the Han Rive in Seoul

1. The capital of South Korea is Seoul. 

There are many places to visit in Seoul like Namsan and Gyeongbukgung Palace.

1. But among them, today, I would like to introduce the Han River. 

As you can see in the photo below, the Han River is the lifeline of Seoul citizens.

63빌딩과 한강

1. There is a cruise on the river, and sometimes you can see people enjoying water skiing.

한강 배

한강 보트

There are well-developed walking trails along the river bank.

한강 지도

Since the Han River crosses Gangbuk and Gangnam in Seoul, many bridges have been built.

Do you know how many bridges in the river?  15 in all. 

It is an important means of transportation connecting the north and south of Seoul.

As you go upstream of the Han River, it is divided into the Bukhangang River and the Namhan River.

In particular, the upper part of the Bukhangang River is an important water resource that supplies water to the citizens of Seoul.

It is subject to strict management.  Further up the Han River are 10 hydroelectric power plants that supply power to the citizens of Seoul from the river.

The length of the Han River is 514 km. 

It is incomparably smaller than the world's major rivers, such as the Nile and the Amazon.

However, the width of the Han River is quite wide. The average width across the city center of Seoul is 1 km.

 Compared to the Thames at 265m and the Seine at 200m, it is quite wide. Foreign tourists are surprised and amazed at this size.

Of course, the wide river width gives citizens and tourists a sense of coolness.

Why fifteen bridges across such a wide river? In fact, it costs a lot of money to build a bridge when it is about 1 km wide. The Amazon, Congo, Mekong, and Ganges rivers we know are not actually in cities. And because the mountainous topography is less developed than Korea, it was possible to expand the place where you live on one side where it was originally formed.

However, the Gangbuk area, which was the capital of the Joseon Dynasty, had mountains all the way down, so there was a limit to the expansion of the city. So we had to develop the south side and that's why we need a lot of bridges.

So why is the Han River so wide compared to its length?

First, the difference between the flow rate of the Han River between the dry season and the rainy season was extreme. So, if you look at the pictures of the Han River in the past,

Wide floodplains were created on both sides of the river.

In the photo above, you can see a sandy beach. It's like a beach by the sea.

However, this picture shows Seoul before it developed. Back then, as in the sea, children swam and played. The women brought clothes from home and did the laundry.

In addition to this difference in flow rate, the West Sea, where the Han River flows, has a large tidal difference.

As a result, when the tide surged, it came to the depths of the river, and the water downstream was salty, making it impossible to use tap water. Farming was impossible. So, to secure water resources, an underwater weir is built in the estuary.

The picture you see above is of water stored in a giant submersible. That's why the old sandy beaches are gone and it has a wide width even though it is not a big river.

The below pictures are what we see today?

Seoul citizens love this Han River.