01 Apr 2009, Posted by Matt in Festivals & Holidays, Historic Korea, Nature, Seoul, 0 Comments
Seoul’s Yeouido Island
An artist’s rendering of Yeouido’s future, now that height restrictions for the island have been lifted (from Yonhap News).
At about 8.4 square kilometers, Yeouido (여의도) is by far Seoul’s largest island. But despite its strategic location in the middle of one of the world’s largest cities, the name “yeouido” actually means, “you can have it.” In the past, this now very valuable piece of real estate was thought to be worthless, since most of the island disappeared when the Han River frequently flooded. As a result, for centuries Yeouido was generally relegated to pastureland and peanut fields. The first major development didn’t occur until 1924, when the Japanese colonial government built Seoul’s first airport there.
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