Sunday, April 17, 2011

Yeouido Cherry Blossom Festival 2011

Today was a fine day for a visit to Yunjungno, the avenue that circles Korea's National Assembly building on Yeouido--teeming with sights such as the above. The air was crisp, the sky blue, the slightest of breezes drifted across the Han River, the sightseers roamed twenty abreast and a thousand deep, with as my blogger pal GBSTW! put it, "nary an elbow thrown".

Along the first third or so of the promenade, one sidewalk is devoted to displaying sculptural or free-standing artworks. The theme seems to be that the works must be largely comprised of natural objects like flowers, leaves and branches (not from cherries, though) placed in some kind of relationship to glass or metal. Below are some of the more interesting examples:

Well, enough of that. Now back to the stars of the show, a few more shots of cherry blossoms.

5 comments:

조안나 said...

Yikes! I was suggested to go to Kyunghee university (hoegi station, line 1) to check out the cherry blossoms instead of going to the crowded yeoido. Since I had to go there today anyway for the TOPIK test I got to see it. It was quite nice, and not quite as crowded... though there were still quite a few people around. Anyway, the campus is beautiful, if you get a chance, you should make your way over there to see some more blossoms! I'll post some photos soon!

Chris said...

looks like my decision to avoid Yeouido yesteday was a good one, although the artwork looks interesting. Were there really busses bringing people from out of town, like I heard on the radio?

Tuttle said...

Joanna: I'll look forward to it! Hope you did okay on the TOPIK...
Chris: the crowds were fairly large but manageable; I saw loads and loads of tour buses. And as of now the cherry blossoms will be in decline, so yesterday was the last best chance.

Chris said...

I got to see plenty of blossoms along the tiny stream in my neck of the woods on Sunday. The path was nowhere near 20 abreast, which by the way would be an expression best avoided with your students, after the teacup incident!

George Bailey Sees The World! said...

There are definitely calmer cherry-blossom viewing places in the city, but I really view this as a time to celebrate Spring with the rest of Seoul. One year I will try to make the trek way south on the peninsula a few weeks before the blossoms begin in Seoul. It would be grand to see the blossoms in Gyeongju.