I'm (soon to be) back!

I'm taking some time to return to Gangwon Province this summer.  I'm looking forward to snorkeling in Sokcho and swimming in many places.
If you want to get to Gangwon, Seoul Searching has good news:

In an effort to increase tourism in their regions, many provincial governments have begun to offer special services to international guests. Lucky us! One such example is the Gangwon Shuttle Service sponsored by Gangwon Province. This shuttle bus is a great way for foreigners to experience Korea's most breathtaking natural landmarks as well as some of its best festivals.

The next 24 hours

  I am currently at my in-laws with my son.  soon, I will drive into Busan and pick up Kwandongwife and drive to sokcho (the little guy is staying with the in-laws).  I will crash until my wife wakes me up.  We will bax all our belongings and the movign truck will arrive in the afternoon.  We will load it up, then I will drive to Jinyoung (near Busan) to stay the night with (other) in-laws (not entirely sure why).  Sunday morning (OK, we have moved beyond 24 hours by now), we will drive into Busan and mee the moving truck and begin settling into our new home.

24 hours, about half of that driving - oh, boy!

I can't decide if I will make a clean break with this blog and move to a new one -already chosen and with a few posts on it- or if I will continue to follow Gangwon-related news story and post them here.  This blog hasn't been very active in February, yet it will not become any more active.

I will miss Gangwon and am sorry that my current schedule doesn't allow for much in the way of face-to-face goodbyes.  I am certain to visit it when I have the chance in the summer though.

Have some water, use our clean toilets, relax

I have never had too much trouble at airports.  I've planned ahead a little by emptying my pockets into my carryon so going through the scanners was, aside from taking my shoes off, quick and simple.  Still not too much trouble is hardly a ringing endorsement.

This article about the already much-mocked Visit Korea Year 2010-2012 does seem unfortunately timed, coming, as it does, soon after the underpants bomber:

Organizers of "Visit Korea Year 2010-2012" said Thursday that welcoming events will be held for foreign tourists at the nation's major international airports on the first day of 2010, according to Yonhap News.

Getting onto the plane is quite challenging:

Here are the rules:

• 3.4 ounce (100ml) bottle or less for all liquids, gels and aerosols; placed in a

• 1 quart-sized, clear, plastic, zip-top bag to hold all small bottles;

• 1 bag per passenger placed in a screening bin

Larger quantities of breast milk/baby formula and medically necessary liquids are permitted but must be presented to an officer for further inspection.

...

Additionally, TSA does not permit snow globes through the security checkpoint because they contain an undetermined amount of liquid.

As Boingboing points out, TSA needs to review it's physics - Archimedes determined how to measure volumes easily and snow globes are clearly constrained to physical limits.

Anyway, lets say you get on the plane, now you can relax?  Only if you plan ahead for the last hour:

Incidentally, I took an early morning flight on Delta today from Latin America to the US, among the first international flights subject to a TSA security directive issued this morning. The pre-boarding procedues included the most invasive hand pat-down I've ever had, and a long line of guys with gloves at the gate, going through everyone's hand luggage in more detail than I've ever experienced.

As we boarded, the flight attendants announced that all passengers would be prohibited from getting out of their seats (for instance, to go to the toilet) or from using any electronic devices (phones, laptops, games) or having anything on their laps (even a book or a blanket) during the last hour of the flight. I tweeted about it from the plane. Bottom line, the new rules make your fellow passengers farty and crosslegged

What does the DMZ symbolize?

A tank-trap near the DMZ.

At four kilometres wide and a few hundred kilometres long and with almost no human presence, the DMZ might reasonably be considered a haven for wildlife.  It is the reverse of a scar, a band of natural, healthy green between developed and over-developed land where even the farms cover the ground in black plastic wrap.

Some wildlife does thrive there, with many reports of deer (saber-toothed deer, cool!), boar and giant pheasants. Still, as GI Korea notes, this is a bit much (quoting from another source):

It is a refuge for Asiatic black bears, leopards, rare Korean tigers, and birds such as the red-crowned crane, which has long used the area as a wintering grounds.

