Yeonnam-dong, a new Human Town or a new Old Town, but mercifully not that old New Town

I found rather comical recent articles presenting Yeonnam-dong's rehabilitation as a success for PARK Won-soon vision*: Yeonnam was the pilot neighborhood at the core of the Human Town vision, a voter-friendly project ignited by PARK's predecessor ahead of the 2010 mayoral elections (actually, the first sentence in my post "OH Se-hoon launches the "Seoul Human Town" concept" was "the campaign for Seoul City Hall is definitely on"). This following the LRT episode where PARK, already running for a second term next year, revived OH's subway projects years after criticizing them as pork barrel**... Of course, PARK didn't write these articles, but I had to smile.

Anyway, whether you call it "Human Town" or "Old Town" (as the metropolitan government rebranded it last year to mark a disruption with the "New Town" model - see "Seoul Old Towns or New Human Towns? New City Hall or Tsunamheat Wave?"***), the concept had to be given a chance. In case you skipped the Human Town beat, here are a few bits from my 3-year-old post:

"(...) an alternative to Seoul's tragic base case scenario : instead of letting a whole neighborhood grow old and derelict until it's ripe for redevelopment, then destroy everything, and finally plant a big "apateu" block, the idea is to improve a neighborhood, make it a better place for everyone, with a special care for young couples and silver heads... core targets in OH's 2010 campaign. (...)

"Seoul Human Town" intends to combine the best of both worlds :

- from apartment blocks : joint management, economies of scale, maintenance, security, parking space, (some) green areas, a playground, consistence and sustainability

- from your friendly neighborhood : low-rise architecture, the human touch, the sense of belonging, the memory, the soul, the identity of Seoul villages.

- bonus : community services, senior and daycare centers. Ultimately, many parts of the city shall enjoy facilities more adapted to their population densities, but previously unaffordable (...).

Don't imagine a complete renovation, more a rehabilitation of the environment : the idea is to let the area breathe, to get rid of one building here and there, to convert another one into a community center, to make room for pavements and plants, to add lights and CCTVs, to bury those cable / electricity snake nests hanging up between buildings (...)".

Again, the before/after rendering
Low-rise, low-key, but still high electoral stakes

I put a marker at the center of Yeonnam-dong Human Town on Seoul Village map - that's at the Gyeongui Line fork (at the beginning of the "Gyeongui Line Forest Trail - An Urban Lifeline"), north of Donggyo-ro:


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Now the most important: is it working?

I often ride my bike in the neighborhood on my way between Yeonhui and Hongdae, and the urban change is not very spectacular at the macro level - except of course for the new forest trail, which also contribute to the village atmosphere, and to drawing shop and cafe customers from the outside. Still, you can tell that this neighborhood has evolved into a much more open life space and community thanks to the small scale changes at the street level (e.g. fewer walls, more walkways and green areas, fewer visible electric lines...) as well as well as thanks to the new community services (which also translate in more open or shared spaces).

Residents are feeling optimistic for the future, and not only regarding the value of their properties (the usual barometer in Seoul-upon-Han, I'm afraid). Rents are up, and maybe the fact that Hongdae's spike in retail rents pushed many small entrepreneurs further from the commercial center doesn't explain everything.


Yeonnam-dong does look and feel more like a village...

... and anyway, so much better than this "old New Town" project!

Phew! This "well being" apocalypse was canceled

Seoul Village 2013
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* e.g. "박원순式 재개발 1호 ‘마포 연남동’… 주거정비 마무리" (Asia Economy - 20130925), "'박원순표 재개발' 저층주거지 정비 마친 연남동 일대" (Financial News - 20131004)
** see "If you ain't broke, fix it: Seoul, Welfare and Railways Deficits" (20130801)
*** again, have also a peek at my essay "Inhuman, all too human Seoul" - "Seoul: inhumaine, trop humaine" (2011-2012), and its final section: "De la New Town à l’Human Town, le retour en grâce des villages" ("From New Towns to Human Towns, villages are back in good favors")

Busan Corner on Taxi-daero

Each time I ride my bicycle from Yeonhui-dong to Hongdae, I follow the same Yeonhuimat-ro / Donggyo-ro line. And each time, I make a couple of mental notes along the way: I must come back for this and that eatery, I haven't visited them in a long time.


