"Welcome to Hallyuwood."

Came across this video about Hallyuwood, the Korean Wave theme park set to open in Gyeonggi-do. OK, all the talk about the Korean Wave is pretty lame, and I groan in pain when the papers or some quote-unquote academics gush over it, especially when the expansion of Korean culture is set up as something markedly different and to the Westernization of Asia. But the concepts in the video look pretty cool. Here's an article about the park from February, 2006. Read the whole thing, but here's an excerpt:

According to the province's plan, the monorail will stretch for 1.5 kilometers, starting from Jeongbalsan Station on Subway Line No. 3, passing through the complex to reach Daehwa Station, the final destination of the monorail on the same subway line. The new transportation system is expected to carry about 30,000 passengers every hour.

Ilsan, where the complex will be nested, is in the vicinity of the Korea International Exhibition Center or KINTEX, the biggest exhibition center in the country. Ilsan Lake, the largest artificial lake in Asia which attracts more than 2.5 million visitors a year, is on the other side of the planned Hallyuwood site.

Also located near the complex will be a China town, a new airport terminal, an aquarium and a sports mall, which are either under construction or planned to begin groundbreaking soon. Two international airports - Incheon and Gimpo which are within an hour's drive from the future complex site - are expected to strengthen the function of the complex along with nearby studios of SBS and MBC, major local broadcasters.

Taking advantage of the lake park, another scenic lakeside park will be built on a lot measuring 138,600 square meters inside the complex, and a central waterway will also be constructed, with the water flowing in from the Han River. The province plans to build a luxury hotel in this area with about 6,000 guest rooms, as part of its second-phase project of the complex.

Sounds neat. I often cringe when I see how Korean culture is marketed and presented to foreigners because, quite frankly, nobody cares about hanbok, kimchi, or samul nori. But the park, should it actually be completed according to the video and those 2006 plans, will highlight things far more interesting to outsiders: Korea's technology and modernization, to say nothing of Korea's entertainment industry, which is admittedly far more popular in Asia than in North America. It will be located in Goyang, named one of Newsweek's "Ten Most Dynamic Cities" in 2006.

I haven't been able to find much new information on the park, and the website given in that video's description is to an online shopping site. Looks like the official site is here, which introduces the park with:

Hallyuwood is a project to establish the infrastructure for cultural exchanges that would be the center for continued development and production of Hallyu cultural contents as well as the venue for distribution and consumption of these products.

So there you go. No word yet on when it will open. Older articles said 2008 and 2010. Elsewhere on the page:

Hallyuwood is a compound word between the Korean word 'Hallyu', which represents Korean tradition, with the English word 'wood', which represents universality around the world. It shows our vision to get away from nationalism and march into the bigger world.

*Cough* I'll save most of the links for a forthcoming post, but here's a bit more from the Hallyuwood Declaration, whose sentiments contradict what I just quoted above:

The cultural potential of Korea, which was scattered with grief and joy over the 5 thousand years of national history, is blossoming the long-yearned flower of 'Hallyu' (Korean Wave) with the cutting-edge digital technology o fthe 21st century.