Yes, the crane are there, but no bear, leopards or tigers have been seen (sorry, some bad quoting - GI Korea reports that no bear or the like have been seen - he quoted a journalist as above).   The four kilometres in width is too narrow: if a bear or tiger had been there, it would have been seen by now...and probably seen limping along on three legs.

Yes, there is nature aplenty in the DMZ and, aside from possibly-leaking explosive mines, very little pollution.  Depending on where this water actually comes from in the DMZ, it likely is very pure (the link is to another GI Korea post, more recent, but behind the times as the water has been around for a while now).

So, is the DMZ a wildlife sanctuary?   As I've described, it is more and less than that.

Can it be a symbol of peace?

"The DMZ has created a natural reserve for endangered species at the cost of the tragic war," said Lee O-young, professor emeritus of Ehwa Woman's University and an advisory member for the group.

"We have to make the DMZ a symbol for the so-called Natural Capitalism, a new trend that avoids over-production and over-consumption."

Gyeonggi Governor Kim Mun-soo asked for the group's efforts in order to preserve the area's cultural and historical meanings.

The group plans an orchestra performance themed on world peace next year near the Peace Dam on the Bukhan River, which was built in 2005 to prevent possible flooding of North Korea's Imnam Dam.

The 2010 DMZ Peace Forum is also scheduled in August next year, the group said.

I guess it can be, but it seems to require some serious double-think.  The DMZ, a boundary between two heavily armed nations and where no one goes to preserve a delicate armistice, one that is broken every few years, is also a symbol of natural beauty and home to animals too light to trigger the land-mines.  Because it is so natural and wild, it seems peaceful if you don't look too closely (to see those mines) or too widely (to see the huge military presence on either side).  Because it seems peaceful, it is a symbol of peace.

Okay, got it.

Oh, this Natural Capitalism thing ("a new trend that avoids over-production and over-consumption") sounds a lot like the slow cities of Jeolla Province.  In both cases, the end product was never intended.  Here, the land is not over-developed because it is a war-zone! The slow cities are slow because the young people are flocking to the big cities.  The cities can well be described as dying, and the DMZ, well, are Natural Capitalists planning on starting wars, then signing armistices to create more?

Now, symbol of peace or not, it is one thing that Korea is famous for.  No, my parents did not know about kimchi when I first came here, but we all knew about the DMZ.  It is Korea's most famous landmark and a tourist attraction.

As a tourist attraction it is a popular one:

According to the provincial government, about 27.06 million tourists visited the province during the first half of the year, up about 1 percent from 26.78 million on-year. The number of foreign tourists rose by 175,000....

The number of tourists to the Cheolwon area, where tours of the demilitarized zone are being promoted, grew by a hefty 180,000. 

These numbers seem hincky - half the population of Korea visited Gangwondo?  There were really 175,000 more foreign tourists visiting Gangwon Province in half a year?  Perhaps I am being racist in not believing this number -foreign does not mean white after all.  I likely would not recognize most foreign tourists as foreign.

Anyway, it is a tourist site and I strongly recommend visiting panmunjeom.  This place lives up to it's reputation and I felt simultaneously scared and fascinated.  From the Korea Times:

...the DMZ was once said to be the ``scariest place on Earth’’ by former President Bill Clinton. 

According to Time, that should not serve as an excuse not to visit. 

Inside the bright-blue-hued conference rooms that sit atop the tense border in Panmunjeom, visitors are able to cross a few timid feet into North Korea. 

Outside the buildings, a look across the border will be met with icy glares from a North Korean soldier with binoculars. 

Some see this as a problem, however (same article):

Time magazine listed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) as one of the top experiences one can have in Asia in its latest issue, but South Korean officials and marketing consultants question whether it spoils the country’s image. 

From South Korea's perspective, the DMZ magnifies its negative association with communist North Korea, which policymakers are seeking to avoid. 

The country’s image has been damaged and clouded by the actions of the Stalinist state. Whenever Korea is mentioned in any corner of the world, many ordinary people often conjure up negative images of nuclear weapons or dictator Kim Jong-il.

This badly damages the positive image of South Korea, which is an OECD member, the ninth-largest exporting country in the world and a tech-savvy nation. 

Michael Breen, a Korea Times columnist and a PR consultant in Seoul said, ``Many Korean officials consider the DMZ to have a negative impact on tourism and would prefer that it is not promoted.''

