Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Chinese tourists rescued from isolated restaurant on Han River
By Lee Hyo-sik
A group of Chinese tourists were rescued from a restaurant built on a barge floating on the Han River, Sunday night, after a walkway connecting the restaurant with the bank was submerged by rising waters. Seoul received about 120 millimeters of rain Sunday.
Mapo Fire Station said Monday that rescue workers evacuated 88 Chinese tourists and three Korean tour guides from a Chinese restaurant built on a barge moored at a marina at 9:40 p.m., Sunday.
The tour guides risked the tourists’ lives for the meal at the floating restaurant, with the guides signing a written pledge that they would not hold the restaurant owner accountable for any accident.
As the river swelled with heavier rain than expected, 20 rescue workers rushed to the scene for the rescue operation, which took little more than an hour.
“We received a rescue call that people could not get ashore from a boat restaurant on the Han River, due to rising waters. We immediately sent a rescue team with a lifeboat. After an hour into the operation, we were able to rescue three local guides and 88 Chinese visitors, with no one sustaining any injuries,” a fire station official said.
The visitors came to Korea on a group tour and went to a restaurant run by a Chinese resident for dinner at around 6 p.m. But they could not leave the ship about three and half hours later because a walkway leading to the shore was submerged by rising waters.
The restaurant owner had initially refused to let the tourists dine Sunday evening, citing high water levels on the river as a result of heavy rainfall, according to Mapo Fire Station.
But the tour guides insisted on the owner opening the doors to the tourists, arguing that they might file a complaint later if the scheduled dinner was not served there.
“The guides even signed a written pledge that they would not hold the restaurant responsible for any accidents. The owner then agreed to serve the tourists. I think the travel agency went too far as it could suffer from financial losses if a scheduled itinerary is canceled,” the official said.