Uncovering stories of Cheonggye Stream’s restoration
At his final lecture for Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea on Dec. 10, 2003, Horace Grant Underwood II shared stories of the past while discussing late Joseon-era and colonial-era photos. At one point, he came to a photo of Cheonggye Stream in the early 20th century and commented on the still-unrealized plan to uncover the waterway: “They say they want to return it to being a clean stream. It was never a clean stream!” Indeed, within a few decades of establishing Seoul as the capital in 1394, the newly founded Joseon government had come to rely on Cheonggye Stream as the city's principal conduit to flush waste out of the city. Attempts to cover the stream began during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule, but really took off in the late 1950s, when, over a period of two decades, the stream was covered in stages for a distance of 6 kilometers. Atop this was built an elevated expressway, the first section of which opened in 1969, seven years before it was completed. A well-known section of the covered stream was Hwanghak-dong Flea Market, which had grown to hundreds of stalls, many of
