Marine ecology, green growth in Ulsan
By Roger Dix
ULSAN - Ulsan, in the southeastern part of the country, is well known for being the industrial hub of Korea. Thus, for many people who haven’t been to or who are not familiar with Ulsan, there is a common belief that the city is a dull, unattractive, polluted area of the nation But not so. For Ulsan City is one of the nation’s leaders in marine ecology and green growth.
Running from the mountains west of the city to Mipo Bay and the East Sea, traveling through the heart of Ulsan is the Taehwa River. For decades while the region was being developed into the industrial powerhouse that it is today, the Taehwa River was an abused body of water strewn with garbage and industrial run-off. It was literally dead of any marine life. But today, due to several years of leadership foresight, environmental responsibility and much urban planning, the Taehwa is alive and well, with clear waters, many species of fish, birds and waterfowl making their habitats along the river’s banks.
Where the river empties into Mipo Bay at the far southern reaches of the city is the district of town known as Jangsangpo. Prior to the city’s industrialization, Jangsangpo was a very busy fishing and whaling port. Today, however, it is the heart of the city’s petrol-chemical business. The Jangsangpo area of Ulsan is a massive complex of factories, refineries, storage plants, railroad-trucking and ship terminals, and kilometer after kilometer of pipelines as far as the eye can see. Yet, in the midst of all that heavy industry, there are green parks and clean waters.
The area of Jangsangpo that used to be a major whaling center has been converted into a tourist park, where people can visit the Ulsan Whale Museum and Educational Center that teaches visitors about the preservation of whales and about their natural habitats. Next to the museum is the Institute for Marine Environmental Studies, which supports research around the waters of Ulsan and the East Sea. The institute is also involved with the protection of the Gray Whales that migrate in the waters off Ulsan’s coast on their journey to the Sea of Okhotsk along Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.
On the other side of Ulsan all along its northeast boundary beside route 31, Ulsan’s coast road, the East Sea washes up onto long stretches of beaches of sand and stunning rock formations. One of the more popular beaches along that coast is Jujeon Beach, which is known throughout the region for its black pebble stones that blanket the entire stretch of sandy surface underneath. By day the stones reflect their glistening shine in ebony bright, and by night their darkness blends into silhouette against the sky in same, making up and down almost indistinguishable. Jujeon Black Pebble Beach is certainly a natural phenomenon of beauty, of such natural phenomena that it is decreed by law that it is a felony to remove even the smallest of pebbles from the beach. In summer, all along the beach’s periphery, many Ulsan citizens pitch their beach umbrellas and tents, spending their weekends and summer vacations camping and splashing in the cool waters there.
Back in town, another rare site of Ulsan is Daewangnam Pine Forest Park. It is rare in that it sits directly beside one of the world’s largest shipbuilding facilities high up on a plateau jutting its beauty out into the East Sea, towering its ages-old red pine trees high above most man-made objects nearby. The park boasts hectares of pine forests and mammoth formations of rock where Ulsan’s people can rest, camp, fish and play, not to mention dine on fresh seafood plucked from the waters around the park. And at the base of Daewangnam Park is Ilsan Beach, a place that when I first arrived in Ulsan was a sewage waste dumping area of town. Today it is a very clean upscale area of the city, where visitors can stroll along a mile-long promenade, leisure on Ilsan’s wide white-sand beach, purchase fresh seafood from one of the vendors at the Ilsan Fisheries Market and Restaurants Cooperative, or dine in one of the many coffee shop-seafood-galbi restaurants that do business along the entire length of the beachfront. There are also several hotels and motels along the beach.
Besides Ilsan Beach and Jujeon Beach there are several other clean beaches along Ulsan’s northeast coast all the way up to the town of Gampo, where Ulsan’s route 31 and Gyeongju’s route 4 meet. They are very popular with the local people all times of year – for swimming in the late summer; for trying their luck at fishing in autumn and spring; for dining on raw fish and fresh crab in winter.
As the wise old adage tells us: “Never judge a book by its cover” (or cities by unfounded rumors). Ulsan may be the industrial center of Korea but it’s also one of the most ambitious green-growth urban areas of the country to boot.
So, come on down to Ulsan sometime. You might just see that everything good about Korea is not in Seoul.
NOTE: While it is true that whale meat can still be purchased in certain restaurants around the city (mostly people of older generations still acquire a taste for the meat and dine on it) it is unlawful to hunt whales in Korea. Unfortunately, whales do get caught in fishing nets from time to time and drown (whales being mammals, of course), thus it is legal for fishermen to keep them and dispense with the meat.