Over at Reddit I saw this link to a Daum blog that has some good historical photos of Seoul’s Myeongdong shopping district over the years. For example here is a picture of Myeongdong back in 1930 during the Imperial Japanese colonial period:
This is an interesting idea where the city of Seoul is holding a flea market where foreign residents are the vendors:
A flea market opened in downtown Seoul on Sunday with foreign residents as vendors, as part of the city government’s efforts to provide them opportunities to integrate with citizens here.
About a hundred foreigners from some 40 teams selected by the Seoul Global Center gathered at Gwanghwamun Plaza early in the morning and sold various goods, ranging from used items to traditional handcrafts.
For graduate student Alex Gubo from Slovakia, the flea market was a platform to introduce his country’s culture to people living here. This was the second time for him to take part in the flea market event hosted by the Seoul Global Center. (….)
Sunday’s event was the latest among similar ones that took place in April, May and June. The last flea market this year is slated for Oct. 23.
Any foreign residents can apply to take part in the event, free of charge, the center said, adding the application process is provided on its website on the first day of each scheduled month.
“This event enables foreigners and natives to come together as one by sharing diverse cultures,” said Shin Dong-hoon, an official at the center.
The regular foreigners’ flea market is part of a broader weekly market event run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government from April to October on every Sunday. The theme of the market varies every week. [Yonhap]
I am surprised some enterprising ajushi hasn’t started hunting these wild boars for his own samgyeopsal joint:
Eighty sightings of wild boars have been reported in downtown Seoul in the first six months of this year, according to the city government’s report to the National Assembly’s Security and Public Administration Committee. This is almost one sighting every two days.
The figure rose from 54 to 199 cases between 2012 and 2014, Yonhap news agency said. It dropped to 155 last year, but if it stays at the present rate it will exceed last year.
Jongno District has had the most sightings, accounting for 35 percent of the 623 cases reported between 2012 and June this year. Eunpyeong District and Seongbuk District were second and third.
The three regions are next to Bukhansan National Park, one of Korea’s main wild boar habitats. The animals often descend from the mountains to residential areas or to hiking trails in search for food or when they leave their herd after losing power struggles.
The boars can be extremely dangerous when aggressive. On June 11, a man in his 70s was severely injured in an attack while he was working in a field in Goryeong, North Gyeongsang Province. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but before people start getting panicked about getting attacked by a wild boar keep in mind that you are probably more likely to get attacked by person than a pig.
A competitor of the wakeboarding competition “2016 Wakeboard World Series” rides on the board high into the air on the Han River on Aug. 21, 2016. (Yonhap)
What I find most amazing about this article is not that construction is being held up because of a dispute over cultural preservation, but the land these buildings sit on was bought for $15 billion:
Booyoung Group’s buildings have been designated as modern architectural assets by the Seoul city government. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]There are seven decaying buildings strangely ornamented with rectangular shapes right in the center of Seoul, where land is worth its weight in gold, a stark contrast to the clean modern structures surrounding them.The seven old buildings are located beside the Westin Chosun hotel in Sogong-dong, Jung District, central Seoul. The cafes, massage parlors and other shops in these buildings were all closed down last week. A restaurant on the first floor of one of the buildings had a notice that said, “Due to the reconstruction of this building, we are closing our restaurant on Dec. 22, 2015,” indicating that the reconstruction did not take place for seven months.
The seven buildings sit on about 6,562 square meters (1.6 acres) of land, which the construction company Booyoung Group purchased for about 1.7 trillion won ($15 billion) from its previous owner, Samwhan Corporation, in order to build a hotel. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but the Seoul government is making preservation demands on the construction company which is halting their plans to build a hotel. I think this architect quoted in the article does make a good point:
An architect who requested to remain anonymous said, “We need to reevaluate how much the designated buildings are worth, culturally speaking. Just because a building looks old does not mean it’s worth being preserved.”
Looking at the buildings it is not like they are architectural masterpieces. They are quite honestly ugly rectangles. It will be interesting to see what happens with this development in the coming years.
A mom with a 7-month-old baby was slapped in the face after she asked a man in 50s to “put out a cigarette” in a no smoking area.
Seoul Seobu Police said Saturday that a man in his 50s was accused of slapping a mom in the face while she was pushing a stroller carrying her baby.
According to the police, the man was smoking at around 5 p.m. on July 30, near the entrance of Eungam Station in Seoul, when the woman asked him to put out his cigarette or go elsewhere.
They were caught on CCTV, with the man following the woman and slapping her on the face while she tried to cross the street at a crosswalk with a stroller, the police said. [Korea Herald]
Seoul’s summer hotspot, Yeouido Hangang Park was the venue for the 2016 Water Fight Festival held in the city as part of the annual, summer long, Han River Festival. The event was held across two weekends and is a fun way to cool down in Seoul’s famously hot and humid summer if you don’t mind getting wet! Teams were divided by blood type and set against each other using water guns and water balloons in addition to a program of live music. [Flickr]
This is a pretty big bust of street racers in the Seoul area:
Seoul police announced Thursday that they have rounded up 73 people involved in racing their luxury cars on public roads during the wee hours of the night.
From May 2015 to May of this year, police found 73 people who participated in 22-kilometer (13.6-mile) races from the Jangam Station in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi, to the Songchu three-way intersection and back.
The racers were grouped into twos and threes by the horsepower of their cars, and as many as 10 to 15 such groups participated in the midnight race from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m., according to police.
The participants drove at about 60 kilometers-per-hour until they hit the Sapaesan Tunnel, a 4-kilometer-long four-lane tunnel, where they reached speeds of 200 to 324 kilometers per hour. The speed limit in the tunnel is 100 kilometers per hour.
Some motor service center owners helped racers tweak the electronic control unit of their cars in order to allow extreme speeding. Police said some of them received roughly 3 million won ($2,649) per car.
Among the 73 drivers booked by police, only one was a woman.
All 73 face the charge of violating the Road Traffic Act and five have been arrested for being chief organizers of the races. Six men were found to have raced at least 100 times since May of last year. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
![Booyoung Group’s buildings have been designated as modern architectural assets by the Seoul city government. [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/jmnet/koreajoongangdaily/_data/photo/2016/08/17202325.jpg?resize=350%2C247)
