Myeong-dong Intersection

The good weather just keeps on keeping on.

After some rain showers yesterday afternoon, the sky really opened up nicely.

If I’d had more time, I’d have gone up a mountain as I had the previous two evenings (posts coming soon), but by the time I left the office, there wasn’t much sunlight left, so I stopped by Myeong-dong Intersection to snap a shot or two.

Yes, I used a bit of compositing for the traffic trails.

One thing I love about this scene is that it includes a good bit of Seoul’s history, too. As Adeel notes, “One of the most unfortunate things about Seoul is that, for a city that has been a capital for over 600 years and a city for 2,000 years, there is not much visible history.” This is largely true, but at the same time, there’s much more history remaining than you might think. It’s one of the more charming aspects of Seoul, in fact—beneath the glass, steel and concrete, you can often find hidden reminders of the city’s past, especially if you know what you’re looking for.

In this case, you don’t even need to look—on the left is the Shinsegae Department Store (formerly the Seoul branch of the Mitsukoshi Department Store, 1930) and neoclassical SC First Bank (originally the Choson Savings Bank, 1933), and on the right is the old Bank of Korea headquarters, completed in 1912 and designed by Japanese architect Tatsuno Kingo, one of Asia’s first Western-trained architects. There’s quite a bit of history nearby, too, including Seoul’s old Chinatown and, of course, Myeong-dong Cathedral.

I’d love to learn a bit more about the fountain (which was sadly not in operation when I took these shots), but can never find any historical info on the Web.

A lot of photographers take this shot around Christmas, when the department store and fountain are lit up. I did, too, although I like this photo much more.