You may notice quite a few homeless people around Seoul Station. A lot of visitors ask me, “Why are there so many homeless people here?” One of the biggest reasons goes back to 1997, during the Asian Financial Crisis. In Korea, we usually call it the IMF Crisis . A lot of companies went bankrupt, unemployment rose very quickly, and many people suddenly lost their jobs and income. Some people eventually lost their homes as well. And many of them came to Seoul Station . Why here? Because this was one of the main places to find day labor and temporary jobs , and it was also the main railway station if they wanted to go back to their hometowns. But some had no money left and nowhere else to go, so they stayed around the station. That is one reason Seoul Station became one of the main gathering places for homeless people after the 1997 crisis. Then another thing happened. Once many homeless people were here, churches, charities, NGOs, and the government started providing help here. Th...
Yellow sail boat (황포 돛배 Hwang-po sailing boat )
When you watch Korean historical dramas , you can often see these ships as a means of transportation when people see off someone who is leaving for a long distance, or in a scene where a man and a woman saying farewell leave each other.
Hwangpo means yellow cloth, and it is a sail dyed with red clay water. The material of the boat is made of pine tree. It was also a representative symbol of the history of the Han River. During the Joseon Dynasty, Ships were used to transport regional specialties such as food, firewood, rice and salt to pay taxes along with people.
The characteristic of the boat is flat-bottomed ship. At the time, Koreans traveled on the southern and western seas where the tidal changes are so severe that the mudflats were exposed during low tide. These flat-bottomed boats were much safer as they were less likely to capsize.
In addition, it played an important role of transporting goods because it was much more efficient as it could transport far more goods than horses or people.
The Hwangpo sailboat from Joseon Dynasty has been restored to its original form, and convenience and safety facilities are provided inside. Now there are several places where you can enjoy the Hwangpo sailboat for tour.