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Published: January 7th 2007
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Nampadong market
Will eat kimchi for food !!! Nampadong is Busan's downtown district -
4 miles of stalls just up Emma's street - full of back alleys, all push, pushy, hustle, bustle
- a typical crammed Korean feel.
The vast Kimchi stalls, ( Korean National dish) make for a very colourful and pungent experience. Although it has many health benefits ensuring
the posiibilty of Koreans to work 16 hour days !!
( like my Hagwon director) it is certainly an aquired taste
Anyone for fermented vegetables (usually Chinese cabbage) smothered in chilli paste ?
- no thanks mate !!
There are hundreds of varieties and it is eaten with EVERY meal including breakfast ,
YES BREAKFAST !.
Believe me I can eat most things including snails and frogslegs but not this delight .
Bitter and slimey to mine and Emma tastebuds-
it might explain why 99.9% of Koreans chomp loudly with their
mouths open and hawk at alarmng rates also.... so they don't have to taste it ?.
- only joking of course !
Actually, Opinion is divided here with the westerners.
Some of my friends like Chris, Jose and Blair love it ,others like Joe
( teacher at my school) detests it so much he almost bought a t shirt on the subject last week
in Itawon (the international district of Soeul ).
You can see foreigners wearing these begging t-shirts that say -
"WILL EAT KIMCHI FOR FOOD !"
What with my obsession for Heights and the lure of a distant gong
sounding off, we then decide to take the escalators up to Yongdusan Park where
New Year preparations are underway.
We stumble upon a haunting, moving photographic exhibition ( free !!)
Entitled ' The Human, Its Beautiful Name ' by a local well respected Korean photograher
called Choi, Min - Shik.
It is a series of photographs looking at Busan and its poor community since 1953
and explores the poverty caused by the Japanese occupation (which the locals
are still very resentful about), the subsequent civil war when over a miliion
people died, and the harsh military dictatorship that lasted until 1992.
The images of the city he takes today show one that is
unrecoqnisable to the one he shot bak in 1953.
The rate of growth of this second city is phonomenal and just
about epitomises what has happened throughtout the rest of the country. The rural population has become urbanised in just over a generation and this continues at an alarming rate.
As it is a really clear day we decide to travel up the 118 m Busan Tower to
check out the view.
What we see apart from what one of the worlds busiest ports is
a city hemmed in from all side. Its quite staggering.
-There are 4 million people crammed in.
- car ownerships increase by 22% every year.
- like my neighbourhood Samgae dong, It is still growing!
Although not as densely poplulated as some other Asian
cities, at OFFICIALLY 5000 people per square mile, this is somewhat
misleading as half of the city is uninhabitable due to
the dozen mountains within it!
One of the districts (dongs) to the right of the picture has a population
density of 12000 per sqkm .
London's by the way is 3000 !
Thank God (or Buddha), for the seven beaches that the city have to make up for the claustrophobia- althought they can get pretty crowded around August.
I look forward to experiencing
Busan 1953
slightly different back then ! and posting some photos of the country's most popular beach ( Haeundae )with Em and friends in high summer .
Apparently there will be half a million sharing it with us !.
Out and down the the steps we again pass the posse of devout
Buddhists we saw on our way up. They have continually for the past hour been praying and chanting endlessly which seems to involve the most excruciaing exercise. That is kneeling , head butting the floor standing up and repeating the process. They do this without so much as a hesitation over and over again!
- and I thought Yoga was tiring!
We then make our way down to the Bell and its New Year ringing team.
They are clearly on a practice run for the ceremony that will take place later in the
day ,but as to how they are supposed to do it they are clearly uncertain how often to hit it .
They are argueing about the timing and they start to take on the comical qualities of an Asian Laurel and Hardy film.
Even more bizarre slightly further down the steps our mellowing atmosphere caused
Busan 50 years on !
in 5 decades 4 million people have been crammed into this city. No such thing as parks or a garden down there! by the tap tap tapping and humming voice of the religious men is y disrupted abruptly . There isa very angry man shouting at a Bald individual dressed in grey. They are surrounded by an ever increasing crowd and 4 police officers.
The law then proceed to arrest the Holy man -
( not the best way to see in the New Year ) thinks us especially with his reputation now in tatters.
Without much sympathy, I proceed to aim the Canon IXY zoom at this unfortunate chap who is now sat, looking rather despondent, in the back of the police car wearing handcuffs.
Before I have the chance to snap he is getting out - no not struggling, and making a break for the nearby sea port but it would seem by consent.
Despite the angry protestations of the original angry man, the crowd get their way and the Holy man has been promptly unarrested !
As only the Koreans know how.......................
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