What? No Mungyeong?

by Robert Koehler on December 13, 2007

The New York Times has released its “53 Places to Go in 2008.” Is it just me, or did Northeast Asia really get the shaft?

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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Andy Jackson December 13, 2007 at 2:59 pm: What do you expect from an East Coast paper? The piece makes me wonder what is wrong with North Beach in Miami since South and Mid beaches both made the top ten.
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2 mins0306 December 13, 2007 at 3:20 pm: Kuwait City as no. 32….now that’s a surprise
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3 Sperwer December 13, 2007 at 3:29 pm: Detroit? [And I'm from there]

On the other hand, the absence of East Asian destinations is not terribly surprising, nor indicative of anything other than their relative lack of attractiveness given the obvious criteria of decision.
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4 ZenKimchi December 13, 2007 at 3:43 pm: Seoul’s about to get a feature in there… so I hear…
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5 Robert Koehler December 13, 2007 at 4:11 pm: Fuck me, Detroit is on there.

On the other hand, the absence of East Asian destinations is not terribly surprising, nor indicative of anything other than their relative lack of attractiveness given the obvious criteria of decision.

I’m not sure what the obvious criteria of decision was. Whatever it was, Mozambique has apparently got it while Kyoto and Beijing don’t.
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6 sanshinseon December 13, 2007 at 6:46 pm: Oh, they just listed what is “new and fresh” and possibly surprising as destinations for the globetrotting set, including some classic ones that have a refreshed attractiveness for some reason.

I, too, was disappointed to not find any Korean sites on the list.

> Detroit? [And I’m from there]

So am I, Sperwer! And it’s very rare that I feel like paying a visit to the old hometown… I have to think they just included it on this list for the shock-value of doing so — notice that the associated brief article doesn’t given any clear reason why one should risk their life by going there…

By the way, uber-expat Peter Bartholomew joins me in having grown up in Detroit’s northern suburb Birmingham; we went to the same elementary and high schools — now we’re on the RAS Council together — “small world” indeed.

> the absence of East Asian destinations is not terribly surprising

It is to me, particularly the Northeast Asian ones, considering how increasingly popular they are among actual tourists…

> nor indicative of anything other than their relative lack
> of attractiveness given the obvious criteria of decision.

I would disagree — I think it’s mainly indicative of the simple ignorance of whatever writers the editors assigned to do this list — and their laziness in not doing even basic homework while writing it, not even checking out the obvious stuff on the Internet.

Compare the similarity with the incredibly clueless list of the world’s top religious-pilgrimage sites that Newsweek magazine published this last April — see the letter to the editor I wrote to them protesting the blatant ignorance and laziness of their writers/editors:
http://san-shin.org/NewsweekLetter.html
Note that the links I included to the original Newsweek articles no longer work, as they apparently removed those articles from their website — in shame, I hope.
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7 SomeguyinKorea December 13, 2007 at 11:18 pm: The Canadian Northwest Passage, 4600$ per person? My dad will drive you there in his Hyundai, half price. 2 person minimum.
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8 Sperwer December 13, 2007 at 11:53 pm: Sanshinseon:

I’m an Eight Mile Roader myself – although it hadn’t gone so far down the tubes as in eminem’s day yet; but cousins lived in Birmingham – Beverley Hills, actually, near the cemetery off Peirce. It’s been a lot of years since I was back. I thought Bart was a Canadian. I was born in a car on the Peace Bridge, when my parents were coming back from a trip to Canada, and my Dad was Canadian at the time (he later wised up and got naturalized – just in time for the Korean War), so I had the option, but passed since that seemed to me to be a dishonorable thing to do after growing up in the States and just when they were about to pull my ticket out of the draft lotto.
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9 MrMao December 14, 2007 at 3:54 am: Canada gets “Northwest Passage, Canada.”

Screw you guys.
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10 SomeguyinKorea December 14, 2007 at 7:48 am: #9,

The correct term is actually ‘Canadian Internal Waters’.
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11 Sonagi December 14, 2007 at 10:07 am: Ut Videam, who seems to have disappeared, was from Oakland, I think. I’m from a one-traffic-light podunk town near Lansing myself. Thanks to our moribund economy, it’s not unusual to meet other exiles from the once Great Lake State. I was shocked to read in a history article a few months ago that Detroit once had the highest per capita income of any city in the US.
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12 Linkd December 14, 2007 at 10:41 am: If the purpose of lifting the curtain in #8 and baring your soul and heritage for us was to increase that Halo Of Honor that you imagine we see shimmering about your name, then I’m afraid you missed the mark. Such comments from an older man only detract from whatever nobility may have influenced his youthful decisions.
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13 sanshinseon December 14, 2007 at 2:21 pm: I’m a Fourteen-Mile Roader (at Southfield), Sperwer — in Birmingham but Beverley Hills was just one block away! I used to go swimming at the BHAC in BH, but otherwise my life was in B’ham…

> I thought Bart was a Canadian.

Naw, he just acts like one

Sonagi, correct, the “Once-Great Lake State” is a great place to be formerly from… Tho my bro & sis still live there — bro back in TigerTown with Chrysler, sis in the same house we grew up in… Time moves slower there, that’s for sure.

> I was shocked to read in a history article a few months ago
> that Detroit once had the highest per capita income of any
> city in the US.

Once it did, sure. My grandpa had one of those good unionized factory jobs (helped start the UAW, actually!), sent his daughter to college; they were so proud. Now, Detroit’s per-capita income only looks good if you factor in the crack dealers…
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