Cheonggyecheon

Hanja	淸溪川
Revised; Romanization	Cheonggyecheon
McCune-; Reischauer	Ch'ŏnggyech'ŏn

Cheonggyecheon
	Cheonggye Stream in downtown Seoul.
Korean name
Hanja	淸溪川
Revised; Romanization	Cheonggyecheon
McCune-; Reischauer	Ch'ŏnggyech'ŏn

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Cheonggyecheon (Hangul: 청계천) is a nearly 6 km long, modern public recreation space in downtown Seoul, South Korea. The massive urban renewal project is on the site of a stream that flowed before the rapid post-war economic development required it to be covered by transportation infrastructure. The $900 million project attracted much criticism initially but opened in 2005 and is now popular among Seoul residents and tourists.

[edit] Geography

Cheonggyecheon is a 5.8 km creek flowing west to east through downtown Seoul, and then meeting Jungnangcheon, which in turn connects to the Hangang (river) and empties into the Yellow Sea. During the 1948-1960 presidency of Syngman Rhee, Cheonggyecheon was covered with concrete for roads. In 1968, during the presidency of Park Chung-hee, an elevated highway was built over it.

[edit] History

The stream was named Gaecheon (open stream) after the first refurbishment project to construct a drainage system during the Joseon Dynasty. The work, which includes dredging and bolstering the banks of the stream and building the bridges, was carried out in every 2~3 years during this period from the reign of Taejong, the third king of the Joseon Dynasty. Especially the King Yeonjo undertook the refurbishment work as a national project^[1].

During the Japanese colonial period, the stream started to be called Cheonggyecheon as it is called today. The colonialists announced the plans to cover up the stream on several occasions, but plans never came true because of the financial difficulties^[2].

After the Korean War (1950~1953), more people swarmed into Seoul to find their way and make their living and settled down along the stream. The image of Seoul had been affected due to its deteriorated condition; trash, ground and sand and wastes from shabby makeshift houses on alongside of stream. The stream was covered up with concrete step by step for 20 years from 1958, and a 5.6 km-long, 16 m-wide elevated highway completed in 1976. This area became an example of ‘successful industrialization and modernization’^[3].

[edit] Restoration

In July 2003, then-Seoul mayor, current President Lee Myung-bak initiated a project to remove the elevated highway and restore the stream. It was a major undertaking as not only did the highway have to be removed, but years of neglect and development had left the stream nearly totally dry, so 120,000 tons of water have to be pumped in daily.^{[citation needed]} At that time, safety problem occurred due to deteriorated concrete construction. Also it was important to bring the nature to the city again in order to meet the world’s trend of an eco-friendly urban design. Other purposes are to restore history and culture which had been lost for about 30 years and to revitalise the economy of metropolis, Seoul.

For the successful Cheonggyecheon stream restoration, Seoul Metropolitan Government established organizations; Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project Headquarters for the control of the whole project, Citizen's Committee for Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project for the management of conflict between Seoul Metropolitan Government and the union of merchants, and Cheonggyecheon Restoration Research Corps for establishment and review of the restoration plan.

This project brought a traffic problem as well. Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project Headquarters established the traffic flow measures in the downtown section affected by the restoration work and coordination of changes in the downtown traffic system based on the research of Cheonggyecheon Restoration Research Corps^[4].

The restoration of two historic bridges, Gwangtonggyo and Supyogyo, was conflictive issue. Each interest group insisted on the topic of how to restore historical and cultural sites and remains; whether replace the bridges or not^[5].

Cheonggyecheon restoration pㅗroject had the purpose to preserve the unique identity of the natural environments and the historic resources in the CBD of Seoul and to reinforce the surrounding business area with IT, international affairs and digital industries ^[6]. Also the plan encouraged the return of the pedestrian friendly road network connecting the stream with the traditional resources, Bukchon, Daehangno, Jungdong, Namchon and Donhwamungil, for instance. This network system, CCB (Cheonggyecheon Culture Belt), tried to build up the foundation of cultural and environmental basis of the city.

[edit] Achievements

The stream was opened to the public in September 2005 and lauded as a major success in urban renewal and beautification. However, there was considerable opposition from the previous mayoral administration of Goh Kun, which feared gentrification of the adjacent areas that housed many shops and small businesses in the machine trades.

The restoration work is expected to lay the basis for Seoul to become a human-oriented, environmental-friendly city, causing a series of innovations in urban planning paradigm. Creating the environment with clean water and natural habitats was the most significant achievement. Also the stream helps to cool down the temperature on the nearby areas by 3.6 degrees centigrade on average than other parts of Seoul^[7]. The number of vehicles entering downtown Seoul has shown a decrease of 2.3%, with the increasing number of users of buses (by 1.4%) and subways (by 4.3% - daily average of 430,000 people) as a result of the demolition of the two high-used roads ^[8]. This supposedly has a positive influence on improving of the atmospheric environment.

It tried to promote urban economy through amplifying urban infrastructure for competitive city within the existing business and industrial area centred on the stream. The Urban renewal project was the catalyst of revitalization in the downtown Seoul. Cheonggyecheon became the centre of cultural and economic activities.

Cheonggyecheon restoration work also brought the balance on the areas both in south and north of the stream. During the modernization era, the downtown Seoul was divided into two parts, north-south, on its feature and function. The work helped to join the two parts in order to create new urban structure connecting the cultural and environmental resources in north and south areas of the stream (Hwang n.d.). The improvement of these districts made a balanced and sustainable development of northern and southern areas of Hangang (river).

The restoration helped Lee become a nationally renowned figure, helping him win the presidency, but the project did not come without controversy.

Budgeted at 349 billion won, the final cost of the project was over 386 billion won (approximately US$ 281 million)^[9]. In addition, about 1.2 trillion won (US$1.2 billion) is expected to be invested to re-develop the 792,000 square meter region near the stream into a major commercial and residential area over the next five years.^{[citation needed]} Some Korean environmental organizations have criticized the project for its high costs, calling it purely symbolic and not really beneficial to the city's eco-environment.^{[weasel words]}

[edit] Photos

A long park runs on both sides of the stream. Every fifty feet or so, stone walkways are placed not just so people stay dry by hopping across the stream on them, but also to regulate the speed of the water flow.	The beginning of the Cheonggye Stream		Cheonggye Stream flowing through Seoul
	The beginning of the Cheonggye Stream at night	The Cheonggye Stream at night	The Cheonggye Stream east of Dongdaemun Market