The place I live is located near the Han River[한강(Hangang)] and Mt.Acha[아차산(Achasan)]. Although it's full of apartment buildings, the environment is not bad . Actually it matches quite well the most ideal form of fengshui: 배산임수 (背山臨水: 산을 등지고 물을 바라보다), which means 'mountain at the back, water in the front'.
It takes only 15 minutes to Achasan, and 10 minutes to Hangang. I don't think there's a better place in Seoul with such a pleasant living environment^^
I took some photos this winter from the river side. A pity that the photos I took on a snow day are not that good as I expected.
Some better photos are coming soon^^
The Han River divides Seoul into north and south.
Words like 'gangbuk[강북(north of the river)]' and 'gangnam[강남(south of the river)]' mean a bit more than just the geographical locations, however.
I live in 'gangbuk', and over the river you can see 'gangnam' .
Jamshil Railway Bridge[잠실철교(Jamshil Cheolgyo)],
Han River, Seoul (2006.1.10.)
5 comments:
Nice pictures. It's unbelievable to see such empty places in Seoul really exists. Or it depends from season to season.
You wrote: "Words like 'gangbuk[강북(north of the river)]' and 'gangnam[강남(south of the river)]' mean a bit more than just the geographical locations..." - I often heard about those different meanings of geographical names from Koreans.
Would you be so kind to explain the other meanings?
The term 'Gangnam' has a very special socio-economic meaning in Korea. To live in Gangnam means to live in one of the nation's most affluent area. Wealth, power, fame and all other privilege are linked to Gangnam. To be exact, it means the district of Gangnam[강남구], Seocho[서초구] and Songpa[송파구].
"He/She lives in Gangnam." usually means to be educated, to be rich, to belong to the elites.
A survey about where students in Seoul National Uni. come from in the last several years revealed the following result: half of the freshmen are from Seoul, and the half of Seouler are from Gangnam. About 25% of the whole students in SNU are the so-called 'Gangnam kids'.
It is obvious what kind of privilege they have: well managed education system, parents who are able to afford the cost for private education, high competition and good information how to enter those top universities, etc.
I think the current situations in Yonsei Uni. and Korea Uni. are not much different from SNU either.
Absolutely correct. The most important question for a student is WHERE he or she studies (and HOW to pay the enourmous fees). After that comes the question WHAT to study. Hard to believe for a german like me.
But I thought the meaning of "gangbuk" and "gangnam" would be more or less regarding to ancient chinese terms of geography. I've heard some real interesting things about the roots of Dongdaemun and Namdaemun and the "forbidden" North entrance during the Joseon dynasty.
And: everything is changing so fast. I'm sure Gangnam will lose power and money to another Dong or Buk. The next big thing in Seoul will be located somewhere else. It will not happen tomorrow or next month, but in the future.
Oh, that was the point of your question^^
Yes, most of the geographical designations have to do with the meaning of each Chinese character.
The most common terms come with 'dong[동:east]', 'seo[서:west]', 'nam[남:south]', 'buk[북:north]', 'sang[상:the upper part]', 'jung[중:middle]', 'ha[하:the lower part]', etc, which indicates its direction.
Others are related with old buildings, sites or environmental features like 'seong[성:city wall]', 'gang[강:river]', 'san[산:mountain]', 'gok[곡:valley]', neung[능/릉:tomb]', 'am[암:rock]', etc. If you are good at Chinese characters, it's not so difficult to guess the origin. You just need to combine each word's meaning. (And a little knowledge of the history.)
Some simple examples about the district names in Seoul:
강남구 = river+south+'gu[구:district]' -> south of the Han River
성동구 = city wall+east+'gu' -> east of the city wall
*The city wall here means the wall that existed until the Joseon Dinasty. In the past, Seoul had its city wall to protect from enemies. Big gates like Namdaemun and Dongdaemun were the city gates. ('mun[문:gate]')
Now you can guess the origin and meaning of 강동구, 강북구, 강서구, 성북구, 서대문구, 동대문구, 중구.
Of course there are more interesting stories about the origin of each place's name. Too many that I can't remember^^
I'll tell you more next time.
I wanna read them all. Probably you could make a spate of texts about geographical names?! Seoul has a long and rich history - why not explaining the origin of certain geographical meanings?
Thanks for your explanaitons so far.
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