Cheonggyecheon Stream - A River Brought Back

Photo: Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Seoul Palaces, Bukchon and Insadong, a free self-guided tour.

Your walk ends where a buried stream came back to life. Cheonggyecheon once ran through the middle of the old capital, with Joseon Seoul spread along both banks. After the Korean War its banks filled with makeshift houses, and starting in 1958 the stream was covered with concrete over about 20 years. On top went a 5.6-kilometer elevated highway, finished in 1976.

In 2003 Mayor Lee Myung-bak, later South Korea's president, launched a project to tear down the highway and uncover the stream. It opened to the public in September 2005, a green channel nearly 11 kilometers long with walking paths below street level. Much of its water is pumped in from the Han River and from groundwater.

Here at Cheonggye Plaza, where the stream begins, stands Spring, a tall spiraling sculpture by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, installed in 2006. Take the steps down to the water, listen to the city fade behind you, and follow the stream east as far as your legs will carry you.

Getting here: From Jogyesa, walk south along Ujeongguk-ro, cross Jongno, and continue southwest for about eight minutes to Cheonggye Plaza, where the stream begins.

Did you know?: The elevated highway that once ran above the stream carried around 160,000 cars a day, and Seoul took it down anyway.

Photo op: From the top of the plaza steps, frame the Spring sculpture with the stream flowing away beneath it and the office towers rising on either side.

More on Wikipedia: Cheonggyecheon · Lee Myung-bak · Claes Oldenburg · Coosje van Bruggen

Cheonggyecheon Stream - A River Brought Back

Stops on this tour