By Jhoo Dong-chan
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has dropped its plan to designate a Chinatown in Daelim, western Seoul, after protests from local residents, officials said Thursday.
The district has a large ethnic Korean-Chinese community.
Since January, the city government has gathered opinions from experts and residents about the plan.
The plan included building Chinese cultural centers, language schools and theaters, as well as supporting traditional Chinese cultural activities.
However, the SMG dropped the plan after a majority of residents opposed it.
“Perhaps it is too early to set up a Chinatown in the area because most residents do not want it,” said a city official. “Instead of building a Chinatown, we will consider other plans to improve the residential environment such as street modernization for crime prevention.”
Daelim used to be a small ethnic Korean-Chinese residential area in the 1990s.
From 2002, however, a large number of Chinese restaurants, bars and markets started to open in the area, forming a Chinese commercial cluster.
Nearly 40 percent of commercial stores in Daelim Joongang Market are now run by ethnic Korean-Chinese, and 40 percent of students in elementary schools there are from these families.
According to the SMG, there are 25,600 foreigners living in Daelim, which accounts for 6.2 percent of foreign residents in the city. Of the foreigners living in the district, 89.6 percent are ethnic Korean-Chinese.
This is not the first time for the SMG to try to build a Chinatown in the city.
In 2002 and 2007, the SMG pushed to construct Chinatown in Yeonnam, another Korean-Chinese residential cluster, and in Mapo, western Seoul.
The plans, however, were also dropped after opposition from residents.