Day 20: Going with the Flow

The rather lame title aside, this is perhaps one of the more 'artsy' pictures that I've taken, and considering my severe lack of talent, will take. This picture was taken at start of the 청계천, a stream that runs through the center of downtown Seoul. This stream has an interesting history, actually. Originally it was a natural stream that ran the length of the old city, but then the government thought it would be best to seal it up and pave over it. So for years it was simply concrete in the center of the city. However, homeless started flocking to this location and, the then Seoul mayor Lee Myung-bak, decided to renovate downtown and do away with the homeless. So, what does he do? Reopens the stream. So the stream that you see now is a man-made stream built over an actual, natural stream. Yes, Alanis Morissette, this is quite ironic. But out of all this came one of the most beautiful aspects of Seoul, something that both people of Korea and tourists alike can share and love. I am not a big touristy kind of guy; I stick to the obscure back streets and leave the big stuff for the Japanese women and other random tourists. But this is one of the few things that I can point to and say 'so what if it is touristy, I still think it's amazing'. In my opinion, when you can walk out of your office at lunch to sit on a bench by a stream in the middle of the city, that, boys and girls, is a good thing.