I went with some friends to an abandoned neighbourhood in Seoul. We've already been here a few times, but it's on its last legs as demolition races through the area. Somehow they've been working more slowly on the center of the area, where there are a few clusters of traditional Korean architecture.
1. It was March 1, an important patriotic holiday marking Korea's historic independence movement under Japanese occupational rule. It was ultimately unsuccessful and Korea was liberated by America and Russia at the end of the war, but it's a high point in Korea's political history. This gate was actually constructed to mark the end of the first Sino-Japanese War and Korea's liberation from China, which turned out to be not all it was cracked up to be once Japan started forcing its way in. Our meeting place was here, and I wasn't expecting it to be so crowded.
2. Anyway, down into the abandoned area.
3. You're never truly independent of China if you live downwind of it. That week we had extremely high pollution levels blowing in from China, and everyone's been suffering respiratory problems.
4. I've seen construction workers climb all over bars like these a thousand times, so I figured it was safe. Not so much when you're wearing three masks -- facemask, wooden yangban mask, respirator.
5. I went over to check if this wreckage was safe to walk through.
6. Traditional Korean architecture doesn't use metal nails, so I decided it was fine.
7. We actually did find one or two nails, but they were extremely long and not a threat.
8. Up close and personal with the roofs. You can also see a little bit of historic Seoul city walls in the background. This area is now considered west-central Seoul, but back in the day it was just outside city walls, and it would've been dangerous to go here after dark due to tiger attacks. The Japanese occupational government removed most of the city walls between 1910 and 1945.
9. If I may flash back in time a year for one picture, here's the area before demolition got so far. The traditional Korean houses are downhill, and Japanese-built houses are uphill, which was done intentionally all over the place in many different ways to demonstrate Japan's domination over Korea. The Japanese houses are in the upper left.
10. The roof tiles are long overdue for maintenance, which is probably way more expensive than you're thinking. When people know their area is going to be redeveloped soon, they stop doing necessary maintenance.
11. The gang's all here.
12. We found this dirty old heart on the ground.
13. Almost everything's been blanketed and demolished by now.
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15. Another jumble of roofs.
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17. My friend asked why there was a little image of a condom there. It's supposed to be a bell known as Jongno, from which the whole area gets its name. But yeah, it looks like a condom.
18. What did we do after? Went to a different area with better restored traditional architecture for funk music, booze, miniature flags, and violence.
In case you want to hear what Korean funk music sounds like:
http://www.youtube...atch?v=P3kASvt2G4c
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