BAEDARI Secondhand Bookstores Street

Friday, June 5, 2009, late in the afternoon, I was able to hang around on the so-called 'Baedari Secondhand Bookstores Street' in the old city of Incheon, across the 'Jungang (Central), Jayu (Liberty) or Yankee Market' because I had some spare time shortly before a meeting appointment with my second cousin who is a teacher at a nearby high school, just to have some drinks (Soju) together. The district name "Baedari" can be translated directly into Korean language as 'Ferryboat Bridge' or a small pier where ferryboats can anchor in. Until early twentieth century when the Kyeongin (Seoul-Incheon) Railroad was constructed for the first time in Korea, there was reportedly a waterway to this area from the coast. Though the waterway is completely covered with the pavement of broad street these days, folks in this district still experience floods during the rainy season in summer because it's pretty low-lying area. During it's heyday in 1960's when I was an elementary school children, I remember there were numerous small businesses and street vendors, selling almost everything from American GI's military clothing, cigarettes, liquors, canned foods, diner supplies like sausages, etc., to every types of book crowded in the street. There were several ice cake factories like 'Changyeongdang', etc. through the street as well. From the late 1960's, the street began to be called as 'BAEDARI Secondhand Bookstores Street' as more than 50 bookstores settled in both sides of the street. Now, however, only several bookstores remain, primarily because the people's living standard has been upgraded. Students, who were the biggest customers of those bookstores are no more visit ther street to buy those used textbooks or reference books at a new school term. And, partly because they don't need to rely heavily on reference books or dictionaries, thanks to the so-called information age which enables them to get necessary information from the Internet. Besides, the number of population in the background area has been decreased for the last 20 years as new suburbs, such as Yeonsu and Songdo, etc, were developed in a large scale.