Daejeon is the fifth-largest city in South Korea, but growing fast ... and faster than most other cities in the country. It's located essentially smack in the middle of South Korea on the main transport routes (e.g. 40 mins from Seoul on the high-speed train). Over the last decade, many of the national government offices have moved here to try to ease pressure on overcrowded Seoul. In 1993, it was home to the World Expo and the site has since been turned into a Science Park where hundreds of school children visit each day. In 2002, it hosted one of the World Cup stadiums ... still there, of course.
Daejeon is also notable as a centre of innovation and technology and is home to several major universities (KAIST being the best) and dozens of research institutes, including ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute) where we visited. The area of Daejeon that houses all of these organisations is called "Daedeok Innopolis" (presumably Daedeok Innovation City).
On the first day we arrived, our ETRI hosts took us for a trip to a small temple in the nearby mountains. Interesting in being a bit of a tourist destination and having the road up to the temple lined with souvenir shops and eating places (bit like the Royal Mile in Edignburgh, except more rural).
Arrival at Incheon
Incheon airport
Sunset in Daejeon
Twilight in Daejeon
Nighttime in Daejeon
Freeway reflections
Hanbit Tower (and aliens) at Expo site
Expo site
Helen @ ETRI
Phonetic transcription
Stream near temple
Temple art
Old stone wall
Expo bridge and Expo site
Daejeon streetlamp
The Wall (amphiteatre in the park)
Full-size bonsai at art gallery
Full-size bonsai at ETRI
National Government complex
Bul Dak (spicy chicken) shop in old town (take a close look at the fabulous logo)
Funky 21st century bridge over cleaned-up river
Less funky bridge over same river
Disobedience
Apparently dangerous cycle-track next to river
Powered hang-glider
Eh?
If that's referring to the colour, it doesn't sound good ...