Again, it is a symbol of peace or war?  Can a land where humans literally fear to tread due to land-mines ever be accepted as a positive?

The DMZ has given South Korea fifty years of prosperity and stability; at the same time it has kept the North Korean people out-of-sight and recently (without Russian aid) suffering greatly. The DMZ has given us four kilometres of distance and curtaining so we can't see what is happening, but we are getting reports that beyond the DMZ is a hell-hole and Kim Jong-il is probably thrilled that we are looking at the DMZ and thinking about the DMZ and not beyond it.

The DMZ is a pretty bandaid hiding a hideous wound and we are admiring the bandaid.

The DMZ is a beautiful place and you should go and see it.  I wish it were as endangered as the animals it protects.  See it, but look around and see more than it.  It is a symbol of deliberate, selective blindness.
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Added later: More of the same at the Herald:
 Well, perhaps not quite the same.  In one article they discuss making the DMZ an ecological park and dividing the DMZ into regions for industry and development.

The government plans to develop border areas with North Korea into a center for inter-Korean cooperation, international peace and ecological protection.

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security yesterday announced the plan during the meeting of the Presidential Committee on Regional Development attended by President Lee Myung-bak.

The ministry will designate the Demilitarized Zone as an ecological preservation zone to protect rare wildlife and the natural environment.

More than 3,000 rare species of animals and plants are found in the 907-square-kilometer heavily fortified border.

...

"Supra-regional belts represent new territorial growth axes of the nation combining industries, culture, tourism and infrastructure," said Lee Yong-woo, a senior researcher of the state-run Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements.

The strategy seeks to make the best use of the nation's geoeconomic advantage, as it is located in the center of Northeast Asia and positioned to serve as the gateway both to the Pacific Rim and Eurasia, he said.

The government plans to finalize comprehensive plans for each of the supra-regional belts including financing, infrastructure and industrial development in the first half of next year, the committee said.

Actually, these regions may encompass area outside the DMZ, but seem to include it.

Travel and finding the unexpected

Joongang has an article about travel that discusses the Moon Shin Museum in Masan and museums in Yeongwol.  It mentions other places, but I lived in Masan and this blog is Gangwon Notes, so these two caught my interest.

The Moon Shin Museum is on the edge of Muhaksan and offers a great view of Masan and it's harbour.  Along that edge of Muhaksan are (okay, were - I lived there twelve years ago) several old buildings that weren't quite decrepit and several small temples and shrines.  Also, the hike up the mountain is good fun.

Yeongwol has everything except the ocean.  It is a sort of adventure capital for Korea with rafting, climbing and might even have a paint gun area.  It is also a dark-sky zone and has an observatory.  Apparently, it also has eighteen museums.

I'd like to add to the article by suggesting that all travelers with a bit of time on their hands should ask about local museums.  They are often kitchy, but almost always fun.  Sadly, Sokcho's museum is well-done and in a modern building, but doesn't really have a special local identity.  The whale museum in Donghae, in contrast, is fantastic.
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Added Later:  Joongang also has an article specifically about Yeongwol's museums:

The first museum to open was Yeongwol Book Museum, which opened in 1999 in what used to be a school. Although the locals criticized the developers for opening a museum deep in the mountains, Chosun Minwha Museum opened the following year. Museum after museum began to fill the empty buildings. 

Area residents are still at a loss to explain why so many museums opened here. However, it is thanks to the museums that Yeongwol County was designated a special museum district last year, which has led other local governments in the area to try to repeat the phenomenon to open more museums.

Enjoy winter in Gangwon

The Herald has an article titled, "Climb and carve your way out of the winter blues" The 'blues' they write about seem to be those suffered by people living in tropical areas. I hope the tourism plans are well supported by more than awkward slogans as Gangwon could be well situated for such tourism.

I am disappointed, however, that the 'carve' in the title seems to describe how to ski or snowboard rather than carve wood. I would like to attend a workshop or two in that field.

Anyway, here is an excerpt:

Gangwon Province for one has begun actively promoting its various ski and snowboard resorts to potential tourists especially from all over Southeast Asia.

