April Archives

April 19 2008

Birthday/anniversary weekend

After getting the scooter fixed, we rode to Itaewon for lunch and then took a ride up along Namsan.

Warehouse District near Dongdaemoon
I stopped back at this small abandoned district on the edge of Dongdaemoon Market. It has been a few months since my last visit, but very little has changed. Some of the larger buildings have been worked over a bit more, so entrance was much easier. We were caught by an old guy who seemed to be scavenging metal (by throwing it out a fourth-floor window). He didn't care that we were in here, but he was worrying that my photos would portray Korea in a negative light. Impossible.

There wasn't much left inside, although some of the rooms had a lot of stuff on the walls.

Dongdaemoon
We drove through Dongdaemoon, which had changed a lot since last weekend. The stadium has been cleared out as of 4:00am April 16. I know the time thanks to this article written by the son of one of the victims. You can scroll down to see pictures of the writer's dad, as well as a picture of Dongdaemoon Stadium as it appears now.

The market had been closed down by April 16 at 4am, but the vendors did not want to leave. They were the same people who'd earlier been displaced by construction on Cheonggyecheon. Lee Myungbag, then the mayor of Seoul, promised they could move into the stadium indefinitely. He then became president and another member of his party took over the mayorship, who had different plans for Dongdaemoon. The people who ran the flea market were told they would have to move again.

To help move them out, the city paid for about 500 mobsters to attack the stadium, beating everyone still inside, including women and elderly people.

When we showed up, the people of the flea market were camped outside the stadium. They stopped us from getting close to the stadium.

Fortune Teller District
I shed considerably fewer tears for the fortune teller district located not far from Dongdaemoon. It's been a while since I went back here, so I was a little surprised to find that nothing remained except fine dust. The shape of the area is kind of odd as well, so I have no idea what their plans are for the neighbourhood.

Also, looking closer at this picture here, I realised that the five towers in the background are none other than Lotte Castle on the edge of the grey market. I never knew everything was so close together.

Abandoned neighbourhood in Ttukseom
Another site I haven't visited in a little while, but this one has changed the least of all the places I revisited today. It seems like there is a stalemate between the city and the people with a stake in this neighbourhood. Judging by all the signs up, this is a very politically active spot. While we were there, we saw a family parked in front of one of the half-demolished homes. I assume they used to live there, and judging by the massive bullhorns on the roof of their car they were involved in protest.

There were banners for this website which seems to be a group for the rights of victims of urban renewal. I haven't figured it out yet but it looks like there is a lot of information.

Seoul Forest
For a break from all the abandoned stuff, we stopped by Seoul Forest, a park on the tip of Ttukseom. Last time I went by it looked depressing, but now with the green coming out it's much nicer. It was filled with young children and 20something couples, and the pond had lots of ducks and koi fish. Also, there was a Pope Yes fast food restaurant that had beer.

Hoehyun Highrise
A few weeks ago, we were flipping through channels when we saw a documentary about a beautiful building in Hoehyun-dong near downtown Seoul. It was the oldest highrise in Seoul, once having been inhabited by the richest of the rich. But of course it didn't have a long lifespan, so property values dropped over the decades. The documentary, which was made in 2005, added that the building was slated for demolition, so we didn't think there was much chance we could find it. But heading down the north side of Namsan, we ran right into exactly the same building. There are a lot of signs on top that seem to indicate the tenants are struggling to get what they deserve from the government. It seems they are requesting to be relocated to government-funded housing.

This building is one of the most beautiful structures I've seen in Seoul, built right into the foot of the mountain with some very nice grounds. I look at this and think about how western countries so often restore old, run-down buildings by turning them into lofts. I wish something like that could be done with this place.

Downtown
Jung wanted to go to an Italian restaurant downtown, so we headed that way. I parked my scooter in front of the abandoned hotel, where three little girls were playing around out front. We had a couple drinks outside on a curb in Pimatgol, and then headed over to the restaurant.

We also visited the site of Soongraemoon, which is still under repairs since it was burned down a couple months back. Jung doesn't seem too happy with the fact they're rebuilding it. I suggested they spare the Hoehyun highrise complex and build whatever they were planning on here instead. Nope, not going to happen.

Eungbong
To finish off the day, we climbed a small mountain near our home. I'd noticed before that there were streetlights all the way to the top, so we figured it wouldn't be too hard to get up. Of course they turned all the lights off at 12:00am so we had to go back down in the dark. Fortunately I had my flashlight with me.

At the top we found the usual sorts of mountaintop stuff--a pagoda, as well as exercise equipment, and a lot of people drinking. It was a pretty peaceful place, until I felt something crawling on my sleeve. It was a 3-cm-long millipede (or is that centipede? I can never remember). We went and sat up on the second floor of the pagoda where it was less likely we'd be attacked by these things.

April 13 2008

Bored Cats

April 11 2008

Camel

April 2 2008

Buster at night