Some Unknown Facts about the GI Waterway

As a further step over the controversy about the GI (Gyeongin) Canal project, the waterway construction has finally been implemented. Unfortunately, however, the quarrels between the central government and the environmentalists haven’t come to an end yet. As a native Incheoner and local supporter for the project, I was able to take some time to find some unknown essential facts about the waterway as follows;

To understand the relationship between the GI Waterway and the Gulpocheon (Watercourse), we need to know about the Gulpocheon and its history, as well. The Gulpocheon is a watercourse or river which is running across the vast western Seoul plains, including Bupyeong-gu and Gyeyang-gu of Incheon City, Bucheon City, Gangseo-gu of Seoul, and Gimpo City, etc., to Han River. From the administrative eye, it’s a second grade regional river or watercourse which basin size and the length reaches to 134㎢ and 21㎞, respectively. There are more than 1.5 million inhabitants living around the area at this point of time.

The history of the watercourse actually dates back to late 13th century, during Goryeo Dynasty, when the militarists Choi, Choongheon’s son tried for the first time to construct a kind of substitute artificial waterway primarily to transport grains paid as taxes from southwestern parts of the Korean Peninsula more safely, other than through the ‘Sondolmok’, a narrow and dangerous strait between Ganghwa-do and Gimpo, exposed to frequent shipwrecks. It’s late Choseon Dynasty, however, when the watercourse appeared to shape like its present status. The name ‘Gulpocheon’ itself in Chinese character reflects the facts, too. In short, the Gulpocheon is an artificial waterway which can be characterized as a canal from the historical point of view.

A Flood Control Channel Construction was begun to Prevent Frequent Floods

Geographically, the Gulpocheon basin has some problems in treating rainwater because of its pretty gentle slope and the narrow width. And the middle and the lower reaches of the stream basins are pretty low-lying areas with 5.5m above sea level, and therefore rely mostly on the compulsory draining when the Han River water level is rising during the rainy seasons. In fact, it has the structural problem, exposed to frequent flood damages.

In July of 1987, the basins experienced a severe damage, including heavy casualties by a big flood. The Construction and Transportation Department established a basic plan for a comprehensive Gulpocheon water control project in this area in 1991, and the Gulpocheon Flood Control Channel was introduced in 1992 as a part of the plan.

Though the plan was introduced only to prevent floods at the beginning stage, other ideas like utilizing it as a purpose of vessel transportation was later emerged as well, and finally the so-called ‘Gyeong-In Canal Project’ has been formed. As the canal project was delayed, a temporary flood control channel project was implemented in the meantime, and the temporary channel construction was completed in June 2003 with the 20m width and the 14.2km length size after 2 years’ construction period to avoid roughly 2 year-frequency floods (precipitation 114mm/day, flood waters 270m3/second) . It turned out, however, that the temporary channel was not enough to prevent the bigger sized floods than the average 2-year frequency floods. In September 2003, the government made its final decision to construct the permanent flood control channel in the first place and reconsider the necessity of the canal project.
Accordingly, the so-called Gulpocheon Flood Control Channel 2nd State Project that can handle the maximum 100-year-frequency floods was implemented. The core of the project was to expand the width to 80m from 20m, and construct a road on the southern bank of the channel to resolve the traffic congestion problem around the area..


Construction of the Environment-friendly Flood Control Channel and the Organization of a Council for the Regional Development

On August 26, 2004, a council for the regional development was finally formed as local residents, local government officials and related NGO members were participating in the meeting, primarily to discuss the way to construct a environment-friendly flood control channel and to resolve any problems that can be occurred during the process.

In March 2007, meanwhile, the DHV-Saman Consortium which has performed an economical efficiency of the Gyeong-In Canal reported a new result of B/C 1.76, demonstrating an economical side of the project. And the prime minister hosted ‘National Policy Coordination Meeting confirmed to begin the canal project shortly after KDI reported another report of B/C = 1.07, also indicating an economical side of the project. Finally, the construction of the canal started on March 25, 2009.

