Sure, we’ve heard it before, but this still amazes me:
Starting in 2012, 5000-ton cruise ships will depart from Yeouido linking cities along the eastern coast of China. And in 2016, a 150-room floating hotel will be built on the Han River near an international commercial zone in Yongsan. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon announced the plans at a press conference in Hong Kong on Monday, where he vowed to transform Seoul into a maritime tourism hub.
Maritime hub? One wonders if Seoul is talking to Incheon about this…
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How can Seoul be a maritime tourism hub? Doesn’t the Han river go straight to the North Korean border when it gets closer to the Yellow Sea?
There has been a concerted effort by this administration and local officials to push for the development
poaching of natural resourcesof southern coastal areas for what they hope is a boom in recreational maritime tourism (see here). This drive for development has had all the signs of being a kind of mutated “Canal Fever” speculation that has spread to too many local officials who are attempting to make plans to get in on what they think is possible in the future. I read of only a few environmental considerations being made which are cursory in nature. Though the government has made mention of eventually having a “green” review of development planning, any recommendations are just that and have no binding power upon development projects and such recommendations seem to be focused upon efficiency rather than the environmental impact of projects.You also should read this little tidbit: $8.8 billion ‘tourism hub’ planned at Saemangeum. This is very possibly a money pit unless some serious management planning is undertaken. I am not optimistic of such as of now.
They’re digging a canal parallel and just to the north of the Arex train line linking Kimpo and Incheon Airport. This will be the waterway connecting the Han and the sea.
Many 택배 will lose business once this plan come to fruition as currently they haul billions of won in merchandise from Dongaemun to Incheon port each year. Tourism impact is likely not huge as few would choose to take a 20 hour boat ride that is about the same price as a 1.5 hour flight to China.
As usual, Korea is making jobs for people pouring concrete to maintain the status quo.
동대문
Note to passengers: Look out for runaway crane barges owned by Samsung Heavy Industries. If you survive you will be charged with violating marine law.
A lot of experts derided Chung Hee’s decision to connect Seoul and Pusan–with an explosion of new wealth in the SouthEast Asia corrider–you might suprised what may or may not work in the next 20 years.
I fully agree with Vince. Though to take a historical view on it all, Mapo and Youngdungpo districts of Seoul were once the ports for ocean going ships sailing from the Yellow sea and arriving in the capital area.
I often wonder who thinks up these things. It’s like all the new apartment bldgs / towns they plan. Who is moving into them all ? Korea does not expect a net gain of people due to the low birth rate. Just seems like a ploy to keep the big construction companies/friends plied with cash.
Chung Hee’s decision –
wow, were you friends with 일성이 too ? how about 두환이..
Thanks Vince… I’d been wondering since last summer about that huge construction project north of the highway on the way out to the airport. I asked my Korean relatives in the car if they thought it was a canal, and felt kind of silly when everyone insisted that it couldn’t be. It turns out it was a canal after all.
Wow, what an immense project. And it seems like it doesn’t get much press either. You’d think those articles discussing the cruise ship might mention why there hasn’t been maritime traffic to Seoul since the Korean War.
I think it should cut freight costs to Seoul, too. We shipped our belongings from Seoul to the States, and were shocked to see how much of the bill was just to get our stuff from Seoul to a port city by rail.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: “Canals: The best transportation solution for the 19th Century!”
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