27 November 2022
Purple line
From Jamsil to Hannam on foot
Continuing my tradition of walking above a train line, today I walked above the purple line from Jamsil to Hannam, which was 35,000 steps. Quite a long way! This journey takes in the Olympic park, Olympic rowing park and various other non Olympic related parks before ending at the Starfield Hannam mega mall where I got back on the purple line at the last station.
Most of my readers are too old to remember the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but I remember them well. The opening ceremony that left splintered wood from all the Taekwondo everywhere, Ben Johnson winning the 100m then being disqualified for setting a new world record for the most steroids ever detected in a still living human being, Flojo winning everything in the women's sprints while full of steroids and growth hormones which later killed her (world records which still stand today), Greg Louganis cracking his skull on the diving board but still winning, East German woman Kristin Otto won 6 gold medals but could not walk because her feet had been modified to be flippers.. the list goes on.
Today I got to re-live it all.
Then I walked 25km afterwards.
I got off the train at Jamsil, where I have been a couple of times before, to be greeted by the clearest day I have ever seen in Seoul.
Here is the Lotte tower. I walked around the lake to take the photo even though my plan was taking me in the other direction.
The peace gate or some such thing. I talks about reunification with the North, how's that going?
Flag's of every country in the Olympics.
It is a very large park, I do not know if it was a park like this in 1988, or if there was housing for the athletes here, but it is quite hilly.
There are a lot of cats.
View from a hill. I think that area is an archaeological excavation site. Someone found an ancient running shoe. Look at all the cranes in the background at a new housing development.
View of clear skies into the sun.
There are also a lot of little lakes dotted around the Olympic park, presumably where they held the outdoor diving.
A family of stone elephants frolicking in the sun with the Lotte tower in the background.
There are still 3 large stadiums in the park, I do not know if they demolished any others after the Olympics.
I have no idea why there is a giant thumb. Also, a flying bird.
The subway station for the Olympic park is quite elaborate.
Some time later on my walk above the purple line, I came to a community garden. This part of Seoul is all new apartment buildings, some a lot newer than these ones. How do they decide who gets to pick and keep the cabbages in the community garden?
Occasionally, rather than waiting for the traffic lights, it is quicker to descend under the intersection, and marvel at the long tunnel you have completely to yourself.
There were a few different streams to cross, I limited myself to one stream photo.
After a longer than expected walk, I arrived at the rowing stadium.
It is 3km long, I walked past the distance markers so I can say that with a high degree of confidence.
I climbed that mountain early on during this trip, it is the one with the observatory on top.
I also already climbed that mountain on this trip. I climb a lot of mountains. You can see the Starfield Hannam shopping centre here.
The inside of Starfield Hannam is very much like Westfield Chadstone in Melbourne.
However, this being Korea, they have a lot more video screens and super bright lighting.
Last pic, what does this store sell I wonder? Sunglasses. They had all kinds of weird looking areas like this, including a giant animatronic moth and a horse, and maybe 10 pairs of sunglasses on display in total.