Fig. 1. About Seoul |Linux Kernel Summit 2015|
So, Seoul is, what many people call, a mega-city. There are certain qualifications necessary for a town or city to be considered a mega-city but the most important one is that the population living in the city must exceed 10 million people. Therefore, there aren’t too many mega-cities in the world and the two most famous in Asia: Seoul and Tokyo. Because we’re so packed together, we face many challenges as a society like pollution and the preventing of diseases. In case you weren’t aware, there was a massive MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Symptom) outbreak in Seoul and the damage was unexpectedly severe because of how tightly packed we were. Despite these issues, there are other benefits in living in a booming city like fledgling skyscrapers and booming financial areas. To present you with a more modern view on Korea’s capital city, we’ll look at the most modern, vibrant, and booming areas in Seoul. We’ll start with Gangnam.
Fig. 2. Gangnam BBQ
Gangnam, as many Americans know, was the central theme for PSY’s hit song “Gangnam Style”. Because of that, I get a lot of questions asking whether Gangnam is a real thing and what the song’s central theme is (since most of it is sung in Korean). Well, first, the song is PSY’s take on the “rich and famous” who occupies the area known as Gangnam (south of the river Han). Simply put, it’s basically him poking fun at the big-headed and privileged folks who live in Gangnam. However, Gangnam is a real place and I happen to know quite a lot about it because we live close to the area (though we’re not affluent enough to live there…). Gangnam is a prime example of a desolate wasteland finding luck and booming in a short period of time. During the days of the dynasties, Gangnam was mostly a farming area, far from the tall buildings and skyscrapers Koreans are accustomed to today. During the 1970s, however, as the government prioritized economic growth and development, the area south of the Han river, splitting Seoul, started playing a vital part. More skyscrapers and offices got built and more and more people started investing in real-estate, driving the prices up like mad. Currently, the lands around Gangnam is one of the most expensive in the world and is an “elite area” with a lot of celebrities, former congress members, and former presidents living there. With all the clubs and karaokes, Gangnam is where the dreams of all those Korean pop stars are born and consolidated.
When we talk about a vibrant city life, we shouldn’t neglect the areas where businesses are held. Every city has one; New York’s got Wall Street, China’s Shanghai, and Japan’s Tokyo. In Seoul, South Korea, a lot of the businesses are situated south of the river Han, even beyond the formal boundaries of Gangnam. Headquarters of companies like Samsung, LG, KIA, and Hyundai are all situated in Seoul, near or on the southern side of the river Han. Mentioned above, the business expansion pushed by the government during the 60s and 70s prompted many aspiring businessmen to create companies like Samsung and Hyundai by expanding the small properties they had under the 35 years of Japanese rule. As time passed, those businesses’ expansions continued and are now global companies with numerous headquarters around the world.
Seoul is a very unique city: one that often isn’t replicated anywhere else in the world. Seoul’s mix of tradition, culture, modernity, and business, is flawless. Also, it captivates visitors and presents them with a new approach for site seeing. In Seoul, rather than going to and looking at monuments in a one dimensional way, visitors can experience the modernity of a real mega-city, alongside appreciating Korean traditions and culture.
Fig. 1. : https://sites.psu.edu/inkyopassion/files/2017/04/seoul-2jm3f4x.jpg
Fig. 2. :http://www.gangnamkoreanbbq.com/images/gangnam-01.jpg
I love reading this blog and learning more about South Korea! It is really interesting to hear about the history of Gangnam and the area moving from poverty to now being one of the most elite places in Seoul. I am from the New York area, so I remember hearing my parents talk about our time living in New York (I was just a baby then) and how areas like SoHo changed from sketchy areas to now being one of the most expensive places in the city, with major stores and fancy eateries. It is really fascinating the way areas can undergo such rapid change, and I enjoyed hearing about an example of this in Seoul. I look forward to seeing what else you blog about!
This was a great post and I really enjoyed how you connected the Seoul to our pop culture with the song Gangnam style. Hearing about Gangnam was interesting as I feel like you can relate this type of growth and development of the city to many other cities around the world, including some of the big cities today in the United States. I just wrote my passion blog this week about New York City and I can see so many connections between this city and Seoul, just like how you mentioned the business sort of district in each. Although unique in their own ways, both of the cities have similar components like the elite societal standing areas, immense opportunities, and massive headquarters imbedded within the culture of the cities. I really liked this post and can’t wait to hear more about Seoul!
When reading this blog I appreciated how you related pieces to the hit pop song Gangham Style and to parts of the US, specifically Wall Street. I think these references were very well crafted in order to grab our attention as readers. Additionally, these tidbits of information allowed me to grasp a better understanding of the layout of the city and what Seoul is like in comparison. But, as you described, it is no shock that Seoul is very similarly laid out to other megacities around the world because they have similar structures and purposes.