Okpo is a neighborhood in the city of

Geoje Geoje ( Hangeul: ; Hanja: 巨濟; ) is a city located in South Gyeongsang province, just off the coast of the port city of Busan, South Korea. Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (former Daewoo Shipyard) in Okpo and Samsung Heavy Industries ...

South Gyeongsang Province South Gyeongsang Province ( ko, 경상남도, translit=Gyeongsangnam-do, ) is a province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World H ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. The village is located on the eastern coast of

Geoje Island Geojedo or Geoje Island (also McCune–Reischauer: Kŏje 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. Gohyeon is th ...

and a center of the island. Geoje in Korean means "great rescue", from the syllables "geo" (Korean: 거; Hanja: 巨) meaning great, and "je" (Korean: 제; Hanja: 濟) meaning rescue. The

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd ( ko, 대우조선해양; abbreviated DSME) is one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea, along with Hyundai and Samsung. History On 21 February 2011, the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group (M ...

(DSME) 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. As a result there is a 'Foreigner's Club' by the Admiral Hotel which is run by the local expat residents themselves. There are also 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 ' Dunkin' Donuts', '

Quiznos Quiz Holdings, LLC, doing business as Quiznos, is an American franchised fast-food restaurant based in Denver, Colorado, that specializes in offering toasted submarine sandwiches. It was founded in 1981 by Jimmy Lambatos and sold to Rick and R ...

', '

Baskin-Robbins Baskin-Robbins is an American multinational chain of ice cream and cake speciality shops owned by Inspire Brands. Based in Canton, Massachusetts, Baskin-Robbins was founded in 1945 by Burt Baskin (1913–1967) and Irv Robbins (1917–2008) in ...

' and '

Lotteria is a Japanese company that operates a chain of fast food restaurants in East Asia, having opened its first restaurant in Tokyo in September 1972. Taking its name from its parent company, Lotte Corporation, it currently has franchises in Jap ...

' (Japanese fast food burger chain). From Busan airport, the journey time by taxi, by way of the 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 International School of Koje (ISK) - which is a very convenient choice for foreign workers bringing their families to Okpo. Okpo once had an amusement park,

Okpo Land Okpo Land was a short-lived amusement park based in the outskirts of Okpo-dong, South Korea. It opened in 1996 and was shut down in May 1999, allegedly after a series of fatal accidents, in particular the death of a child who fell from the duck ro ...

, 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 remained abandoned until 2011, when it was finally demolished. {{Coord, 34, 53, 17, N, 128, 41, 37, E, display=title

References

External links

Geoje City Official Website
Neighbourhoods in South Korea Geoje