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| Going...(Nov. 2009) |
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| ...going...(spring 2010) |
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| ...gone. (right now) |
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| It's fucking ugly and 90 feet tall, whatever it is. |
The beach at Hwasun, just west of Jungmun, was always a quiet alternative to the tourist-hell-insanity of a jam-packed Jungmun beach in the peak season. A nice little beach, if you remembered not to look at the power plant just due east. There was also a nice large reedbed where a river emptied into the ocean, home to a wide array of reed-loving birds like reed warblers, small herons, and plovers.
That was way back in sparkling 2009. Since then, 'they' have steadily been eating up the beach and destroying the reedbeds with a large array of random bullshit associated with making the adjacent port bigger. I fear that Hwasun is a harbinger of things to come on Jeju. I think that when I come back to Jeju in 10-15 years, I'll be horrified but not surprised to find that most of Jeju's nicer and quieter spots have been ripped up by super-trails, hotels, speed-boat courses, 'mini' lands, and other hyper-tacky concrete and fibreglass touristy bullshit.
Oh yeah, and the 'eco-friendly' naval base they're in the process of building 20 minutes down the road oughta be great. The 20,000-strong garrison will really boost the local economy. The whore-house economy, that is. Welcome to "Peace Island". The chair-lift to Halla will be a real hoot too. Ok, all of this bitter quotation marking is making me angry. Peace out, word to the mom, peace in the Middle East, catch you on the flibbity-flop.
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