Day 51: Out and About in the City

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Things to remember about Seoul in December: cold, I hate cold, buy lots of coffee for outdoor sight seeing. We started walking part of the Seoul City Wall. Seoul was small back at the end of the 1300s and they built a series of wall out of mostly stone and wood to protect Seoul from invaders. The wall is 18.6 km and includes its four inner mountains. About 70% of the wall has been restored or replaced at various points (mostly during hthe Japanese imperial rule l1910-1945]) but the wall and many gates still stand as a magnificent connection to Korean history. We followed the wall to Ihwa Mural Village which has an interesting history. This used to be a slum area of Seoul and the government decided to bring in artists to paint murals on the neighborhood walls and structures to increase tourism to the area and clean it up. This had the desired effect, but the government never asked the people living there if they wanted this renovation. The flow of people got so great and late at night that the citizens painted over many of the favorite murals in retaliation. Shops and restuarants are expensive and the idea of pricing people out of their homes is a real threat. There has been some compromise of informing tourists not to be loud, go at night and not to wander into people’s homes which has helped. Interesting, interesting to reflect on the impact of tourism to a place both positive and negative. We then hopped on the subway and headed to Ewha Women’s University. This institute started in 1886 with one female student and is now one of Korea’s most prestigious schools. It has a student body of nearly 25,000, 11 colleges, 15 graduate schools and 66 research institutes. It was interesting to walk about because the neighborhood has embraced the female presence with a high density of hair salons, make up, boutiques, everything female geared. The last stop was Dongdaemun Design Plaza designed by Zaha Hadid and Samoo. Every tile on the structure is a different shape and has walkable parks on its roof. It was crazy cool to walk about at night. Zaha Hadid has quickly became one of my favorite architects and it is applied by the fact that she is a WOMAN and has roots in Iraq. She has buildings all over the world and was innovative in her field: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaha_Hadid

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