愛 Korea: Chuseok

Chuseok Holiday Part 七 Mapo Hangeng Park and 63 (Yuksam) Building

So, my last touristy visit over my Chuseok holiday was to the Yuksam building. It used to be the tallest building in South Korea until the Hyperion Building and Northeast Asia Trade Tower opened in 2003 and 2009, respectively. It's called the 63 Building for its 63 stories, three of which are basement level floors. The "Sky Art" observation floor houses an art museum, so you can enjoy the art and a spectacular view of the city.

I'm sorry my pictures did not come out well. I went at night and pretty much everything looks like a blurr of lights in my pictures. I am planning of going sometime during the day, so I can retake pictures that will be come out with better views of the city. But, it is beautiful at night. I'm sorry that my camera couldn't translate the view into a nice picture. So... disclaimer over, time for the pics....

My favorite piece of artwork that I saw was this painting-- a rush hour subway scene showing all different kinds of people, lumped together because of the Seoul public transportation system.

Video of the elevator ride up 60 floors-- you can hear the English tour guide spiel over the intercom towards the end.

Chuseok Holiday Part 五 Cheonggyecheon

,I didn't know much about Cheonggyecheon, so this information is courtesy of Wikipedia (including the historical picture below). Cheonggyecheon is a 5.8 km creek flowing west to east through downtown Seoul. Part of the urban renewal project, this is one of the many man-made green spaces throughout the city.
This is what Cheonggyecheon looked like in the beginning of the 20th century.

The stream was named Gaecheon ("open stream") after the first refurbishment project to construct a drainage system during the Choson Dynasty. Gacheon was renamed to Cheonggyecheon during the Japanese occupation.
After the Korean War, more people migrated into Seoul to make their living and settled down along the stream in shabby makeshift houses. The accompanying trash, sand, and waste, and deteriorating conditions resulted in an eyesore in the city. The stream was covered up with concrete step by step for 20 years since 1958, and a 5.6 km-long, 16 m-wide elevated highway was completed in 1976. The area became an example of successful industrialization and modernization of South Korea. When Korean President Lee Myung-bak was the mayor of Seoul, he began the project to restore the stream in 2003 and opened to the public in 2005.

View of Jongno-- you can see N. Seoul Tower in the background

Cheonggyecheon Map

Little girl trying on some traditional Korean farm equipment

Traditional Korean dancers

Traditional Korean dancers

Some pictures of Cheonggyecheon at night-- Super pretty~! Also courtesy of Wikipedia.

Chuseok Holiday Part 四 Tapgol Park

Also, known as Independence Park or Pagoda Park, Tapgol Park is most historically noted for being the site of the March 1st, 1919 Independence Movement. This is where the Korean Declaration of the Independence was read. As a part of the Korean independence movement, this day of peaceful protest against Japanese occupation was met with police brutality. This was also the turn prompting harsher occupational rule by the Japanese.
So, as one of the things I wrote about in my special studies, I was pretty psyched to go.