The province recently invited 120 Thai tourists from Chiang Mai for a tour of Nami Island - where the hit Hallyu television drama "Winter Sonata" was filmed - as well as an idyllic trek through the foliage covered Seorak Mountain.

A group of 16 travel agency executives from Malaysia were also invited on an excursion around the province's key attractions along with an introduction of various winter travel packages they had in store for potential inbound Malay tourists.

Last month, a travel seminar was held in Taiwan - considered the biggest market for Korean winter travel packages - where major travel agencies and brokers congregated for a summit to further enhance inbound winter tourism to Korea.

Of them, one of the new packages developed specifically for tourist from Taiwan was a tour tied to the forthcoming Hwacheon Ice Fishing Festival to be held early January next year.

One bit of snark, already covered by the writer:

A package aimed at potential Russian tourists will commence this winter season called "Rus-Ki," in the province's efforts to reach further out to non-Asian regions.

Although organizers might want to change the name of that package for obvious reasons pertaining to it being an offensive epithet which was used on Russians by American soldiers during the days of the cold war.

The article goes on to describe ice climbing and where you could try it in Gangwon as well as gives contact information for some ski resorts.

With the recent surprise of waking to snow, I think people are currently excited about winter. A state which dries up about mid February - the excitement, I mean.

Someone comes to town, someone leaves town.

Doctorow wrote a cool and weird story with that title, but my story deals more with how someone came and left.

My brother-in-law drove here on Saturday evening and took the bus home on Sunday afternoon.

He left us with...

A Mercedes! Alright, a Mercedes licensed engine, in a Korando (and that is now three times that I have tried to spell the vehicle name and written Korean instead).
The truck is not new but seriously 'like new'. My B-I-L took excellent care of his truck and actually took a lot of time into explaining how to care for it. He learned basic mechanics on the farm and was a driver for a general during his military service so he has the right background.

You might wonder how or why he would decide to sell or give us his car. Well, he is getting a new one for himself and we helped finance him eight years ago when he bought this one.

I am excited to own a car again. Previously, I had bought a car, a Honda Civic and two weeks later, my girlfriend came to Canada. Three weeks after that, I proposed and began planning how I would move back to Korea. Nine months later, I sold that car.

I have ten months of car ownership experience and, as with most North Americans, several years of driving experience. I briefly worked for an ambulance service and so qualified for my small bus license and considered myself, again briefly, to be a pretty good driver.

Honestly, though, I am not. I might have been a fair driver (maybe) but I foresee taking the car to an empty parking lot and practicing a lot of parallel parking and reversing and such to make up for several years of being a passenger.

My son is eager to practice, too.
I won't be properly insured or registered until Wednesday, so I have a few days before my life is transformed.

Consistent readers of this blog will know that I am at least somewhat anti-private car and greatly interested in how public transportation works (or doesn't) and what alternative forms of transportation can do. I don't like the way cities and people have adjusted to make things more convenient - for cars - to the inconvenience of people.

On Wednesday, that paragraph will read as:

Consistent readers of this blog will know that I was at least somewhat anti-private car and greatly interested in how public transportation works (or doesn't) and what alternative forms of transportation can do. I didn't like the way cities and people have adjusted to make things more convenient - for cars - to the inconvenience of people.

Just kidding. I don't expect to entirely give up cycling or public transportation. Still, I will enjoy and take advantage of the increased freedom a car gives. I need to set some rules for myself, preferably before I do start driving, regarding how much I will drive and what situations legitimately give me a good excuse to drive to work rather than take the free bus.

Still, this blog will return to featuring more travel entries - even though they will be local, limited to the distance that the little guy feels comfortable with.

come to Sokcho - any way you want.

It looks like another airline is going to try flying to our (well, Yangyang's) airport. I wish them well, but give them only a month or so (Click to enlarge the photo).

Earlier, I had heard about hopes for a high-speed train to Sokcho, via Chuncheon. I thought it unlikely but it appears Chuncheon is getting a fast train. Maybe they will extend it here after all.

I am surprised though, at how many transportation links Chuncheon is getting - In July an expressway was officially opened running between Seoul and Chuncheon -it seems to me that it will take passengers away from any rail service and/or that the rail service will take cars from the toll road. From the article:

The toll is 5,900 won for passenger cars for the entire route. Residents in Chuncheon and nearby counties will receive a discount of 700 won.

