For those interested, this past weekend Seoul held the Han River High Wire World Championship. According to the organizers more than 50,000 people participated or watched the event - including me. The purpose of the event (which is to cross the Han River on a high wire) was to help globalize the Korean tradition of Jultagi and bring attention to the beauty of Seoul and the Han River. For those who are unaware - Jultagi isn’t like the highwire acts we see in a modern circus. And, if that isn’t enough to whet your appetite, it was designated (by the organizers) as an “extreme sport” but, like one commentor noted, ”If it was extreme, there’d be sharks in the water.”
Some great pictures of the wire walkers in action can be seen here.
6 Comments
“… bring attention to the beauty of Seoul …”
Hah! It is a beautiful shade of grayish-brown.
You know, from some angles, including parts of the Han, Seoul could be described as beautiful. Don’t like big events much, but that’s one I would not have minded seeing.
The Fark headline for last year’s event was
Skywalkers in Korea cross Han solo
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/far.....nk=2781103
I would love to try this but I’m sure I wouldn’t last a second. What a great idea.
I’m sure they were all very skillful in crossing the Han, but a question comes to mind: how have they improved high wire walking since Blondin did it umpteen different ways 150+ years ago?
Damn, Mr. Kim (#3), you beat me to it! One of my favourite headlines of all time.
I’ll re-post it here next year