Seoul's Splash of the Past
By Kimberly Song
Far East Economic Review
Issue cover-dated January 08, 2004The Cheonggye stream once brought life to the heart of Seoul, but it was buried under concrete in the city's rush to rebuild itself. Now, the stream looks set to flow again
For years, Yang Yoon Jae has been leading groups of students along the route of the Cheonggye elevated expressway in downtown Seoul, asking them to imagine how they might reinvigorate the dilapidated neighbourhood. "It's dirty, dusty, noisy, and polluted with bad air. Who wants to live or work along there?" asks Yang, professor of environmental studies at Seoul National University. "We had to do something drastic to change the environment."
That drastic thing? Rip down the expressway, dig up the road, and restore a once-famous stream--the Cheonggye--that ran along here until it was diverted underground in the 1970s. Yang came up with the idea a decade ago when he ventured down into a sewage tunnel and saw that one of the stream's original bridges--the 500-year-old Gwang bridge--was still standing. "I just felt the idea. We must bring back the stream," says Yang.
Some years ago, the professor began discussing his idea in public and wrote articles for local papers. In 2001 one of them was read by Lee Myung Bak, former head of Hyundai Engineering & Construction--which had originally helped to build the expressway--and who at the time was considering running for election as mayor of Seoul.
Just like Yang, Lee too had experienced a moment of truth in the underground passage that housed the stream. With the roar of traffic above his head, Lee sidestepped puddles of sewage. Through cracks in the tunnel's roof, shafts of sunlight filtered through. In the light of one, Lee recalls noticing a spot on the ground where a melon seed had taken root and a tiny flower had blossomed. Says Lee, "I was deeply impressed and it brought me to tears."
Lee became mayor in 2002, and appointed Yang to spearhead the stream's restoration. For the two men, the $330 million project is a symbol of Seoul's wish to become more liveable and--they believe--just the first step in a broader rejuvenation of the city.
The idea has worked before. Two decades ago, Singapore began cleaning up its river, upgrading bridges and walkways, and restoring nearby old buildings. The clean-up effort breathed new life into areas like Boat Quay, where dilapidated shophouses were turned into trendy restaurants and bars. "Today, people have realized the value of the river conservation," says John Ting, president of Singapore Institute of Architects. "It really revitalized the river bank--it's a very natural instinct for people to gravitate towards water."
Seoul is hoping the restoration of the Cheonggye will have a similar impact. The city could do with all the help it can get. Left in ruins at the end of the Korean War in 1953, Seoul was rebuilt in a hurry, resulting in a sprawling city that's short on greenery and history. Today, with 20 million residents, Seoul is the fourth-most populous city on the planet--and one of the most polluted in the developed world.
And even though events like the 1988 Olympics and the 2002 World Cup helped promote the city on the world stage, Lee is confident the project has the power to help radically alter the city's future "Seoul will take on a new role in the East Asian region," says Lee, "as a financial hub to compete with Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai."
For more than five centuries, the Cheonggye stream, fed by tributaries from surrounding mountains, was a key waterway in the heart of Seoul. The stream and its nine major bridges featured prominently in city life--women did laundry there, children played, merchants did business. An 18th-century Korean king listed the dredging and maintaining of the stream as one of his three great accomplishments.
The stream's fortunes declined following the Korean War, when its banks became a refugee shanty town. What was once the pride of kings had become a virtual septic tank and a symbol of the country's poverty. "The water was very dirty then. It was embarrassing," recalls Jung Joong Hyun, 80, who grew up in the area and still lives there.
Later, as Seoul rebuilt itself, it steamrolled right over the stream, which finally disappeared from view in 1978. In its place, Seoul had a new symbol of pride--the four-lane Cheonggye Elevated Highway. Businesses selling everything from electronics to textiles, and machinery tools to antiques, mushroomed around the busy expressway.
These days, the expressway and its labyrinthine markets are an eyesore. While neighbouring areas, like the financial district, have been renovated over the years, the Cheonggye area has fallen into disrepair. The rumbling roadway, meanwhile, is cracked and corroded and is a safety hazard.
BACK TO LIFE
On July 1 last year, workers began demolishing the highway and exposing the stream. In just two more years, the area around the highway will have become home to a 5.8-kilometre stretch of restored stream, which will be criss-crossed by paths and bridges for pedestrians.
City officials are working only on the restoration of the stream, but they hope that parts of the neighbourhood--currently, a mix of large office buildings, apartment complexes, street markets and industrial warehouses--will eventually be redeveloped by the private sector into a trendy, fashionable area of new restaurants and shops.
To help that process along, city officials are trying to build interest among potential foreign clients. Referring to an international business advisory council appointed by the city, Mayor Lee says "they have a lot of interest in this project and can help analyze business opportunities in the redevelopment of the Cheonggye area."
The stream looks set to be an inspiration for business people and citizens like local poet Moon Chung Hee, who describes the restoration as "a very symbolic act. To suddenly have fresh water flowing through the centre of town will refresh the people's souls." But not everyone is happy. For the more than 300,000 merchants working in the Cheonggye area, the project poses a grave threat to their livelihood. They fear the construction will keep shoppers away, and that ultimately the area's gentrification will mean their days of doing business there are numbered.
"Bringing back the stream is fine, but the problem is everything is happening too fast," says Choo Han Young, 38, who has been a hawker in the area for the past nine years. "These street markets are a special part of Seoul, too. You have to save these markets."
Some urban developers, like Lee Joo Yeon, executive editor of local architecture magazine Space, agree. The Cheonggye area is "a place with a lot of the city's energy," says Lee. "It's in the middle of the city, and yes, it's old, but if you get rid of it, then everything in Seoul will be new and without character." He acknowledges that some of the area needs renovation, but he's concerned that it will be just be replaced by soulless shopping malls and office buildings.
Space's Lee also believes it's wrong to refer to the stream project as a "restoration"; it will be fed by water pumped from a nearby river and water-treatment facilities, not its original tributaries. "This is just an artificial waterway being constructed in the city; this is not a historic restoration," he says.
Still, city officials are undeterred. Construction is said to be weeks ahead of schedule, and talks have already begun with local landowners about redevelopment. The project has also garnered international attention, including that of a group of Harvard University's Graduate School of Design students, who are making a special study of it.
Many locals, too, seem keen on the stream's revival. At one of the construction sites, Lee Pil Gu takes a bite into a sandwich during his lunch break. The 67-year-old, who spends his day hosing down the site to damp down dust, remembers playing in the dirty stream as he grew up in the shanty towns around it. "It was good for us back then to get rid of the stream and build the highway," he says. "And it's a good thing now to bring it back."