"We planned to open the highway in August but advanced the opening by one month, for the convenience of vacationers to Chuncheon and other destinations in Gangwon. We hope the road will ease traffic congestion between the two regions on weekends," a ministry official said.

By 2014, the expressway will be extended to reach Yangyang on the eastern coast.

Finally, a new ferry service overseas has started for China, Russia and Japan.

This is the second major ferry traveling from Sokcho; the first links Sokcho and Baekdu Mountain in North Korea....

The ferry can accommodate 750 people and is able to carry 180 containers. Travel starts each week on Monday at noon, when it leaves for Japan, and runs until its return on Sunday. However, it is a longer journey than air travel, taking almost one day to get to Japan and an additional 22 hours to Russia.

Sokcho is excited about the latest opportunity which is expected to boost the local economy as it becomes the first port on the Korean east coast to grab two exclusive international ferry links.

Gangwon travel suggestions from the Herald

A excerpt from a tourism piece about the province:

If you want to drag your family to the beach, but want something extra with your trip or a longer stay, head out to Gangwon Province. There are a bunch of things to do in Chuncheon, and there are several areas with pensions near the city, particularly to the southwest along Cheongpyeong Lake. The usual conveniences of a small city - supermarkets, bakeries and pharmacies - are here, and there are options for cycling and other leisure activities by the river.

Day 1: Travel to Chuncheon, stopping off on the way at Petite France - a cluster of French style buildings themed on Antoine de Saint-Exupery's children's book "The Little Prince." Tucked appropriately in the folds of the hills surrounding Cheongpyeong Lake, it's a pretty impressive stab at creating a piece of Europe in Korea.

As an old(er) guy, I like the emphasis on children's activities in the article. There is a lot here that I, a Gangwon resident, would like to do.

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If it looks like something you'd want to do later, save it. The Herald has (or maybe had) a policy of archiving material for only a week.

In scenic Jeju, you can enjoy exotic Gangwon rice

Korea apparently has a rice surplus situation.  In response, Gangwon province and Chungbuk province are advertising their product in Jeju, where rice does not grow.

I wonder if this has to do with high price of Korean rice.  In the past, Korean rice was priced around eight times higher than imported rice.  The imports, however, paid a tariff, so the cost to the consumer was equivalent.   I don't know if this is still the case.

I might have another post or two before I go, but this issue of pricing has inspired me to do some investigative journalism.  Tomorrow, I will go to Canada, with a list of Korean food prices - rice, veggies, ... and compare them to those in Canada.  I might do a few other things while I am there.  Expect a few posts from 'GeorgianBayBrian' in the next month but I warn you of light blogging ahead.

Updating news on temple stays

I enjoyed my temple stay five, wow - five, years ago at Naksan Temple.  Since then, of course, large portions were burnt in a forest fire.  The temple looks good now, but no longer hosts temple stays.

In Gangwon Province you can stay at Baekdamsa, which might be a little closer to Seoul and is newsworthy in it's own right.

Many years ago, an ex-president (Chun Doo-hwan) was charged with corruption and took a sort of coward's way out - he sought asylum at Baekdam Temple until people calmed down.  This story has no current significance, by the way.

Read about other temples offering overnight stays in the Korea Herald.  Read about my temple stay here.  GI Korea also visited the temple.

UPDATING my update: Naksan does offer Temple Stays.  I will try to find contact information as I have misplaced the info I was given.

Yangyang Airport on the BBC

That claim-jumping other Brian has imbedded video about our white elephant airport.

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I guess the joke, if it were funny, is old now.  It's Brian in Jeollanam and I don't own Gangwon.

Road Trip

My mother is visiting and we rented a car on the weekend as I have Monday off. I had planned to go to Yeongwol and Taebaek, but decided they were too far. They probably aren't that far, but we were travelling with the little guy and I wanted a trip we all could have fun on. For the record, the longest drives were about two hours and the little guy was great in the car.

So, instead of Yeongwol (I wanted to visit the astronomy observatory), we went to Jeongdongjin and Donghae, returning through Odaesan.

