[jenniferp]

Ruth1966 were you in Cheongju by any chance?
Your description is very similar to how I would have described my town, except for the movie theatres. I was in Jincheon and Cheongju was the next city to us. We also had taekwondo world championships, a few good restaurants, not so many shops - hence the need to escape to Seoul for shopping, a couple of supermarkets. We were surrounded by rice field galore.