Cheonggye Stream (청계천) in Seoul, August 2009

I just spent a few days in Korea, and it was great. I had some opportunities to get out in the evening and take pictures of the Cheonggye Stream and surroundings in downtown Seoul. It was very close to my hotel, the Best Western Premier Kukdo, maybe five minutes walk or so. The Cheonggye Stream is an interesting and apparently successful example of an effort to recreate a public space in a large metropolis by removing existing infrastructure. As I understand it, there had been a stream originally that was gradually paved over in the fifties and sixties. An elevated highway was built in the seventies. More recently, a mayor of Seoul who went on to become President pushed for the removal of the elevated highway and the restoration of the stream, along with creation of a landscaped public space on either side. According to the Wikipedia article, the project was controversial, and perhaps remains so, but it does seem to have created a popular public space. Both nights I was out, there were hundreds of people out strolling, or just sitting on the banks strolling. It may look deserted from my photos because I was waiting for breaks in the crowds to shoot.

The gallery of Cheonggye Stream photos is here. If you're too busy to look at that, here is a collection of favorites.

A few examples:







An alley in a nearby industrial area: