 |
| Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, third from left, visits IFS Cloud Cable Car Dock near North Greenwich in London, the United Kingdom, Monday (local time). Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government |
Plan on track as Oh visits London during Europe tour
By Ko Dong-hwan
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon is visiting London to study the city's infrastructure as the Seoul Metropolitan Government is seeking to create its own waterfront cultural spaces along the Han River as part of its Hangang Renaissance project.
On Sunday, Oh embarked on a four-nation European trip that will also bring him to the cities of Dublin, Hamburg and Copenhagen to think about how to better transform Seoul.
Oh started his tour in the British capital on the first leg of his four-city trip that will last until April 22, where he will tour the cities' waterside landmarks for policy ideas and enhance international cooperation.
The mayor thinks that people might appreciate the Han River better from hundreds of meters above. He hopes to realize this through the installation of a river―traversing gondola lift.
"The project will be handled by private contractors," Oh said in London, Tuesday (local time). "As to where the gondolas will be set up, we will have to be careful, checking the needs for tourism and public transportation in different districts around the river and how lucrative the project will be to local economies of those regions."
Oh was inspired after visiting London's IFS Cloud Cable Car, which traverses the River Thames on Monday. For the mayor, who had just announced Han River Renaissance 2.0, a project to develop the river to fuel the city's local tourism sector, the cable car certainly offered an actionable direction.
 |
| A computer-generated image of a proposed gondola cable car to be built over the Han River / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government |
The cable car, built in 2012 following the London Summer Olympics, not only offers a way of crossing the River Thames but also presents a unique view over the city. The 10-minute ride moves across a 1.1 kilometer-long section at an elevation of 90 meters, and is one of the city's tourism hotspots, according to the City Planning Division under the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Planning and Administration Office.
"The main goal of the Seoul gondolas is to provide better mobility to the city's riverside parks and to make the parks more unique," said an official from the City Planning Division.
Candidates for gondola dock locations, according to the city government, are Ttukseom Park, Jamsil, Seoul Forest and Sangam. They all have riverside parks that are popular among local residents but could benefit from improved access for greater public convenience, the authority said.
The authority also said the gondolas will offer a grander view over the Han River that has never been seen before. It could help disperse the high volume of visitors who flock to riverside parks, especially those in Yeouido and Banpo.
 |
| Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon visits Coal Drops Yard in London, Monday. Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government |
The mayor also said he will consider introducing a water bus system along the river, akin to the River Bus on the River Thames.
"After returning to Seoul, I will review the feasibility of a water bus system on the Han River," Oh said after a ride on a River Bus on the River Thames.
The River Bus is a commuter boat service linking major points along the River Thames, provided as part of London's passenger transport, tourist and commuter services along the river.
Oh, in the second year of his mayoral term, also visited London's King's Cross railway station and Coal Drops Yard the same day. The takeaway from the visits has been how to develop an aged public space into a modern breakthrough. The railway station, after regressing due to a slowing volume of incoming freight, became the city's new landmark for residence, business, commerce and culture. The yard, once a coal storage site, is now a shopping complex and a nest for global IT firms including Google.
Another site Oh visited was the Leadenhall Building, a 225-meter-tall skyscraper in central London that opened in 2014. Planned by British-Italian Richard Rogers who boasts numerous accolades including a Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2007, the structure, to Oh, aligned with his vision of an innovative building in reality.
With new city development projects kicking off this year, Oh started redrawing the plan for Seoul to lay bare more public spaces for innovative use and connect different local areas to introduce a new "organic" network under a singular purpose ― like the special financial district in Yeouido or the foreign business district in Gangnam and Yongsan.
![[RAS KOREA] Preserving memories at Cheongju City Archives](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/53ecc69c116c49af9ba0005288526ab5.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
![[INTERVIEW] Long-awaited extension of Korean Pavilion at Venice Biennale to be pushed forward](https://img.koreatimes.co.kr/upload/thumbnailV2/d8d5090875824ce08a90bb2c5a8f8c05.jpg/dims/resize/178/optimize)
