Life
[Column] An Aspiring City Becoming
MICHAEL PAUL BÉGIN studied geography at the State University of New York at Geneseo and holds a doctoral degree in the same from the University of Kentucky. A dual national of USA and Canada, Michael has made Busan his permanent home.
When we
were kids, nothing motivated me and my sister more than a few simple words from
Mom or Dad: ‘we’re having company.’ With the news that we would soon be honored
with a visit from friends, neighbors or relatives, our family would then spend
the next hours or perhaps days busying ourselves with the requisite
preparations in the interest of putting our best foot forward for the occasion. This entailed the usual frantic cleaning, decorating
and/or yard work in order to get the family home in its most presentable
condition, be it for the holidays or just a weekend gathering. Multiple trips to the market were sometimes
necessary when preliminary shopping lists proved incomplete: insufficient quantities of snacks or soda;
mom needs butter for her homemade dessert recipes; the upstairs bathroom is
short on toilet paper. You know the
drill, because almost every family entertains at least once in a while. Letting outsiders in has a way of keeping us
on our toes, alive with the anticipation of another chance to remind ourselves
that having something, such as a newly-renovated kitchen or a lovely backyard
flower garden, is more meaningful and appreciated when shared.
Living in
Busan this past year has been very reminiscent of this experience. Like a family getting ready for guests
arriving from a distant place, this ambitious city has been engaged in a
high-gear mobilization to essentially gift-wrap Busan like a Christmas present. The prospect of hosting the 2030 World Expo
has infused the city with purpose and unified it with a common goal. This is
our home; we’re proud of it; we’re ready to welcome the world in the spirit of
openness, hospitality and mutual benefit.
Just walk
around the city and see for yourself. The amazing and wonderful Busan Citizen’s Park has been resplendent with
festivals, elaborate floral displays, and cultural events all year long. The city’s many subway and elevated rail
stations feature new comforts, conveniences and aesthetic enhancements that
many native locals have never seen before. The Busan Fireworks Festival this year pulled out all the stops and delivered
a stunning and unforgettable display that dwarfed those of previous years, setting
a whole new standard. The 2023 Busan
Film Festival attracted artists, directors and cinephiles from all over the
country and the world for yet another successful gathering in Centum City. Shopping and entertainment districts, such as
those at Nampo-dong and Seomyeon, continually offer new experiences and special
events, such as the Jeonpo Coffee Festival, and are especially fun around the
holidays when these areas are thoroughly and properly festooned.
There’s
more. Head to the vibrant and popular
Gwangan Beach area every Saturday evening for a stunning, colorfully-coordinated
drone display featuring a different ‘K-Culture’
theme every week. Enjoy a delicious and
inexpensive bowl of seafood noodles at Haeundae Market before a leisurely
nighttime stroll along the scenic beachfront, now featuring a variety of
inspired, artful displays of creative illumination intended to enhance the
experience. Take the new Coastal Trolley
for some excellent ocean views on your way to Songjeong Beach, with stops along
the way to enjoy a host of dessert cafes, boutiques, restaurants and drinking
places. The very long list continues.
Living in a
city with such outsized Expo ambitions has been instructive. The experience provides ample evidence to suggest
that individual efforts toward success and prosperity can simultaneously
operate on a more collective level of benefit; private interests cooperate in
synergy with municipal, regional and national policy directives that create the
win-win scenarios that encourage participation, growth and investment. In this sense, Busan is still very much
aligned with the ideals and values of the World Expo as a vehicle for showcasing
social, industrial and technological innovation.
In a
nutshell, it’s really about embracing change rather than resisting it. Cities become fossilized when their policies
and people are neither open nor interested in the kind of adaptation and
preparation such events call for. The exploration
of new approaches and methods brings new opportunities and new solutions to
complex problems. In this, Busan shows a
great deal of promise in its ongoing process of ‘becoming.’
To
illustrate: Busan is becoming a more
cosmopolitan city -- a worthy goal for a variety of reasons. First, the unavoidable internationalization
of its labor force takes on a very positive and hopeful veneer in this
context. Busan also becomes a more
attractive place for foreign talents to study, train and perhaps settle down
here, making valuable contributions across their productive years. In the future, floating eco-cities and marine taxi services,
hosting the Expo would give the city a much-needed regional boost in order to smooth
out the country’s development gradient, given the substantial economic dominance
of the capital region.
Busan is
also becoming a highly communicative, diplomatic city with a global reach. As both a vital port city and financial hub,
it’s an ideal location for hosting international meetings and summit events
such as the recent Korea-Japan-China trilateral talks and the ASEAN-Korea
Commemorative Summit of 2019. From BEXCO
to the Cinema Center to the APEC House, Busan possesses the high-quality
infrastructure and attractive facilities for hosting international trade group
meetings, prestigious professional conferences, and high-volume cultural
events. Its coastal location, pleasant
climate, and talented, energetic people further support the claim that Busan is
still well-situated as an excellent choice for the World Expo.
Prospects
for hosting the Expo also have Busan exploring new connectivities that can only
bring benefit to the region. The New
Gadeok International Airport, to be constructed on land reclaimed from the sea
and completed by December 2029, will bring new opportunities for communication
with other regions and places that only a KTX ticket to Incheon could
previously offer. Such ambitious transport linkages are mirrored in other
smaller-scale, yet important projects such as the recent opening of the new
Choeup-Mandeok tunnel, reducing the commute between the two areas from
approximately thirty to less than ten minutes. It’s another reason for Busan to celebrate its ‘becoming,’ to be sure.
In sum, the
Expo project signals a kind of arrival not only for Busan, but for the entire
country. The global message is loud and
clear: Korea is here and it’s indispensable. It is highly motivated, participatory and prepared to invite the world
to its doorstep. The extensive
promotional efforts involved in elevating Busan as a viable and willing
candidate for World Expo 2030 have brought an enviable pride of purpose that
surpasses the perennial, business-as-usual organizing ethic of many other metropolitan
areas of the world. Busan is already a
better place now because it has demonstrated its willingness to compete,
strive, and show what it’s capable of. Indeed, the enhanced visibility that Busan now enjoys as a leading Expo candidate
is a game changer: it puts the city on a
yellow brick road that nurtures future connections and opportunities, with prodigious
rewards that cannot yet be measured.
Back at the family home in New York, it’s the end of the 1982 Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Our illustrious guests have gone home happy. Uncle Bob was gifted a bottle of his favorite wine; Cousin Eric had fun getting on my nerves; Auntie Anne wants us to return the visit next summer when her daylilies are in bloom. We are exhausted but also happy, and everyone had a good time. When we do this again, we know we’ll have another chance to tidy up properly, stock up on ginger ale and mixed nuts, and we’ll be better off for the experience of having shared our home with those who are already looking forward to coming back.
Cheers, Busan. We’re off the hook for now, but the 2030 World Expo campaign amounted to so much more than simple window dressing.
Contributed by MICHAEL PAUL BÉGIN