Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mindmetoo]

A couple summers ago I did a major editing project for the Seoul tourism site about the Chonggyechon stream restoration project. Back in the day, the stream was basically an open sewer until the Japanese wisely covered it up. Then one of the presidents (I think it was Park Chung Hee or whatever his name was... the president's last BANG guy) built an elevated highway over it. One of the funnier things the researcher writing the original Korean history found out was one of the primary motivations for building the elevated highway was Park Chung Hee wanted an easy way to get from the Blue House to the Walker Hill casino.

Maybe it's apocryphal but that little nugget never did make it into the final published history. When I pointed this passage to the web master, she decided that was quite embarrassing and had it removed. I only actually pointed it out because the original translated text just made mention of the hotel's name. A non-Korean might not know that the Walker Hill hotel was a casino, hence the reason the president really wanted to get there. So I just wanted to know if I could add a parenthetical remark about it being a casino...

The Seoul government recently passed some bylaws making it illegal to dump garbage or defecate/take a wizz in the stream. Like you got to pass a law or else these Koreans won't figure out that taking a dump in the restored stream is probably beyond the pale. It's like the Italians having to pass a law "no taking dumps in the Trevi Fountain!"

Anyway, I wonder how much longer before the stream reverts to its original function, an open sewer where Koreans tossed their trash.

[djsmnc]

Just like the Jonggak station piano/sidewalk/stage?? That thing wasn't even completed before it had chunks broken off of it. Though...is it even completed now? What is it anyway??

[HapKi]

Interesting stuff.
As well, I heard that its not even a natural stream, mostly just pumped water from the Han River with additives added for water clarity.
Guess when it gets too full of ramyon bags and tires they can just turn it off, let it flow out, clean it up, and crank it up again.
All in all, I like it, though the traffic in the area has increased a bit.

And the variety of bridges is striking.

[komtengi]

yeah its pumped in at a price of 800,000,000 won per annum

[Hollywoodaction]

I'd say that based on the technology available at the time, covering the stream was probably the easiest thing to do. However, it is shameful that the road was built to facilitate the president's commute between his home and a casino, ostensibly between his well-known private sessions with Korean 'entertainers' (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). In light of this, it's very ironic that covering up this polluted and disease carrying stream is used as cannon fodder against the Japanese. It is more so when you consider that Koreans dredge the riverbeds of their own rivers in order to convert them into canals. And let's not speak of the creation of large scale tidal land reclamation projects being undertaken in Korea right now, all of which are potential ecological disasters.

[mindmetoo]

[lastat06513]

I think alot of us who have lived in Seoul for a long period of time can remember how easy it was to get from Dongdaemun to Itaewon in almost no time flat, thanks to the elevated highway at the time.
That road cut traffic down to a minumum before they tore it up to restore the river.
Yes, it will look beautiful in the eyesore that is Seoul, but it is done at the expense of the average driver.

[komtengi]

its all about real estate prices baby

[mithridates]

I doubt that people will be able to dirty the place up as long as we have the current mayor since he's ambitious and this is his pet project.
Now the Yalu, that's a dirty river.