Daejeon’s Expo Park, Korea / Smart City Region Bike Ride

During a recent stay in Korea, I took the opportunity to ride one of my hotel’s loaner bikes around the neighborhood. Cycling affords an intimacy with your surroundings as well as the ability to cover ground like no other option. The neighborhood I was staying in was near the site of the 1993 World Expo, and had a lot to see.

bridge1
Expo Bridge and Hanbit Tower in the distance.

Expo Bridge is an amazing bit of civil engineering. I had driven past it several times before my ride. Much to my pleasure, the bridge is for bikes and pedestrians only. It is quite photogenic, and I obliged.

bridge2
There are too many good angles of this bridge for me to cover in one blog.
swans
I am sure these swans have a significance that eluded me, but that did not keep me from snapping a pic.
smartcity
The area near Expo Park were I stayed was the “Smart City” district. It was influenced by the expo area with its futuristic architecture.
gym
Expensive workout equipment unprotected in a public place, under a freeway overpass.
grafitti
Korean graffiti, in English oddly enough.
farm
Amidst the urban and industrial setting was this farm, which looked too small to be commercial.
housing
Korean housing. This is an impressive array of identical apartment towers. It is the kind of housing most people live in in Korea’s big cities.
reflection
A confluence of rivers and concrete.
golfer
Golf is big in Korea, I guess.

I learned afterward that most of the site of the expo is being demolished. The process was underway while I was there. Hanbit Tower, Expo Bridge and parts of the rail system will remain, however. 23 years is a good run, I guess, and it is like Korean culture to move forward. They do stay in touch with their past and seem to keep a good balance between progress and history. I hope that Expo Bridge and Hanbit Tower, impractical though they may be, remain a symbol of forward thinking in Korea

1 comments

  1. I was visiting Korea for my son’s wedding, and the hotel where we stayed had bicycles to loan out and this lovely area to ride in.

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