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Category Archives: Conservation

Saemangeum update

14-May-07
Birds Korea and the Australasian Wader Studies Group have just completed part of their monitoring programme of migrating birds at Saemangeum. A key conclusion: many Great Knot have been displaced by the Saemangeum reclamation, and have subsequently failed to stage through the remainder of the spring at either Gomso Bay or the Geum Estuary -- contradicting the bland claims made by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in 2003, that shorebirds displaced by the Saemangeum reclamation will simply move to Gomso Bay and the Geum. One of the leading lights of Birds Korea is British-born Nial Moores. According to the Korea Herald, Moores, the first and only full-time foreign environmentalist in Korea, is in charge of survey, public relations, education and fundraising ...
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Restoring Seoul’s faded past

25-Feb-07
Visit OhMyNews for an interesting article from Robert Neff. Great pictures too. Here's a list of all of Neff's articles. Well worth a browse for those interested in Korea's early modern history. Related posts:The Irish Contribution to Joseon Korea Another post in honour of St Patrick: OhMyNews has a...Lee Eon-jeong can’t seem to escape her past I’ve noticed that every six months or so, a 3-year...Season’s greetings to all our readers Changdeokgung Palace in winter. From Sueann’s NWPR Blog Regent... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Also filed in Historical, Seoul | | Comments (2) »

The Spirit of Kahoidong

31-Jan-07
Bukchon, (북촌) a genuine old part of Seoul, a haven of peace preserved between the two major palaces. A little bit of old Seoul carefully preserved and nurtured, saved from the twenty-first century metropolis below. Stroll around the quaint streets of Kahoedong, one of the most protected parts of Bukchon, and if you're not looking terribly hard you believe the myth. It's certainly quiet and peaceful, and there are wonderful views down the hill to the skyscrapers of the downtown area or across to the Gyeongbokgung. And those beautiful curved tiled roofs. But then look around. The main streets are well paved, walls are of brick, scrubbed clean. All very sanitised frontages. You can see a lot of money has been spent, ...
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Seoul’s hanoks

21-Oct-06
There was a feature in FT a couple of weeks ago on the Bukchon district of Seoul. It's a place as far as you can get from Apgujeong in terms of style of living. It's the sort of place where Kim Ki-duk might be caught filming traditional housing as seen in 3-Iron, and is inhabited by folks such as Anna Fifield, the FT's Seoul correspondent, Kim Hong-nam, the director of the National Museum, and Brit David Kilburn (whose hanok was in fact the one used in 3-Iron). The Jongno-gu website (the source of the image to the left) offers a walking tour of the district - though it seems to be a little out of date. Here's Anna Fifield's article: Related posts:Brit ...
Also filed in Foreigners in Korea, Seoul, Travel | Tagged | Comments (3) »

British birdman fights for Korean environment

13-Oct-06
A recent article in the Hankyoreh, forwarded by Tom Coyner, highlighted another Korean environmental issue which I hadn't come across before: the destruction of an important mudflat area at Saemangeum on the Byeonsan peninsula on the West of Korea in order to build - well, they're not quite sure what. But reclaiming 99,000 acres of tidal wetlands, by building the world's longest sea wall (20 miles), and turning them into landfill is obviously a Jolly Good Thing. They might even build a 540-hole golf course there (the world's largest), according to the Christian Science Monitor. How depressing is that? Never mind, it'll bring in the money, allegedly. Using the Zuiderzee Works reclamation area in the Netherlands as a rough model, the ...
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Brit mobilises the arts to save part of old Seoul

23-Sep-06
Thanks to David Kilburn for sending me the occasional update on his campaign to prevent Kahoi-dong, an area of traditional housing in Seoul, from being buried under mountains of concrete. He recently put on his own arts festival in his home, including two intangible cultural assets, and got the Korea Times to send along a reporter to cover the event. Cast your imagination to a world where man was more intimately connected to the natural world than he his today. Reflect on how, for centuries, Koreans used to build their homes so that they nestled into the natural landscape without unduly disturbing it. In this almost forgotten world, music, vocal arts, dance, and calligraphy could all be acts of communion with ...
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Seoul’s redevelopment is not all positive

30-May-06
At the London Korean Festival we've been treated to images of the revitalisation and greening of central Seoul, with displays of the Chonggye Cheon reconstruction. However, there is an all-too-familiar flipside to modern construction projects: my attention has just been drawn to a website which catalogues the demolition of Seoul's last few streets of traditional housing in Kahoi Dong. The site contains some useful external links. Thanks to David Kilburn for the link and the graphic. Related posts:Brit mobilises the arts to save part of old Seoul Thanks to David Kilburn for sending me the occasional update...The Spirit of Kahoidong Bukchon, (북촌) a genuine old part of Seoul, a...Defensive Walking on the streets of Seoul One day I’ll work out, ...
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