The Fall of the Leaf in Incheon(II)

(Left - A panoramic view from the top of the 'Samnangseong Castle')

One of my favorite places to visit near my home in northwestern part of Incheon is Ganghwa Island, especially 'Jeondeungsa Temple' which was reportedly built in AD381 during the ancient 'Goguryeo' dynasty at the skirts of 'Jeongjoksan' Mountain'. Actually, I can get there within an hour and half in most cases by driving my SUV through the 'Choji Grand Bridge', connecting 'Choji', southern part of Ganghwa Island to the mainland; 'Daemyeong Port'. On my way to the mountain, additionally, I can look around some historic sites, such as 'Chojijin' fortress, built in 1656 for the first time and later became a big battleground, defending Joseun Dynasty from the foreign invasions primarily in late 19th century when American, France and Japanese troops started to pour into this country of Morning Calm to nudge the rulers, central or provincial, into opening its doors to the outside world for trading and cultural exchanges, etc.

I was able to visit the temple in the spring of 1967 when I was in the 6th grade of 'Seogot' Elementary School as a school field trip for the first time. At that time, we had to cross the river by a ferry boat together with two chartered buses on board at 'Tongjin' because there was no bridge connecting the island to the main land at all. At this point of time, however, there are two bridges available to and from the island.

The Fall of the Leaf in Incheon(I)

I can taste and actually smell the fall of the leaf from the middle of September every year. After a long, hot and humid summer, cool and barmly autumn tints season is finally coming around the corner.

The 'Chuseok' holidays, one of the biggest national holidays in this country, dating back to more than 1,500 years ago, is coming this time of the year in our nation. Actually it comes on August 15th each year in the lunar calendar. In the case of this year, it comes on Saturday, October 3rd, bringing the weekend to a long weekend. In South Korea, the day before and after New Year's Day (lunar) and Chuseok are nominated as holidays as well. The 'Chuseok' in Korea is a festival which thanks to those ancestral gods who has helped their descendants to have a good year, as well as practicing a feast to the ancestors with some songpyeons, half-moon-shaped rice cakes (stuffed with beans or sesames and flavored with pine needles), rice wines and the first fruits on the table.

Shortly after practicing a feast to the ancestors at home, family members (mostly male members) go out to visit their ancestral graves with a roll mat and a kettle rice wine and some fruits and cakes. In my case, it takes only several minutes to get to the grave site which is located at the skirts 0f a nearby mountain by walking. I think I am pretty fortunate, ain't I?

A Trip to Baegryeong-do Island (IV)

On August 2, 2009, the 3rd day of my summer vacation, my wife and I decided to visit our secret place to hide from the outside world one more time, a narrow beach near the Two-brothers Rock, instead of go fishing with other members. As soon as we got to the place with a small lunch box, we erected a small tent on the pebble beach to slipped into swimsuits in it.

Actually, the beach is not ideal for swimming because there was no sand to accommodate swimmers comfortably. There were only rocks covered with numerous oyster shells and the water temperature was pretty low, considering the time of the year - peak summer. It's not safe to touch any rock after reaching to the other side of the beach by swimming other than the beach pebbles because the oyster shells attached to the rocks pretty tightly were dangerously sharp like the edge of a knife. As a matter of fact, I got some cuts on my palms and fingers inadvertently. Notwithstanding all of such things, however, it's like a paradise to stay in. It's too beautiful, peaceful and relaxing place to leave, as well.

We spent a couple of more hours in the haven before returning to our base camp, and waited other members who had joined the captain on the offshore fishing trip...

A Trip to Baegryeong-do Island (III)

The sea was continuously calm and the sky was very bright and sparkling.. brilliant. It was a glorious day, with little sign of any storm clouds to come. The water looked like a big, emerald blue carpet. My brother-in-law started to catch a fish with his lure fishing rod, as shown on the picture, shortly after the captain had dropped the anchor about one nautical mile away from the port.

