{"id":2337,"date":"2014-07-18T21:51:38","date_gmt":"2014-07-19T04:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=2337"},"modified":"2014-07-18T21:51:38","modified_gmt":"2014-07-19T04:51:38","slug":"an-urbanists-tour-of-south-korea-part-five-busan-city-of-tomorrow-and-yesterday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/?p=2337","title":{"rendered":"An Urbanist&#8217;s Tour of South Korea, Part Five: Busan, &#8220;City of Tomorrow&#8221; \u2013 and Yesterday"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/static.guim.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2014\/7\/18\/1405672591585\/1fdb0aca-6034-4f62-bf4e-3608467437ba-460x276.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"460\" height=\"276\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Just as\u00a0<a style=\"color: #005689;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/cities\/2014\/jul\/17\/from-seoul-to-changwon-in-search-of-the-worlds-best-bike-share-scheme\">Changwon brands itself the \u2018Young City\u2019<\/a>, other Korean conurbations come with slogans of their own. Seoul, of course, has a few: \u2018Hi Seoul, Soul of Asia\u2019 is an awkward English one; only marginally better is the Korean slogan which translates as: \u2018The Seoul We Create Together, the Seoul We Enjoy Together.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>But nowhere is as zealous about its self-applied label than Busan, South Korea\u2019s second largest city, located all the way across the country on its southeastern coast. Maps, buses, construction sites: all periodically remind us that we are in \u2018Dynamic Busan, City of Tomorrow\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>This slogan strikes me as, in equal parts, apt and mistaken. While I feel bullish about Busan\u2019s future, that has nothing to do with the seaside metropolis\u2019s firm grasp on the 21st century. The appeal of Busan \u2013 indeed, a reason to prefer it over Seoul \u2013 comes not from what it offers as a city of tomorrow, but what it offers as a city of yesterday.<\/p>\n<p>As a rare piece of territory not captured by the Northern army during the Korean War, Busan came through the 1950s intact, serving during wartime as the capital of the Republic of Korea. The city incurred far less involuntary demolition in that era, so has endured a less thoroughgoing redevelopment since. If you are seeking \u2018old\u2019 urban South Korea, you\u2019ll find it here \u2013 or at least, more of it than elsewhere.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Read the whole thing at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/cities\/2014\/jul\/18\/busan-south-korea-city-of-tomorrow-interesting-past-urbanist-tour\">the\u00a0<em>Guardian<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just as\u00a0Changwon brands itself the \u2018Young City\u2019, other Korean conurbations come with slogans of their own. Seoul, of course, has a few: \u2018Hi Seoul, Soul of Asia\u2019 is an awkward English one; only marginally better is the Korean slogan which translates as: \u2018The Seoul We Create Together, the Seoul We Enjoy Together.\u2019 But nowhere is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2338,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337\/revisions\/2338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.colinmarshall.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}