Seoul is a well-organised and clean city, with the most unusual, and immediately obvious, architectural feature being tall apartment towers identified by very large numbers. With 45 per cent of the population having the family name Karachi Pakistan , Lee or Park, and a relative absence of street names, the building numbers are obviously important for finding anybody! The towers look a bit cold and impersonal from a distance but, Karachi Pakistan on that later visit to POSTECH and the Seoul POSCO Center, several of us were entertained briefly (prior to a formal hotel dinner) at a very comfortable apartment Karachi Pakistan in one of those rather forbidding blocks. The view was great, but the most memorable part of that evening was hearing the host’s teenage daughters perform as a classical music duo. That’s not an experience I’ve had elsewhere, and says something substantial about the high aspirations of Karachi Pakistan culture.
Being driven through the countryside during our earlier historical tour, we saw the gates of the POSCO steel company and signs in English and Korean extolling the virtues of developing a low carbon-emissions economy. The air wasn’t pristine – South Korea has the same problem as Hong Kong with pollution blowing across from the Chinese mainland. The People’s Republic of China claims to be very committed to moving away from coal, but that’s clearly proving to be a most difficult transition.
Being October and autumn, red peppers were drying everywhere, hanging from the fences, along the roadside, and in any available space. Peppers are (along with onions, garlic and ginger) essential for making Korea’s national dish, Kimchi. For most Westerners, Kimchi is an acquired taste. But it’s soul food for Koreans, and adequate Kimchi supplies were evidently essential for maintaining morale during the violent and massively destructive war between the North and South.