Most of the other members, however, were using a fishing reel with a longline with several hooks on it, usually used in deep sea fishing, respectively. Soon I was able to catch a frog flounder from the bottom of the sea, about 20 meters deep. Actually, there was no specific skills needed to hook fishes other than the bait. Since fishes, such as frog flounders like to hang around near the bottom of the sea, we put fishlines deep into the water as possible. We can estimate the depth of the sea by the feeling of the sinker touching the bottom through the line. The catched fishes are thrown into a water basin under the deck after being released from hooks.

The captain moved the ship frequently to other places to allow his fishermen and women to catch as more fishes as possible within the Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea. If any fishing boat approaches the line, a Marine Police vessel ship near this area gave warning not to cross the line inadvertently.

A Trip to Baegryeong-do Island (II)

Our daily routine on the island started from early in the morning the next day, August 1, 2009. It's sunny and breeze day. Shortly after breakfast with fish soup, we walked along the beach west bound over the hill to the core of 'Dumujin'. As we went down the steps from the top of the hill, we could get a splended view of crystal blue seawater and the surrounding rocks of fantastic shape, including the Candlestick Rock, Lion rock and Two-brothers Rock, etc., as well as the peaceful and nostalgic horizon. I can surely say it's enough to be called as 'Mt. Geumgang in the sea', in view of its breathtaking view. We started to look around every corner of this area, while posing each other to take pictures individually or as a group, before returning to our base camp at the village. During the bad weather with the gusting wind, especially in winter time, however, it's reportedly not allowed to have access to this area.

Around 11 o'clock in the morning, we went on board a fishing boat 'Parangsae-ho' to go fishing to the sea (offshore). Anothe reason for the sailing was for sightseeing, of course.

A Trip to Baegryeong-do Island (I)

One of my longstanding dreams is to go into retreat to a remote island far from the bustling city in mainland to relax for a week or two. And, finally, I was able to make my dream comes true. On July 31, 2009, together with my wife, brothers-in-law, their spouses, and sisters-in-law, I went on board a ferry steamer, the Princess, connecting Incheon Yeonan Wharf to the island of Baegryeong-do, located in north-westernmost Seohae (Yellow Sea), which is only 12 KM away from 'Jangsangot', Hwanghae Province, North Korea. Actually Baegryeong-do is a part of Incheon, specifically 'Baegryeong-myeon, Ongjin-gun, Incheon Metropolitan City.' Therefore, Incheon citizens can have the advantage of getting 50 percent discount of passenger fares from early this year.

The ferry left for the island at 1 o'clock in the afternoon on time and the sea was calm and peaceful enough for the passengers to enjoy their voyage. We reserved our seats on the 2nd floor and the decision turned out to be right because it's more comfortable, comparing to the 1st floor. I started to read a paperback novel 'The Pelican Brief', written by John Grisham, while sipping beer out of the can. From time to time, I went out of the cabin to hit the deck for fresh air. The ferry was running throuigh a broad expanse of water toward the north.

Around 5:30 in the afternoon, four and half hours since the departure, the ferry reached Baegryeong-do after a couple of stopovers at 'Socheong' and 'Daecheong' Island on its way. After transferring to a passenger van at 'Yonggipo' Port, located at the southeastern part of the island, we started to move to our final destination 'Dumujin'. En route to the location, we stopped by at 'Kongdol' beach. As the name indicates, the broad beach was covered by numerous small satiny pebble stones. The Korean word 'komgdol' can be interpretted into English language by stones that looks like soybeans. Swimming, however, is not allowed at the beach probably because it's too dangerous to swim. The depth of water turned out too deep to guarantee a safe and pleasant swimming.

We proceeded to 'Dumujin', our final destination, through mostly paved country roads to unpack our luggage and suitcases at a local fishman's house which served as our base camp during our stay on the island. The fisherman owns a raw fish restanrant, named 'Parangsae' (Blue Bird) at the waterfront and two fishing boats, as well, with the same name.