The pictures are in reverse order - I seem to recall blogger uploaded photos in the order I placed them in the past - so I will tell my story in reverse

.elpmet gnoejloW...
Alright, we arrived in Odaesan just before dusk and ran through Woljeong Temple and Sangwon Temple. Below is Sangwon seen from the trail.

Before Odaesan, we went, not to Donghae, but to Mangsang's (just north of Donghae) whale museum. We all enjoyed the whole museum but the little guy most liked the dinosaur models. There were also some fossilized dinosaur footprints that were pretty cool.

Before Donghae, we were in Jeongdongjin. We enjoyed the beach and the hourglass (yearglass?) but the best part was the ship on the hill, part of Suncruise Resorts.
We had an expensive but good meal -your entry ticket gives you a discount, don't throw it away.
Our first stop was the Pre-history museum in Yangyang. There were signs for the museum before construction began so I didn't believe there really was a museum. There is, it's big, beautiful and modern, and it's fun. I wouldn't come to Yangyang for it, but if you are already here, you should see it. It's just across the street from Sol Beach resort.

Bike News

The Joongang has quite a series of articles and letters about cycling and bike safety this year. Considering the snow today, I am encouraged to read that someone is thinking about warm weather activities.

It is hard to make a set of guidelines for safe cycling as people ride for so many different reasons. Children under, I don't know, 16 or so are in one group, adult commuters in another and maybe farmers and bike couriers (do they exist in Korea?) in one or two other groups.

I want my son to ride on the sidewalk and he is no threat to pedestrians at the speeds he travels (or, typically, the speeds I push him at). The way the bike path curves and bends on a straight stretch of sidewalk is not the problem for him it is for me. He doesn't mind sharing the sidewalk with other users at different speeds, nor stopping at each intersection.

I do. If I plan to ride to Yangyang or even Gangneung (20 and 55km, respectively), I don't want to be dodging pedestrians all the way and stopping at every intersection. I am completely willing to stop at traffic lights and even feel annoyed when drivers try to wave me through.

A traffic cop, he looked like a young conscript, tried to wave me onto the sidewalk and I ignored him (I do feel a little guilty about that, but only a little). In Canada, I was taught that adults cyclists should not be on the sidewalks. I try not to let my Canadian bias' take over here, but it just makes sense to me. If a commuter is going to travel even a few kilometres, he can't be stopping at every single intersection along the way, or there is no value to using a bike.

From the March 13th article:

To encourage more people to ride bicycles, we need more than just bicycle lanes. We need parking spaces, rental stations, repair stations and public shower booths.

Insurance programs for bicycle riders must be developed as well and drivers must learn to be careful about riders’ safety.

The schools must offer better safety education. In 2007, 22 percent of the 8,724 reported casualties in bicycle accidents were children.

It is a dangerous idea to start encouraging children to cycle to school when Korea still lacks the appropriate infrastructure and commitment to road safety needed to ensure that fewer youth get hurt on our roads.

I like the ideas suggested in the first paragraph. I would like to see almost a sort of locker for my bike - I have never had a wheel or seat stolen but the horror stories of such events are in my mind whenever I lock up. I don't know about repair stations but at least high-pressure air. The shower sounds like a great idea: maybe coin operated?

I will discuss the insurance idea a little later.

Letters to the editor agreeing with the importance of this article were printed on March 23rd and 24th. Both letters are fine but don't cover much new ground. The first letter does talk about the benefits of clean air, but I wonder. With the good weather these days, I have wanted to go cycling but have held back for fear of Yellow Dust, which is mostly a natural phenomenon and will not disappear even with electric vehicles or the like.

On March 28, an article about Insurance for cyclists was printed. In general, I think it is a good idea if handled properly (read, "the exact way I want") but could turn into a nightmare of red tape. If cycling insurance takes off, I can foresee a time when it becomes mandatory; a required tax with the purchase of a bike. Further, one would need proof of insurance, which means carrying a licence or papers of some sort. I want to be on the road a lot and could see the need for insurance, but many other probably just ride their bikes from their apartments to Expo Park, with only a short period of high traffic risk.

