Sunday, 17 February 2008

The canal Story

The new president of the Republic of Korea, Lee something, used to be the mayor of Seoul. While occupying that position he built the now famous Cheonggye stream, the stream that runs through the centre of Seoul.

This story has actually been around for a while, but has been pushed to the back by other things I wanted to write about. It seems he wants to cement his position in Korean history by building a larger version through Korea.

The long and short of it seems that he wants to build a canal from the North-West point of the republic to all the way down to Busan. His reasoning is that it will make transport of goods easier and act as a tourist attraction by offering rides.

As soon as the idea got out people started saying how stupid it is. Korea had mountains, and lots of it. How the hell are you going to get this canal through here? Either you blow up the mountains to get through, and destroy another part of nature, or you build those things that raise and lower the ships and barges. What are they called again?

Let’s not forget the big canal that runs right from the North-West point all the way to Busan already. It is a little something called the sea. The builder of that was way ahead of his time, I tell you.

The story even made it on to the BBC web site.

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