A Visit to Cheonggyecheon and Dongdaemun in Seoul.

Group Photos Taken Across Cheonggyecheon

 

Eco-Friendly Cheonggyecheon

We KOICA students from Hankyung National University departed our University at about ten o’ clock in the morning. As soon as we stepped down outside dormitory, the Korean winter greeted us with terribly cold breeze. That is, the maximum temperature was -12 degree Celsius on that day. However, the terrible weather could not hump down our desire to visit Cheonggyecheon and Dongdaemun. Our active willingness to study practically Korean experience in their development affairs could conquer every unfavorable condition.

Then, we proceeded from Hankyung National University bus-stop to Seoul by bus. It took about one hour from our university to Seoul Express Bus Terminal. In this way, we arrived at the bus terminal before half past eleven. Although it was almost at noon, the weather was still extremely cold against sun-shine.

Fig.1-Jongno (Sam) ga sub-way station

We continued to sub-way station and recharged our transportation cards respectively to take under-ground train. Meanwhile, we had to wait for two of our KOICA students who were late since they could not take the same bus with us due to bus ticket shortage and took another bus. Then, we took tube line no.3 to carry on our trip. After 25 minutes later, we got off the tube at subway station no.329 Jongno (Sam) ga sub-way station. Our professor is kind for and takes care of us as our parent. Accordingly, he picked us up at that subway station. After that, we got outside through exit no.15. 

Marvelous Lunch Hosted by Professor Dr. Choi Seung-beon

On the way, the professor led us to a famous restaurant and hosted all of us with chicken ribs dish. Even during preparing the dish, its smell attracted us so much that we could not control our appetite. The hospitable and beautiful young ladies from the restaurant helped prepare the dish on the gas stove and provided us excellent service. Alas! What a delicious dish! Some students came to shout in Korean language “맛있어요!”. We all enjoyed the meal with full satisfaction. At about the end of our meal, our professor got an idea to mix the rest of dish with rice. What a great idea! We could enjoy again marvelous fried rice, thanks to professor’s idea. At about 13:30 hrs, we left the restaurant.

Before continuing our trip, our professor gave us a briefing how to study efficiently the real situations of development facilities and environment in the given area in order that we can apply effectively the findings for the development of our respective countries.

Just a few minutes later, a stream, called Cheonggyecheon in which cool, clean and crisp water is flowing steadily and slowly came to be under our sight. On the bank of the stream, we took pictures in different poses, setting the beautiful scenes of the stream as backgrounds. The wonderful sceneries brought us into out of the freezing weather. In this way, we took a walk along with road-side pavement up to the starting point of the stream.

Starting Point of Cheonggyecheon

Then, we got down beside the stream and observed it carefully. During walking along the stream, our professor explained the background of the surroundings and current situations.

At about three o’ clock, we continued to textile market. I went window shopping in the market. To the Koreans, Dongdaemun Market is known as “the world’s extraordinarily large shopping town”- definitely the largest ever. Dongdaemun Market in Korea is widely popular with the locals and tourists as well. It is here that we can obtain every imaginable product under the sun at really cheap price.

Busy Dondaemun market

Afterward, we moved to Migliore in Dongdaemun. There are seven floors in it and we went through all of the floors. We can buy variety of commodities there. Among them, I occurred to buy some souvenirs such as nail cutter on which Korean flag is printed and colourful key chains. Then, we went and enjoyed the marvelous children’s performance at Migliore against terribly cold weather. At about six o’ clock in the evening, it was getting extremely colder and colder and then we went to have dinner treated by our professor. In this respect, our dinner, the hot noodle soup with sea food matched so much to cold weather and thereby, we enjoyed it so much.

At about half past six, we left for tube and continued our return trip by subway line no.4 from station no.422 of Dongdaemun History Culture Park sub-way station and after taking one station, transferred to line no. 3 at station no.331 of Chungmuro station. We all got off at the subway station of Seoul Express Bus Terminal. We came back our university by bus at seven o’ clock and arrived at Hankyung National University about quarter past eight.