I rode my bike across most of Canada (Woo-hoo- 100th time I've managed to fit that into a post!) and have made a few longish trips in Korea. I've had problems but they've all been mechanical. I am more interested in bike travel education than insurance to make Korean (and Canadian, for that matter) roads safer.


Finally, and ironically as this is the older article, there will be a bike festival in Seoul:

The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the JoongAng Ilbo yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly hold a large-scale cycling festival for over 10,000 people on April 25.

The eco-friendly event is part of the city government’s push to get more people on bikes as a means of protecting the environment, easing traffic congestion and promoting health.

They also agreed to team up on a public relations drive to encourage biking and promote the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit 2009, which will be held in Seoul.

Korea.net has info on a bike tour and festival on April 25th, although no information from city hall. Indeed the Seoul City Hall website seems to be showing sports events from 2007 or 2008, with no bike or cycling festival listed.

I will keep looking and perhaps I can meet some fellow cyclists in Seoul on April 25th.

Take the train from Seoul to Sokcho

This sign was next to a table of petitions for an express train between Seoul and Sokcho.

I'm too sick right now to comment or even think deeply about the subject, but here goes.

In my six years in the area, I've seen evidence of the old rail line slowly disappear. The old line seemed to go from Gangneung (where I guess it turned inland) into North Korea. There are still many supports for bridges, although the bridges themselves are gone.

If or when the border opens up, I can easily imagine the value of a rail line here and to points north, but right now, not so much.

We already know that nobody wants to fly here (search "airport" on this blog, if you're interested - I'm saving my energy for vomiting).

It would be nice get to and fro in comfort, and especially to have a bathroom available, but it would be strange to have a rail car all to myself, aside from New Year's eve or the like, I guess.
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Oh, the photo was taken with my new Sony DSC T-77. I handy little camera that I bought a few days ago. Thanks for suggestions on what to buy - I am not sure if I followed any or them.

new traffic regs- a little clearer now

The Korea Times now has an article about the new traffic laws and it seems a little clearer:

The government, law enforcement agencies and civic groups have waged a campaign to reduce car accidents but have made little progress due to a traffic law clause that exempts drivers with comprehensive auto-insurance policies from criminal charges for car accidents. The Constitutional Court finally ruled Thursday that insured drivers should be criminally liable for accidents which cause ``serious injuries."

There are some "clearly-a-foreign-country" ideas:

But, the ruling will have many side effects due to its suddenness. Drivers might be indicted for inflicting grave injuries that would threaten lives and cripple victims with no chance of recovery, including the loss of eyesight or hearing.

Presumably, this is the goal.

Then comes a real problem with the new regulations:

Not only drivers but also police are confused over how to handle car accidents because of the vague definition of ``serious injuries" the court cited. And, Friday, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office announced a set of guidelines in this regard that are still not clear enough to alleviate the confusion....
[lawmakers will now need to] set a clearer definition of ``serious injuries." They also need to heed concerns that some victims may seek to extend their period of hospitalization as bargaining chips to receive more compensation. Doctors are required to issue fair and credible medical certificates for victims.

The 'serous injury' part of the law was one I missed, but I have a simple solution: Make it "any injury". Speaking as a poor driver myself, if you hit another car or person, you should have to defend your actions.

Sorry, Mom

My mother will be visiting in April and May and we picked the dates to try to coincide with blooming flowers.

Unfortunately, the Joongang Ilbo has bad news:

With temperatures forecast to be above average next month, spring flowers like azaleas and forsythias are expected to bloom about a week earlier than last year, the Korea Meteorological Administration said yesterday.

I wish I could use the warm temperatures as an excuse, but mom is due here a month late, so the ten days change isn't big enough for me to be let off the hook.

Still, the dates are for when they begin to bloom, they will stay for some significant time afterwards. Also, the cherry blossoms will occur later - hopefully while Mom is here.

Uljin has an airport?

This story is a few months old but it is one I have been following on this blog.

The ill-conceived plan to build the airport was first hatched in the early 1990s. A series of local experts raised their voices in concern, saying there was simply not enough demand for airline services in the area. The Korea Transport Institute even presented a research paper that warned that the airport, once established, would see as few as 50 users per day...

