Biking in Yeouido

YouidoBikes
Originally uploaded by katevsnow.

On Sunday, Justin, Tracy, Claire and I rented bikes at Hangang Park along the riverside. Sunday is the day most Korean families come out to the riverfront, since it's the one day out of the week they don't work. I think on this Sunday every Korean in Seoul must have been in Hangang and Yeouido Park. On our bikes, we rode down the riverfront to see a friend play with the ex-pat Ultimate Frisbee club. We then headed to Yeouido Park, which used to be a landing strip but was converted later into a treeless cyclists park. In 1998 the monotonous asphalt was ripped up and the park was turned into a pseudo-ecological scenic park.
Yeouido park has a walking path and a two-way biking path, but I'm doubtful most Koreans know the rules, as they all seem to ride bikes just as fast and reckless as they drive cars. At one point the path was so crowded because of a crash ahead of us, we were all stopped. Then this small boy about four years old comes darting in between Claire and I at top speed on his bike (with training wheels) without a care in the world. This action clearly mimicks the motorbikers in traffic here. Later I was biking behind the same boy and retrived his pedal that had flew off during the course of his reckless biking.