Gyeongju-Busan-Seoul Day 9 (Part 4) – Cheongyecheon

11 May 2012

Cheongyecheon stream is quite a feature in Seoul as a highway used to run over it. The highway was demolished in 2005, and the stream was rebuilt into a beautifully landscaped water feature, running below the street level. One could do a walking tour of the entire stream from the Cheongye Plaza to the Han River, but we chose to tour only a small part of the stream, i.e. doing it as part of our city walking tour.

We went to Cheongyecheon stream after visiting Insadong. From Insadong, going southwards, we arrived at the Samilgyo bridge.

Directional sign on the ground on Samilgyo Bridge.

Samilgyo Bridge would be somewhere near the midpoint of the stream. Heading east along the stream would take us to the Dongdaemun shopping area. We had already seen some parts of Cheongyecheon at night near Dongdaemun in a previous visit.  Heading westwards would lead us to the Cheongye Plaza.

We could see that the stream is popular with locals and tourists alike. A nice place for relaxation, reflection or just to get away from the busy city streets above.

Local girl relaxing by the stream beneath the Samilgyo bridge.

View of the Cheongyecheon towards the direction of Jangtonggyo and Cheongye Plaza (start point of stream).

Going down from the Samilgyo Bridge and heading upstream or westwards towards the Cheonggye Plaza in Sejong-ro, we could see a large art piece on the wall to our right, consisting of many ceramic tiles, laid out on the wall. This is the Banchado.

Ceramic tiles featuring a small part of the Banchado, featuring a procession of King Jungjo, his family and his men going to Suwon Hwasung.

“It is a reproduction of a painting of Joseon’s King Jungjo visit to Suwon Hwasung drawn by the famous Joseon artist Kim Hong Do. It is made up of 5,120 ceramic tiles 30 meters in length and height, and is the largest of its kind in the world. The total length of this ceramic wall painting is 192 meters, and it depicts 1,700 characters and 800 horses.” – according to Internet sources.

We followed the procession depicted on the wall tiles, trying to identify which figure on horseback is the King (on horseback). It was quite difficult, even with the interpretation signs.

By now, we were pretty tired from city tour so we took a rest by the bank of the Cheongyecheon. This gave me an opportunity to do some people watching and take some photos of the flowing stream and water falls.

Long exposure shot of the waterfall.

Moving on, we passed under one or two other bridges and finally came to the Cheongye Plaza.

Self-cam photo shot on a mirror art.

Cheongyecheon near the Cheongye Plaza.

Cheongye Plaza with “corkscrew” structure above.

The Cheongye Plaza is a busy place. Some kind of fund raising activity was taking place. So, more photo opportunities for me and it was a good place to relax and do some people watching.

Pretty fund raisers.

Image of Admiral Yi Sun-sin on back of  large 100 Won coin.

Donated Korean coins all over the floor in middle of Cheongye Plaza.

From here, we crossed a wide road intersection that leads us to a large open area along the Sejong-ro known as the Gwanghwamun Square.

The Gwanghwamun Square featured fountains and monuments honouring Admiral Yi Sun-sin and also King Sejong (source of name of the road). At the north end of the square is the Gwanghwamun, the main and largest gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace. More about this in the next post.