction go past just so I could complete my anti-clockwise journey around all of Changwon.
Brace for blossoms. There are hundreds of street food and trinket stalls nearby, all closed.
The blossoms however, do not close on Monday, they are now starting to rain down slightly. There are still signs warning you to not walk on the tracks which is rather confusing.
Because you are also encouraged to stand in the middle of the tracks and take photos.
The blossom tunnel is about 800m long. It is indeed quite impressive as far as blossom hysteria goes.
Almost no one around.
I love a train themed toilet.
Not a toilet.
Inside the train is a museum of sorts, detailing how a once in use train line became Korea's premier blossom destination.
There is also a library where you can read about blossoms, and how Korea invented them and Japan stole them (probably).
I got down low, as most others taking photos seemed to do it this way.
I may have over blossomed, I blame the addition of the train.
I was not joking about crowd control.
Next was the famed fish market at Masan, proudly displaying the Chinese character for fish. They know their market.
This market has not been fully gentrified yet.
Petrol powered scooters still ride around coating the food in 2-stroke residue.
Some areas are wetter than others.
That is probably enough fish market pics.
Time to head down to the docks. Note there are fake light houses on either side of this photo to climb up (I did).
View from fake lighthouse, fishing boats and giant bridge in the distance.
Changwon proper is on the other side of those hills, I will climb those hills tomorrow.
Final stop of the day, the art themed shopping streets of Masan. So arty.
I saw 2 shop cats, one was behind glass, this one came out to greet me, photo slightly out of focus. We had a small fight but eventually agreed upon a truce. Despite appearances in this poor photo, he does actually have 2 eyes.
Probably the main pedestrian outdoor street in the art area.
There is a rope hanging off this bell, wisely not long enough for me to ring it.
Sang Sang Gil - which is the street most often shown on reviews of this area.
To get back to the fish market area from where I would get a bus, I travelled through a long covered clothes market. Lots of military themed clothes as always.
Typical Korean street scene from out the front of any traditional market, ideally I would have got closer to the steam from the dumpling shop (mandoo / mandu), but then I would have missed the vegetables laying in the street.
Last photo for the day, scenes from a moving bus. They really like planting a lot of flowers at intersections here.
Changwon department stores
My hotel has a cool feature. There are 3 lifts (elevators for most of the world). Above each lift in the hotel foyer there is a tv screen showing a very clear top down view of exactly what is going on in each lift. Exhibitionists would love this setup.
Earlier today I was waiting for a lift and it was taking too long, that is when I noticed the screens. I was then able to see that one lift was jammed open with a cleaning cart, and the others were stopping at every floor while 2 cleaners threw a bag full of towels out the door. The third lift was just not working at all.
If it is raining tomorrow instead of hiking I will go downstairs and watch the lifts.
It was in fact, according to various sources, supposed to rain from 5pm onwards, basically exactly the time I go out for a walk in search of my dinner. As of the time of writing (8pm), it is still not raining. I kind of wish it was so that it is gone in the morning in time for my hike.
Anyway, because I thought it was supposed to be raining, I spent the evening walking laps of the local area, taking photos of large stores, but only going inside one of them.
Store number one is the Lotte Mart Maxx, basically Korean Wal-Mart.
Store number two is e-mart, which I do believe was actually owned by Wal-Mart... I will check. OK the wikipedia article is highly confusing, I read it twice and still don't understand - "In May 2006, Walmart acquired Walmart Korea, converting 16 Walmart stores into Emart stores. Walmart Korea was accepted and changed to Shinsegae Mart, and in 2008, Walmart Korea was merged entirely with Emart".
Nearby is another retail area, a few streets like this with different coloured roads which signifies you may be about to get run over while crossing the street between shops.
Quite a big network of shopping streets, but very quiet.
I headed back to Lotte Mart Maxx and found that it connects under the road to the Lotte department store. Well obviously I had to go explore the underground.
The Lotte department store basement had a nice selection of casual restaurants, which meant it was time for Bibimbap #2 of this trip. Much better than the first. I think it was vegetarian too? I did not even notice. The soup was actually really good, lots of chilli.
These 2 buildings make up the Lotte department store, they are joined, the one on the left is a Lotte Young Plaza, which exists in a few cities. This generally means it has a Uniqlo and a Muji. That is where I buy my clothes EXCLUSIVELY, which must mean I am young?
I then realised about a km away there was a phantom other department store. So obviously I had to go there to complete the photos of large box like buildings. The map tells me it is called Daedong, I did not go inside, but I did see while walking past that it has a cheap looking food court, so maybe I will go there tomorrow!
My journey back to my hotel went past yet another retail area, but a more standard Korean style, with the commercial looking buildings that are now restaurants, karaoke bars, love hotels and vape studios. Actually zooming in I can see study centres and internet cafes too. So everything.
Tomorrow is a hiking day, but probably a fairly easy hike. It is the most well known hike in this area.
The end for now
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