The first section is called Yeonhui's street of flavors (Yeonhuimat-ro, formerly Yeonhuimat-gil) for a reason: people come from far away for the food, even for a dish as simple as Yeonhui-dong Kalguksu.


The second section is far less inviting: basically an apartment block (Imgwang Apartment) stuck between two disgracious elevated infrastructures (Seongsan-ro and the Gyeongui Line). But even there you can find a couple of restaurants.


The next stretch is a paradise for authentic Chinese cuisine lovers (see for instance Hong Bok or Ha Ha). That's also where you'll find the very Chinese-friendly Yeonhui-Yeonnam Global Village (Seoul Global Center).


Further afield, Donggyo-ro shifts by 45 degree from Southwest to South, until it reaches the new park. I knicknamed that 100% restaurant section "Taxi-daero" because both sides of the street are always fully packed with diagonally parked cabs (a good sign if you believe in Word Of Mouthwatering, that Great Tradition among Taxi Drivers).


Soon after the park, Donggyo-ro meets with Yeonnam-ro and takes you to Hongik University Station and Seogyo-dong, drawing a big smile north of Yanghwa-ro (there again, countless places to take a snack, including Charles Sutbul Gimbap).


I've already mentioned this new park, a potential game-changer for a neighborhood that badly needed one. Bonus: the best configuration possible for cafes and terraces. They only reopened the section between Donggyo-ro and Yanghwa-ro, but right now, this 30 meter wide band covering the AREX looks very promising, even if Mapo-gu didn't invest a lot in the trees, rather rachitic. Speculators have started raiding the spot a couple of years ago, and many buildings have already being remodeled. I sincerely hope they won't let them grow taller than 2-3 levels because that would totally ruin the area, as is already the case for the section North of Donggyo-ro (on this picture, along Kolon Apartment):

I'm also worried about Taxi-daero because if this neighborhood becomes too successful, more shops shall move from Hongdae, and I wouldn't want the place to look like yet another Garosu-gil.

What I fear most is the disparition of unspectacular landmarks that make this place so special and particularly Busan Corner, a delicious and cute eatery ideally located at the Southernmost end of Taxi-daero, with a view on the garden, or rather on this catwalk for anorexic plants. The owner is a very kind lady from Busan, who cooks simple and delicious local snacks (부산먹거리) for a song:


Bibim dangmyeon (비빔당면)

Homemade odeng soup (수제오뎅탕)

Busan Gimbap (부산김밥)

Busan Corner  / 부산코너 (snacks)
At the corner of Donggyo-ro and AREX park, Mapo-gu
Tel +82.322.9242

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* Note that the garden will continue on the other side of Yanghwa-ro, but for the moment that's just a barricaded working site from which only the new AREX exit emerge. When they connected the Incheon-Gimpo Airport line to Hongdae station they changed the numbering system for all subway exits, and I once sent by mistake a friend to that no man's land - not the best first impression for Hongik University area.

Neighborhood watch

Did you know that Yeonhui-dong area was seriously considered by Jeoson dynasty founders for their new capital (nowadays Seoul)? They eventually chose Bugaksan instead of Ansan because the place could be defended more easily, but Sinchon owes its name (new village) to that period, and King Sejong loved the place so much he built a palace for his father. Unfortunately, nothing remains of it and no one knows where Yeonhuigung was precisely erected. I guess somewhere along what is now Yeonhui-ro, not far from Yeonhuimat-gil, where a streamlet used to flow a few decades ago: according to feng shui, you had to have a 'ying' mountain behind you, and a 'yang' river below.

Anyway. It was then said that some day, kings would live here. And it turns out that two former presidents have a residence in Yeonhui-dong (Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo), and that former president Kim Dae-jung used to live just a few blocks away, in Donggyo-dong (and to shop at Saruga, then the country's first supermarket). Note that Chun and Roh share ROK army backgrounds, and that land was granted to high ranking officers in the area following the Korean War: fierce combats raged in Yeonhui-dong around Hill 104, a strategic position, and a gateway to the Capital.

