Cheonggyechun, or Cheonggye Stream, is a 5.8km long stream that flows through downtown Seoul into the Han River. This landmark represents a dramatic change and advance of Korean technology. It is very strange to say that a stream has something to do with the evolution of technology in Korea, but it is true. If you look into the history of Cheonggye Stream, you can find out that Cheonggyechun is not a simple stream but a symbol of evolution.
Yesterday and today
Spring is a good season to stroll along Cheonggye Stream. According to Seoul City Hall, thousands of people walk down the stream every day. Even in the early morning and late evening you can easily see people jogging to sweat.
It has been only a year and a half that people could take a walk along the stream. Since Cheonggye Stream restoration was completed in September 2005, its presence has been a welcomed sight for weary urban residents. Today, Cheonggye Stream is one of Seoul's main tourist attractions.
Cheonggye Stream starts near the Dong-a Daily Newspaper in downtown Seoul. People can not miss Cheonggye Plaza with its 20-meter high, snailshaped sculpture named Spring donated by KT, a leading broadband and IPTV provider. Claes Oldenberg's sculpture has become a milestone for Seoulites and tourists.
The walls along the stream's walkways are painted with colorful murals depicting Korean history and culture.
Before the Cheonggye Stream restoration was done, people could not see the water flow because Cheonggye Stream was covered with the asphalt road named Cheonggy-ro, on which 3·1 Highway was constructed. Under the road flowed dirty water with garbage and sewage.
Traffic was terrible every day and the US army recommended its vehicles not to use the road in a fear that the road would be blown away by the gas that the dirty water produced.
However, the dirty road and the highway was regarded as a symbol of Korean construction technology. When Park Jung-hee, a military general-turned president, started his modernization program to make war-torn poor Korea become a developing country, Cheonggye Stream was a place where the urban poor gathered and lived in poverty. After all, Cheonggyechun, which literally means Sky blue Stream, became a filthy waterway and Park Jung-hee decided to cover Cheonggyechun with asphalt.
At that time, Cheonggye Stream construction was high-tech. Adding a highway on the road was a miracle. Breaking ground was big news for Koreans and all high ranking government officials including President Park joined the opening ceremony. His cabinet members also stood on the highway to celebrate and herald the accomplishment and walked down the road with President Park.
The future
Cheonggye Stream is now experiencing another change in its nature. This change is really different from the previous ones. Cheonggye Stream will turn out to be an IT Stream. It is because Seoul City Hall and a civilian IT company agreed to adopt IT to Cheonggye Stream in order to make Cheonggye Stream a ubiquitous stream. If Cheonggye Stream changes into a computerized waterway, it may be the first one ever of its kind.
What does it mean to be a ubiquitous stream Samsung SDS,a developer of the u-Cheonggye Stream Project, explained that in a ubiquitous stream, everything is under control by computer system. The quantity of water that runs in the stream and the height of it will be managed by computer programs and systems that Samsung SDS provides.
Tourists will enjoy the ubiquitous Cheonggye this coming September when the implementation of the system is completed.
First of all, Samsung will adapt its u-City integrated platform named UbiCenter to the plan. This Center reduces the quantity of water to a certain level when it rains heavily during the summer season. This can be possible because the sensor planted on the bottom of the stream reads the amount of rain.
When the sensor reports what is happening to the Center, the Center controls the influx of water that comes from the Han River through the pipes under the ground every day.
The planted sensor also checks the quality of the water. When polluted water flows into Cheonggye Stream, the sensor smells it and reports it to the Center so that the Center can prepare next steps to prevent more pollution.
Thanks to the system, walkers of the waterway can see fish live on the screen that is attached to the walls. In order to do this, Samsung will implant cameras at the surface of water where fish often gather. Camera will send the pictures of fish to the screen. Lights and traffic lights will be automatically controlled according to the weather. When it is gloomy the lights will be brighter and when it is evening the colors of lights will be romantic.
Furthermore, mobile phone users walking down the waterway can read the history of Cheonggye Stream, its relics, documents about the Cheonggye Stream restoration project and history of Seoul by touching their mobile phone to RFID tags. In the RFIDs implanted on the walls of Cheonggye Stream, every above-mentioned piece of information is programmed. Tourist information and road maps are also available. Samsung said that the "u-Cheonggye Stream will be highlight of all changes of technology that has been adapted to it."
Cheonggye Stream will also become a stream in which wireless LAN and wireless broadband services including WiBro flow. Thanks to the wireless networks, people can turn on their laptop computers and check their e-mail at any place around Cheonggye Stream. In this warm season, you cannot miss young guys sitting on the walkways of Cheonggye Stream and communicating with their friends on computers.
Kim Young-min, a salesman, said: "At Cheonggye Stream I often eat a hamburger set while checking e-mails that come from my company and clients." He explained that before a wireless LAN system was installed around Cheonggye Stream he always came back to his company to do so or paid 4000 won (about 4 dollars) to use Starbucks where wireless internet services are available.
Mobile and broadband network providers put marketing priority to Cheonggye Stream. KT, SK Telecom and KTF are the leading companies in this trend. KT's Nespot is a wireless LAN service and SK Telecom's T-login and KTF's i-Plug are wireless broadband services. An official who asked not to be named said that in two years Cheonggye Stream will be a mecca of wireless broadband service because broadband network providers and telecommunication companies will spend more money on the system which has already installed in Cheonggye Stream for better services.
WiBro will also meet with Cheonggye Stream. WiBro is a Korea-invented new wireless broadband service. WiBro enables users on vehicles running at the speed of about 60 miles per hour to connect web sites. If you are a CEO of a company, you can open your laptop to check e-mails on the road to the company.
KT declared that it would decorate Cheonggye Stream with WiBro. In all, Cheonggye Stream is not a simple stream in nature. Cheonggye Stream is, so to speak, a stream of wireless service.
There can you enjoy the flow of water and the stream of communication.
Cheonggye's yesterday, today and tomorrow deserves your attention and love.