Back in Seoul » Han River

Yeouido Spring Flower Festival

Manolo — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:17:16 +0000

Spring has arrived in Seoul! And to prove it, here is this post. Every year, when spring comes, a Cherry Blossom Festival takes place in Yeouido Island. Yeouido Island is not an island on the sea, but on the Han River in Seoul. The image is quite nice and very typical from Korea as well as Japan. Being Japan a little warmer than Korea, the cherry blossom takes place there a little sooner than it does in Korea. In fact, we could see it during our trip to Tokyo last march.

Mass of people and cars going to the island to see the cherry blossoms.

Sometimes, it was even hard to walk with some many people around.

Another shot of the people in the street. Fortunately, the streets are closed that day to avoid accidents (there were many children around too).

We decided to stay at the island until night to see the lighting. It was definitely worth it…

…in fact, there were even more people at night than during the day.

All the main avenue was full of trees with lighting in different colors.

I was pleased to see that they have bathrooms for handicapped people, with easy access for wheelchairs.

I took this picture when we were leaving, after several hours walking around and with a blister on my foot that has been annoying me for one week. It is the Korean National Assembly, were the famous raws between politicians take place often, by the way, between members of the same party.

Walking around the Grand Children’s Park

Manolo — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 07:09:27 +0000

The Children’s Grand Park (어린이대공원) is a huge park near the Han river. You can get there by subway line 7 (station “Children’s Grand Park”, 어린이대공원) or line 5 (station “Achasan”, 아차산). We went there during the last cherry blossom, a very popular phenomenon in countries like South Korea, Japan or China. The cherry blossom lasts for little more than a week, some years even less, and its beginning varies a little according to the place climate. For example, in Seoul, it always starts some weeks after it starts in Tokyo, as Seoul is a little colder than Tokyo.

Here are some pictures of the park and the cherries.

Entrance to the park.

Children jumping among the cherries.

“Magic Hand” you can get your hand made in wax, first time I saw that. They cover your hand with some liquid and then put it inside a bucket with wax. Then they let it dry and remove the hand as if it was a glove. Pretty cool.

I don’t know who he is, but it looked very nice with the trees on the background.

Inside the park, there is also quite a big zoo (specially considering that there is no entrance fee).

The cherry blossoms.

Good view of the cherries.

P.S.: A change of location at the commercial office and some Korean exams by the end of this week kept me from updating the blog for quite a long time. I’ll try to give you guys updates more often.. promise.