In Gong Wall or my new home

I was looking on the Korea on the Rocks website and saw a post for one of the artificial walls. In Gong is in Gwangmyeong City, where I live and work. I looked at the directions from the subway station and noticed it was the one near my school. There was also info about bus routes but it was vague. The thing that bothered me was I somewhat knew the direction most of the buses went and it even listed the bus I take to go to work. I decided to play it safe and go with the more detailed directions.

When I got off the subway and out to the street I knew I had been on that particular corner before. It was a few weeks ago when Ms. Lee, Julie, and I left school early for various reasons - I had to take an HIV test and a drug test in order to get registered as a legal working alien. Following the directions, I walked up to an intersection that looked like any other in Korea but I knew this one. I go through this intersection everyday on my way to work. That's when it hit me. This place has been sitting in my back yard and I hadn't known about it. Even worse, no of my students bothered to tell me about it and I told them in my opening lesson one of my favorite hobbies is rock climbing.

The wall is behind a park where there's a nice basketball court (something else I've been looking for), track, and outdoor exercise equipment commonly found in Korea. There's a small bouldering section inside the wall. Here's a link to the wall.

I want to say the wall is at least 30 feet high and most of it is overhung. Koreans love overhanging stuff. It seems like that is how they add difficulty to the route. I'm going to need to buy a rope since they're all lead routes. If I get into a routine I hope to be back in climbing condition in a couple of months.

I told the Korean-Canadian girl Paula, "Once I start climbing again everything else will right itself." Whether or not this is true doesn't matter. What matters most is I'll be climbing regularly again. I'm really excited about this. It's like being in Ton Sai again. Except without the beach. And the international community. And the cheap bungalow. And Ton Sai tower. And...ok it's not like Ton Sai at all, but I'll be climbing again. :-)