A Swimming Pool in Seoul

The summer is hot in Seoul but the beaches are quite far if you don't have a car. In theory Seoul offers a lot of possibilities, however swimming pools, surprisingly, hide few of the most curious aspects of the Korean lifestyle. One is that the Han River Parks (where most pools are) are rigidly open only from 1 July to 31 August, although, of course, Seoul is hot June, and reasonably warm in september! Here this was our desperate case in the mid of June, in front of a closed Han River Park.

When finally July arrived, we started to frequent several swimming pool. It was quite an experience. The pools themselves are similar one to the other, or better said they are all different from a european one in a similar way. This post is about one of our visits.

That day I noticed for the first time this strange "Poseidon" in our metro station (Nakseongdae), who was indicating the way to the pool. In fact Seoul Metro is full of such figures, and I would like to devote one entire post to them.

Arrived in Yeouido-ro, the island of which I wrote in the last post, we went straight to the pool. On the way the sky was very clean, much more then usual. I have later made a  360 degree view of river path, to give a (very quick!) idea of the landscape.

we crossed the usual bridge

and Marlen was in a very good mood

Right in front of the entrance of the pool there is a very special construction: the center of the largest Pentecostal church in the world, the Yoido Full Gospel Church, with more then 1,000,000 members. The strategies behind its astoundingly fast growth from its birth (1958) are amazing. Its founder, reverend Cho, has transposed cellular reproduction form biology to create the most most efficient way to spread a new religion. 

In practice he initially divided Seoul in  cells and instructed one pastor for each cell (cell leader), who had the task to "spread the verb" as much as possible until a certain number of followers was reached. At that point the cell was split in two, and the new cell was going to be led by another cell leader trained by the past leader. In this way the system has genetically selected the most efficient pastors and the church has grown up to its present number (1,000,000 members, lead by about 530 pastors). I find this story stupefying. Pastoral science. 

Passed the religious temptations, we finally arrived at the pool. Quite crowded, as you would expect in Korea, but in the end... there are however several funny things. The first is that it is impossible to find a point in the pool where one adult does not touch the bottom of the pool. 

I can guarantee that this pool is not crowded.

The weirdest thing is certainly that each hour, for 10 minutes, everybody has to leave the pools. Nobody can just remain in the water in this time. After that, every back in. I tried to ask why, but I really did not find any explanation. The justifications that I have gotten oscillate from the risk of "hypothermia" (???)... 

...to just give a break to the lifesavers... but who knows?!? 

The view from the pool is probably the nicest thing here for many... 

...but not for the children. For them the hit is the water based playground, with a dragon, a tree and a flower

and an imperial pool only for the very little children (water depth something like 50 cm!). I entered in the water, and it was very warm... hopefully because of the heating, although I suspect something else...

Most koreans like to enjoy this pool as it would be a campsite.

Sometimes they have even a double sunshade. This helps to build a certain kind of privacy, I suppose.

However we could not really adapt (yet?!) to this aspect of the korean culture, and we choose instead to lay on the unbelievably available deckchairs on the poolside. 

For lunch, people line up to get a meal. In most cases a typical korean soup.

Considering the scale of the crowd there, the outcome was not too bad.

Here I found one of the most original tattoos that I have ever seen... who knows where all the arrows bring?

On the way back a concert was playing in this unconventional amphitheater on the Han River. Unfortunately the batteries of my camera ran out while zooming in... you missed something: it was a concert of Hawaiian music, all played with banjos!! 

The parks of Yeouido-ro

Along the Han river, that divides Seoul in North and South, there are several public parks with swim pools, playgrounds and many other activities. They are some of the most visited areas in Seoul in Summer, because the river bed is very wide and a breeze is always present.

Few weeks ago we went all three of us to a beautiful one, on the Yeouido island, where the "Wall Street" of South Korea is located, but also where some of the nicest parks in the city are. It is really an interesting place, post-industrial and post-poverty (it was an abandoned place until 50 years ago because of the floods, every year), with futuristic development perspectives.

Visiting the island however is not such a futuristic experience. On the contrary several "underground" aspects of this place appear and make it more interesting.

Arriving from the east the first encounter is with one of the architectural marvels of the island. A long but narrow and very shallow water-stream flows along the rivers side. Here many children play and Marlen did not miss this opportunity. At least after an initial confrontation with some local children, always curious of this little blond curly one. Marlen was not alone, she had a big yellow dragon ready to support her in case of necessity. It must have impressed the local children! 

Marlen and Doro walked along the 1 km, circa, of water stream, with some curious decorations on the side. All along we saw tends, typically protecting korean families from the sun.

                                                          

Here it comes one of the things that are really different in this country, when compared to the west. Bridges are among the most special places in Seoul. In Italy, everywhere in the world probably, under the city bridges is quite a dirty place and only the homeless spend their time there. But in Seoul it is completely different. Actually it is the most preferite place where many people choose to take shelter from the sun. When I saw it the first time I honestly was not positively impressed. It looked just dirty to me. But now that I am getting used to it, I appreciate and I find very fascinating how people even compete for a place in the shade when the summer heat becomes awful. And in fact a second look has shown me that it is not dirty. Korea is just different from the west.

I made few photos under the main bridge passing over Yeouido. Because this island is a very nice place, with parks, trees and playgrounds, the contrast between the crowded  landscape below the bridge and the rest is even more striking. Under the bridge is quite clean, though, because the people are really carefully throwing all the garbage in proper containers, far from the crowd.

Most people stay in fact near the water stream, where most of the children are playing all together. The view of the apparently never-ending columns holding the bridge give to this image a terrible sense of disconnection from the rest of the city, like a world apart. 

Doro and Marlen innocently cross the place, without noticing the hypnotic lines of the bridge over their heads.

The children seem to maximally happily enjoy this swarming of people, while the columns describe a tunnel behind them.

                                                          

But the place where the landscape becomes really special is a bit further, after the bridge, where an enormous but very shallow pool is formed by giant jets of water, pumped into the air. The clouds in the sky, a frequent companion in the humid summer of Seoul, give a very special light to the water, like fused metal. Here the huge new buildings, and the many in construction, really give an idea of the intense redesign of the island. But above all the vision of the immense number of playing children in the water renders the trilling in the air by just sitting on the sides of this (honestly a bit dirty) pond!

In the photo above I was emerging from the water with marlen in my arms because she fell in the water and got scared, but just before that she was just enjoying her time on her little yellow dragon. 

Looking at the other side of the pond, toward the river, the metalling color of the water with the playful people above is even more striking. Children jump and swim fearlessly in 10 cm of water. Life in its pure state. 

Children know what fun is.

A smile that tells everything about our day.