Today, we had a chance to discuss with three business association leaders on various issues around how traffic/parking impacts businesses in the downtown district. The meeting was held at Seong-An Road Shopping District which apparently is the leading shopping magnet in the region (5th largest in South Korea). The business leaders expressed their concerns on increased competition from new shopping centers and wanted to ensure that any future transportation plans should ease shoppers' access to this downtown area.
When the meeting ended, the team took a nice walk thru the shopping streets which was for pedestrians only (except for delivery vehicles during non-business hours). This area resembled another famous shopping district in Seoul at Myung-Dong. Streets were filled with big brand name stores along with many eateries and bright signs. Pictures below show an empty street as they were taken in the morning hours but will be filled with shoppers. It also had a nice big park near by.
Did I mention there were many eateries? After a very nice lunch at an inexpensive Italian style restaurant ($8), we couldn't resist the temptation of Ho-Deok (a fusion between pancake and donut). This version was special as the outer shell was thin & crispy and had a little bit of melted brown sugar in the middle. Each one costed about 70 cents and it was delicious.
Our next stop was to the City's Central Traffic Command Center. We had a chance to see this enormous and visually stunning facility in action. Hundreds of CCTV cameras were continuously monitoring traffic conditions including illegally parked cars. Traffic lights are also synchronized to ensure improved flow of traffic. It can also be modified depending on traffic conditions. The presenters were extremely knowledgeable of the operation and also had strong opinions & ideas for city's future transportation needs.
Next stop was back to our hotel work room. After debriefing on today's meetings/tours, we continued to draft our set of recommendations. Around 7pm, we headed for a Korean BBQ dinner.
One of city officials introduced your blog to us(Cheong-ju city officials) by e-mail. All of your posts were quite interesting and it was a good chance to see how much your scc team members have been really making great effort to give my community and citizens good solutions and recomendations. and persoanally useful time to study Englsihe while reading your posts. Thank you for Scc team members and your blog.^^
ReplyDeleteThank you Becky. BTW, many folks who we have interviewed so far spoke very good English and in fact, one professor spoke almost perfect English. Needless to day, we were all impressed which also gave our interpreter a well deserved break.
DeleteHello, Mr. Kim ... sounds like you're another Korean ^.^ I appreciate your post mostly for the tone and manner of the writings, which stand out as generous, recognizing and giving.
ReplyDeleteDescriptions are so depictive and realistic, it reads like a picture, upholstered by appropriate photos. I presume you have planned all of your stories beforehand and collected data accordingly. Thanks for the beautiful diary. Truly yours!
Oh yes, born in Seoul. It's ironic that when I was in school, I didn't enjoy writing very much vs. math & science. Through this blog, I am simply capturing my daily activities along with my thoughts & feelings. No need to worry about what my English teacher had taught me such as proper sentence structure. However, I do try to double check my spelling...
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