These days, Roh Tae-woo is very ill and Chun Doo-hwan seldom leaves home. As is the custom for former presidents, their residences are heavily guarded, and you can tell when a big fish is visiting by the insigna of the people waiting outside. Guards have to live in the vicinity, and a whistleblower recently revealed that the crew in charge of protecting Chun used, free of charge, a building within the Seoul Art Space Yeonhui* domain (next to his residence), and that the contract would expire on April 30th.

Last year, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon received a welcomed last minute boost for his election when a scandal broke out regarding the future personal protection of President Lee Myung-bak (suspicious land acquisitions for his retirement place and security facilities). In this even bigger election year, chances are he won't renew a contract that ensures for free, in the most charming public residence for writers, the protection of a former dictator.

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*see "Seoul Art Space Yeonhui"

---
UPDATE 20120208

As expected, Seoul Metropolitan Government won't renew the contract: "Chun's security detail to be booted off city land" (in today's Korea JoongAng Daily)

Hong Bok (Seoul)

The Yeonhui-dong (my "Yummy-dong"!) - Yeonnam-dong area is full of authentic and affordable Chinese restaurants, each one with its own flavors and specialities. Like some of its neighbors (e.g. "Ha Ha") Hong Bok serves authentic food from Northeastern China.

Today, we tried lamb skewers, fish mandu, and hwang mandu from Shandong and Jilin provinces.

Fish mandu? a true delicacy, boiled to perfection. Hwang mandu (pork) being filled with big chunks, each ingredient comes with a bang.

Lamb skewers taste terrific, and not too strong for Korean palates (many locals have a poor memory of lamb following a doomed promotion ages ago, and the smell of this meat can be an issue). Marinated, seasoned with herbs, and served with paprika, the dish makes you travel even further than across the Yellow Sea. Central Asia, maybe?

Don't be afraid to order the set of 14 skewers: each one is not bigger than a tiny finger, and they're fun to BBQ at your table. We started to line them like rows of table football players, but the tenants told us to hold them in packs because it's as efficient, and much less tedious to turn them in bulk. See the small dents on each corner of the stove? You use them to push the meat to the end of the sticks.

Hong Bok is on Seongmisan-ro (formerly Dongjin Market street), the first street between Donggyo-ro and Yeonhui-ro South of the railway.

Hong Bok (restaurant)
224-41 Yeonnam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, ROK
(new address: Mapo-gu, Seongmisan-ro 189)
Tel +82.2.323.1698

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Ha Ha (Seoul)

"Ha Ha" ? Funny name for a restaurant, but I guess pigs don't share the joke since this place specialized in Shandong cuisine serves, among other delicacies, their ears, brains, and guts (all in the same sauce and cucumber mix). Also on the menu : great hwang and tong mandus (황만두 and 통만두), light galettes (총유병), a mix of buchu and gaebul (부추 개불 볶음)...

For non-initiates : buchu means garlic chives, and if you've been to a fish market you've probably noticed gaebul (pink spoon worm) swarming in water buckets.

With its no frills decor, Ha Ha remains one of the last typical small Chinese restaurants, and one of the more numerous two storey houses in this section of Donggyo-ro lined with platanus trees. With the right weather and mood, it almost looks like a lost part of old Shanghai or Paris XIIIe Chinatown, and I hope they won't let high rise buildings ruin the magic.

If eating spoon worms or pig brains is your idea of magic, that is.

HA HA / 하하/ 哈哈
Yeonnam-dong 229-12 (Donggyo-ro), Mapo-gu, Seoul, ROK
Tel +822.337.0211

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Charles Sutbul Gimbap (Seoul)

A gimbap on wood charcoal and a cartoon dog as a mascot to tease the passer-by, food with character to turn him into a loyal customer if he manages to survive, that's the concept.

"Sutbul Gimbap", the fabled charcoal gimbap, costs 4,000 a roll but it's a very big and very very tasty one. Not as big as the anchovy/walnut rice ball, though (KRW 2,500 - an interesting way of revisiting a classic snack with a classic banchan).

But what literally killed me was the "cheese bul ddeokbokki", one of the meanest I've ever tasted... and I survived many times Woojeong Nakji, a.k.a. The Octopus From Hell. Luckily enough, I just had to stretch the arm to reach the water fountain, which was as steamy as I by the end of the dish.

Charles Sutbul Gimbap / 찰스 숯불 김밥
201-6 Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, ROK
Tel: +82.2.334.1692

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