* The Formula One racing team McLaren boss isn't happy about Yeongam county getting a race next year.
The McLaren boss, Martin Whitmarsh, however, told the Guardian on Tuesday that he has doubts about adding a sixth race in Asia.
"We hear stories it's four or five hours from anywhere, there's no infrastructure, no hotels, no one can get there, it's going to make it difficult for fans and difficult for media," said the manager.
He added, "My personal opinion is that we've got other priorities. We've got to act in North America."
* There's a proposal to eventually connect Incheon Airport to Mokpo via bullet train. Now if they could only connect Muan International Airport to something.
* From this Marmot's Hole post comes a wonderful photogallery from Jirisan. And here's a gallery from Not Dead Yet. Hermit Hideaways recently put up a Jirisan gallery as well.
* Talk of merging Yeosu, Suncheon, and Gwangyang comes up yet again. I first wrote about this two years ago today.
* A piece that mentions the donors who are helping preserve Mudeungsan. More on the cause's site.
* A house sparrow boarded a plane in Gimpo bound for Yeosu last week.
* Suncheon-based teacher and photographer Simon Bond calls the city "a natural paradise" in this Korea Herald write-up.
* Some foreign students of Korean at Gwangju's Chonnam National University do some activities on Hangeul Day.
* And here's a look at Gwangju's Chungjangno, a major pedestrian shopping street and area downtown, from 1955 via the Gwangju Ilbo:
>That particular pictures shows the intersection in front of the post office. Later, I'll talk a little more about the Chungjangno Festival, which will run from October 13th through 18th, and though it's really nothing special, one nice thing is the chance to see some old pictuers of Gwangju.
3 comments:
Looked much nicer in those days if you ask me. You could almost mistake it for Japan. The buildings look well constructed and it feels quite open.
It's such a shame that they put up such awful buildings during their post democratic economic boom period; it's somewhat ruined the country for future generations, although I can totally understand where the impetus came from.
Chungjangno is now a claustrophobic mess of neon signs (yes, I know they are an attractive novelty upon first arrival, but honestly, Korea could do with a little less of them; everywhere is beginning to look/does look the same because of this), incredibly cheaply made, badly constructed, thoughtlessly 'designed' and almost totally unplanned buildings.
Sorry, I should say it has ruined the appearance/aesthetics of the country for future generations, not the country as a whole!
The lights you find in Myeongdong, Chungjangno, and yes pretty much every other town and city in Korea, were an awesome novelty when I first arrive in Korea. And they're still neat.
But Chungjangno is claustrophobic and rather stale. When they redo the plaza around the old provincial office it'd be neat if they redid the pedestrian area block-by-block. Get rid of some of the big buildings that obscure the view, allow some room for restaurants and cafes to spill outside, maybe even set up a permanent historic block where you can eat old timey food, buy old timey snacks, and do other old timey things (like they should be doing for the Chungjangno Festival). I know that's not how development works, but the amount of actual history in the city is striking.
And they should do something to wake "Art Street" the hell up while they're at it. Every time I've walked through there (maybe four or five times) everything's been closed.
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