Walking the Haguicheon

Yesterday (OK this was a week ago now) I woke too late to go for my morning run. It was after 10am, the sun was too high in the sky and the temperature was 30 in the the shade. Not ideal running conditions. So I decided to walk my running route instead and take some photographs along the way. After lathering my Celtic skin with sun cream and grabbing a bottle of water I set off.

The River Hagui runs behind the apartment building where I live. It runs down from the mountains in to the Anyang River, which in turn empties in to the huge Han River in Seoul. I read somewhere that the rivers in Anyang used to be toxic, draining the waste of the industries that lined their banks, but they must have been cleaned up and regenerated some time ago because now they are actively used as public parks and serve as conduits for nature through the concrete city.

At 8.30am (and again at 8.30pm) the pathway above is absolutely packed with runners, joggers, power walkers, cyclists and elderly strollers. However at 11am it was too damn hot and, apart from me, the route was sensibly deserted.

Busan: The Docks, man

After only a short time in the job, last week my school closed for the summer half of the 2 weeks annual vacation holiday. To be honest everything still feels something like a holiday at the moment so I didn’t really feel the need for a bit, but I thought I should do some travelling in Korea so I joined my co-workers and some of their friends on a trip to Busan.

Now I was in Busan last September for a conference with my previous job (in fact that basically precipitated my whole move to Korea), so it was a little strange to be back so soon. I remember arriving with no expectations at all, allowing those expectations to be met, and then over the course of a week, slowly becoming fascinated with the place. On my final day there last year I visited a serene mountain top Buddhist temple and also took an interminable taxi ride across city to the airport, going right through the heart of the docks, with lorries carrying Maersk containers and huge pieces of industrial plant clogging up the road. Of course, given my fascination with infrastructure and industrial urban clutter, it was a journey I didn’t want to end.