Cheong Gye Cheon stream (Photo-essay)

Back in the summer of 2008, I read a TIME magazine article about a once polluted, then covered, stream in Seoul that had been close to miraculously rejuvenated and decided in a flash that some day, I would like to see it for myself.

On the fifth day of my Korean visit, I finally allowed myself to take a close to 6 kilometer stroll along the beautiful banks of Cheong Gye Cheon, the serene stream that flows right through central Seoul and whose present (since September 2005) incarnation spells a major victory for the environment and environmentalists. And, as I hope this photo essay (and at least one -- maybe two -- more to come) will show, it proved to be a real pleasure to walk along the banks of this urban waterway that has been radically transformed -- and in the process, may also have helped transform a city:-

Waterfall and skyscrapers near Cheonggye Plaza
at the western end (or should I say start?)
of the Cheong Gye Cheon stream

Artificial sprays of mist at the digital canvas section
create small but beautiful rainbows
-- like the one in the above photo

A small section of the large porcelain mural showing
the filial King Jeonjo visiting his father's tomb
in Suwon on his mother's 60th birthday in 1795

Flowers aplenty grow on the banks of the stream

And insects can be found in the vicinity too --
such as this dragonfly sunning itself
on a green stalk by the stream

A duck floating on a stream right in Seoul city center!

One of the cooler things about the stream
is how the banks on both sides of it
vary in height from section to section

Something really fortuitous: that
my mother's and my Korean visit was a time
when the autumn leaves ranged in color
from bright green to warm yellow, orange and red