Rejuvenated stream breathes fresh life into bustling capital

This is the first in a series of articles on newly restored Cheonggyecheon in central Seoul. - Ed.



By Jin Hyun-joo



The bustling heart of Seoul will be given a breath of fresh life on Saturday when Cheonggyecheon, or the Cheonggye Stream, will start flowing again after a 26-month-long environmental makeover.

The restoration of the stream, which was covered with cement around 50 years ago as part of government-led industrialization efforts after the Korean War, is another step along the path of turning gray Seoul into a green city.

<**1>"When Korea was rising from the ruins of war, we didn`t have the luxury of looking far into the future and caring about environmental and cultural issues," Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak was quoted as saying in an interview with the AFP news agency. "We are now at a point where those issues have become a priority."

In July 2003, Mayor Lee, former chief executive of Korea`s top builder Hyundai Construction & Engineering, launched his daring project to rejuvenate the six-kilometer-long stream with an investment of 386 billion won.

Prior to redevelopment, overpasses obstructed the view of the sky from the area around the route of the hidden stream. Street vendors and shops squeezed in ugly disarray along both sides of the streets were moved into nearby buildings.

Now, purified water drawn from the Han River is starting to flow into the stream. Historical bridges have been restored and fountains have emerged along or over the stream, attracting citizens and tourists.

"It was a dead place. No sunlight. No wildlife. But life has been reborn. Historical sites were restored and put in the limelight," said Chang Seok-hyo, head of Seoul city`s Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project Headquarters.

The stream stretches from behind the Dong-a Ilbo building in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul, through the Dongdaemun area to Sindap in eastern Seoul.

The stream is helping to cool down the heated center of the city by up to 3.6 degrees, along with limiting the number of cars running beside it.

"On tropical nights during the summer, Seoul citizens can chill out near not only Han River but also the stream," said Kim Woon-soo, a researcher at the Seoul Development Institute, an organization supported by Seoul Metropolitan Government to study urban policies and planning.

With the overpasses removed, the wind blows through the area twice as fast as last year, dispersing air pollutants, Kim said.

Before construction on the project began a year after Lee took office in 2002, the center of the city had looked worn out, with the elevated roads deteriorating and the underground water polluted with sewage. The city was also tainted with garbage, and street vendors clogged the sidewalks. Some nearby buildings also seemed about to collapse.

Looking around the new stream with family members. Cho Byung-hyun, 57, remembered the old, drab area.

"Merchants near the stream were busy selling goods on the dirty street. When Korea was a poor nation, we did not think of restoring the stream. But now, this kind of environmentally-friendly place is badly needed," said Cho, a construction worker.

The restored Cheonggyecheon also boosts Mayor Lee`s standing ahead of the next presidential election in 2007 because it bolsters his can-do image by aggressively pushing forward the major project in a short period.

A businessman, Lee Yong-woo, 58, said, "Mayor Lee is a man with initiative and drive; he should really become the next president. Look. How great the stream is!"

In the initial construction stage, concerns were raised over possible traffic jams in the area since it reduced 12 lanes to four.

But experts say traffic congestion will be less severe than expected because car owners tend to avoid driving through the crowded middle of the city.

"When a road narrows, it may not be busy because drivers naturally avoid the place. By contrast, a widened road can become crowded because of increased traffic. That is certainly a paradox," said Hwang Sang-kyu, head of the Metropolitan and Urban Transport Research team at the government-run Korea Transport Institute.

The Seoul metropolitan gov-ernment said its revamped public transportation system will reduce the number of cars on the street.

The new system is one of many ambitious projects by Mayor Lee, who has streamlined bus services according to transportation demands and made it easier and cheaper for passengers to transfer between buses and subways.

The number of riders on buses and subways increased by 5.2 percent to 9.77 million per day during last year, the city government said.

Experts said Seoul should move toward being an environmentally-friendly city with fewer cars and more public transportation vehicles.

"Car drivers may hate the new Cheonggyecheon. And some say the project is to show off his (Lee`s) work for political purposes," said researcher Hwang. "But, anyway, many agree it is the right way to go for sustainable development."

(hjjin@heraldm.com)