Ibike Korea People-to-People Program
 

Photo essay: Gimcheon to Goryeong

Gimcheon to Goryeong (34km, 55mi)

  Historical Note: The Battle of Daegu: Five divisions of North Korean army were at Waewan, on the west side of the Nakdong River, 20km northwest of Daegu, in August, 1950. The North Koreans hoped to pierce the Allies defensive perimeter, capture Deagu and continue on to Busan. The line was held by the US 1st Calvary Division. After another North Korean offensive in Sept, the US 1st Calvary counter-attacked on Sept 16 and reversed the course of the war, again. By September 23rd the Allies had reached Sangju, more than 50 kilometers to to the north -- as the crow flies.

The US 24th infantry crossed the Nakdong River on Sept 19, headed west and retook Gimcheon Sept 25. Two months before this, July 26-29, not far from here, near Nogeun-ri, Hwanggan-myeon, Yeongdong County, Chungcheongbuk-do (25km northwest of Gimcheon), the US army is accused of committing a major atrocity of the war, the No Gun Ri Massacre. Estimates of the dead have ranged from dozens to 500 South Korean civilians refugees -- mostly women and children.
  The bicycling is so consistently excellent that you have to remember not to take it for granted.  The bicycling is excellent because the country side is so beautiful with its mix of farms and forest, and the country roads are in such good condition, with generally low traffic volumes (unless there is a large construction site near by, which is transitive.)  As good as the bicycling is, even nicer is sharing a smile with the people we met along the way.
  To keep the record accurate, not all farming is rice farming, and it is not just the rice field that are eye catching.  Even the row-crops are done with style.  The yield is good, the product is uniform and there is not a weed in sight.
  For miles all the roadside trees were wrapped with green bans with preserve the environment messages.
Buddhist Temple A temple along the road side.  It is medium size compared to the large temples in the mountains, and the small isolated hermitage that often satellites of the big temples.
  Shops and markets tend to be very specific: the pan shop has a lot of variety of pans, the clock shop has time pieces from wristwatches to digital clocks to grandfather clocks, and the garlic woman has a lot of garlic.  But this doesn't even scratch the surface of the kinds of merchant that there are in town.
 
 

Cheongdo Haeinsa
 

Gimcheon Hoeyang

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