Embarrassed government officials tried to come through with several backup plans, including turning the airport into an aircraft repair center or selling it to the air force. But there was not enough demand for repair services in the area, and the possible sale to the military faced intense opposition from local provincial governments.

“Everyone knew the airport was doomed,” said Lee Yeong-heok, a professor at Korea Aerospace University. “It was a highly anticipated failure choreographed by lawmakers who only cared about their own constituents and a government that did not do enough preliminary research.”

Uljin is in the middle of nowhere. I can't think of any city or population centre within an hour or two of Uljin. I guess nuclear engineers could fly in and out; Korea has a few reactors in the area.

I had to chuckle (in a grim way) at, " the possible sale to the military faced intense opposition from local provincial governments." I would like them to sell the airport to the military and move Gangneung's fighter wing there - I think they buzz our university specifically when I am teaching.

Another local airport in Gangwon Province faces the same fate. Yangyang Airport, built in 1997, is posting ever-bigger deficits as the number of travelers continues to shrink. Back when it started construction on the airport in January 1997, the ministry said it would replace those at Sokcho and Gangneung, two Gangwon Province airports that suffer from chronic delays due to the area’s foggy weather and weak infrastructure. They also insisted that the new airport, which officially opened in 2002, would greatly help in attracting tourists from China and Japan.

But now, all regular flights to and from the airport have been canceled due to the meager number of travelers. Aviation authorities have no clue what to do with the facility, which posted a deficit of 4.9 billion won ($3.8 million) in its first year of operation, a number that has now topped 10 billion won.

“Yangyang Airport was completely inappropriate in terms of its size and investment return,” said one official at the Civil Aviation Safety Authority who declined to be named.

Yangyang airport appears to be in a slightly better position than Uljin - Sokcho and Gangneung both are less than an hour away as are many tourist sites along the coast. As I recall, the airport was built to attract Chinese tourists and it opened right when SARS appeared; not many people were excited about Chinese tourists.

Yangyang Airpot previously on this blog: 2005, 2007

Snow Day

Today started normally, except for all the spinning tires and horns I heard through the night.

I got up, got KwandongAlex ready for daycare and we went out the door. My plan was to take him to daycare, then go to the health club for an hour or so and get ready for work. Passing all those cars stuck in deep snow made me feel the health club part was a little ridiculous - similar to the ride an elevator-drive a car- ride an elevator to exercise routine that many follow.

So, I dropped off the little guy, went back to my apartment, hung up my jacket and backpack of exercise gear and picked up a shovel.

Here is how deep the snow was.


That's more snow than we normally get in a year.

Anyway, the big problem with parking lots and snow is there is no place to put the snow. I helped a guy clear a route for his car by blocking in another car. Once his car was out of the way, I began digging out the doubly-snowed in car. Happily, he told me he wasn't driving today.

I moved a lot of snow; from the sidewalk, from emergency exits and from the parking lot. Finally, the only thing that could replace me arrived and I went home to relax.
This was better than the health club for a full-body workout. Still, the machines and weights at the club offer measurable amounts of exercise. What do I do now, slowly graduate from shovel to bigger shovel to bigger shovel?

Its weird, but I still feel I should go to the club - I may this afternoon and run, if nothing else. Once I returned home, I found that my university has declared a snow-day and so I have no classes this afternoon.

I'm not exactly fishing for compliments here; a coworker was flabbergasted that I would shovel stranger's cars out with, and for, them*. They aren't complete strangers as we share an apartment building and some of them were clearly older than I; surely anyone with the time would help. Wouldn't they?
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*I don't think the co-worker reads my blog and so doesn't know my feelings about traffic and automobiles and the like. I guess from that point, it is a little strange me helping drivers. The contradiction is similar to my doing volunteer work, teaching ESL, at a local church. I'm a complicated man.

Bus safety tools, old school

I saw this on a bus in Gangneung on Friday. There was one modern hammer; small, light, red with a tiny, specially designed, glass-shattering head. That was next to the bus driver. At the back of the bus were a pair of these blacksmithing tools.
Strangely, this may be the third photo of a hammer to be used in emergencies for breaking glass (Previously here and I think there was one from the same place a year earlier.) I should make it a label or something.

Exams tomorrow: that means 44 one-t0- one oral exams in a job interview format.