Word: seoul
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...admire the broad Han River as it flows past Seoul toward the sea and watch as Hyeong Ku-yun absently baits another line. A 30-something technician at a local hospital, he comes regularly after work to fish in the Han now that it's been cleaned up. "Sure there are fish here," he assures me. "Tons of mullet and carp. The mullet make excellent hwae." That's Korean for sashimi. I'm a bit incredulous that one would dare eat raw fish from the Han River. I find it difficult to exorcise memories of the Han's less wholesome...
...Naturally speaking, Seoul has always been blessed. Surrounded by mountains and washed by a wide river, it was the site's propitious geomancy that recommended it as the seat of the Choson Dynasty in 1394. If the area's natural beauty has been neglected over the past few decades, the Seoul City Government is now making up for lost time. A visit to the new Seoul Museum of History, located downtown near the recently rebuilt Gyeonghuigung Palace, illustrates Seoul's new attitude. An in-depth (and bilingual) exhibition, "Seoul, 2002: A Vision of the City," details the new policies being...
...convenient receptacle for industrial runoff, the Han is slowly being integrated into the daily life of the city's inhabitants. Where I recall apartments and ramshackle shops crowding the river's concrete banks, large tracts have been opened up, running for several miles through flowerbeds and past Seoul's business and government heart. Here is congestion of a different sort: zealous bikers, skaters and joggers compete with more placid lovers and retirees for room on the new pedestrian thoroughfare. A tree-planting campaign is in full swing along the Han?after three years and 15 million new trees, the city...
...Critics predict gridlock, but planners speak of a more intimate Games, much like Barcelona in 1992. "We will have Games on a human scale," says Angelopoulos. That will suit Jacques Rogge, the I.O.C.'s new president, who is determined to reduce the scale and complexity of the Olympics. At Seoul in 1988, almost 8,500 athletes took part in 23 sports; in Sydney, it was 10,960 athletes in 28 sports. Rogge has capped Athens at 10,500 athletes in 28 sports - no smaller, but at least no bigger. The spaces in Athens may be a bit tight, but there...
...This year a special 10-film section was devoted to South Korea's flourishing film industry. A few cinematic Seoul-mates were disappointed that the list did not include Korea's megahit romantic comedy My Sassy Girl. But the copious selection nonetheless offered a fair overview of the country's artier auteurs?from Lee Chang Dong's long-fuse, then combustive Oasis (it won the Best Director prize at this month's Venice Film Festival) to Jeong Jae Eun's Take Care of My Cat, which, while it does not live up to its beguiling title, paints a quirky fresco...