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Color Guidance Lanes (Joo-haeng-yu-do-seon ): What are those bright pink and green lines on the road?

In the past, Koreean highways and city intersections were incredibly confusing. When approaching a largejuction (a place where multiple roads meet) , drivers had to quickly read multiple overhead signs. This confusion caused drivers to change lanes at the last minute, leading to severe traffic accidents.    In March 2011, a tragic and fatal traffic accident occurred at the Ansan Juction on the West Coast Expressway. A paassenger car and a cargo truck crashed simply because they were confused about which lane to take. In fact, this area always used to be a frequent car accident spot, with 20~30 traffic accidents occuring every year.  So Mr. Yoon Seok-deok, an employess of the Korea Expressway Corporation wanted to do something about this problem. One day, he went home and watched his children drawing pictures on the floor with colorful paint and crayons.  Watching them , a brilliant idea flashed in his mind: what if we colar the roads just like my children's drawings,...

Origin of “Heungcheong Mangcheong”

Let me tell you where the phrase “Heungcheong Mangcheong” (흥청망청) comes from.

This expression was born during the reign of Yeonsan-gun, the 10th king of the Joseon Dynasty, who ruled from 1494 to 1506. He was one of the most famous tyrants in Korean history.

Yeonsan-gun loved pleasure more than politics. He often held huge parties at places like Gyeonghoeru Pavilion in Gyeongbokgung Palace. For these parties, he brought in over 1,000 entertainers, especially a group of women known as “Heungcheong”. They were singers, dancers, and performers whose only job was to entertain the king.

He spent a crazy amount of money on these events—food, music, wine, clothes, decorations. There were more than 80 kinds of royal dishes on the table, including rare meats and exotic foods. These feasts sometimes went on for days.

Now, here’s the important part:

  • The name “Heungcheong” (흥청) comes from the entertainers he invited.

  • The word “Mangcheong” (망청) was added later to rhyme with it, and it means something like “mindlessly” or “without care.”

So the phrase “Heungcheong Mangcheong” was created to describe reckless and wasteful spending, like the king’s behavior.

Even today, when Koreans say “Heungcheong Mangcheong,” they mean spending money without thinking, usually in a negative or critical way. And yes—this phrase came directly from the wild lifestyle of one king who partied a little too hard!

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