ISALC, Lewis and Clark College

 Colombia in South America and Korea in Asia are very far from each other. If you see a globe, they are placed in almost opposite spots in the world. These two countries have different cultures and way of thinking. This difference comes from the character of the land and history. Ironically, these two countries have similarities too. It is the same with the other countries. It's because these two countries were settled by humans and they are the places where humans live. If you want to know one country, seeing its capital city is the best way. The capital represents the country, and has many things to show. Knowledge of the capital is not enough to know everything about a country, but you can know that country better. So looking at Korea's and Colombia's capitals (Seoul and Santafe de Bogota) is the best way to know these two countries and their differences and similarities.

Se-oul is one of the biggest cities in the world. It has over 10 million people, and has everything, which comes from everywhere in the world. Seoul has been the most important place in Korea for about 3000 years. Experts say there were people there even over 6000 years ago. Seoul was the capital of three kingdoms in Korean history. Seoul was badly damaged during the Korean War (in 1950) but recovered quickly into a metropolis.

Bogota is not as big as Seoul (6 million people) and is located two thousands six hundred meters above sea level in the middle of the mountains. Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada founded it in 1538. At the beginning, Bogota was only twelve little houses and a church. Then it became important since all the offices of the Spanish crown where established there. Recently, people from all around the country have migrated to Bogota to find more opportunities in a bigger city. Now the city has 20 districts and is still growing.

The transportation system is the most important thing to citizens in Seoul. People who live in Seoul have horrible traffic problem. In Seoul's morning, everybody commutes to his or her job, and they always have traffic jam. It is usual thing in Seoul to spend over one hour on the road to work. For solving this problem the government made a subway, which has eight lines and covers every part of Seoul and outside of Seoul for commuters. Subway is an amazing system. Only with the subway can a person reach a destination on time. If you see a map of the subway in Seoul, maybe you feel confused because it has so many lines and spreads in lots of directions. But Seoul still has lots of traffic problems, and they are planning another transportation system such as skymobile, which will transport people over the road.

As in Seoul, the transportation system is one of the main concerns of the people in Bogota. And this statement becomes true when finding a word to describe Bogota's traffic: chaos. It is almost unreal to see every day's traffic jams, in the south, north, downtown, west, everywhere. Experts say that a city as big as Bogota needs with urgency a subway, but there is no money available to start the construction; also, experts have said that the actual road structure is the ideal road structure of 20 years ago, and that the average in the velocity of the cars hasdecreased over time. Given all these problems, the major of the city Enrique Peñalosa is developing a project that includes three things: a restriction on the cars, depending on the number of the plate, a really efficient bus system called transmilenio (since 70% of the people don't have a car and depends of the bus to go to work), and fixing the holes in the streets. If you want to know more about these solutions, you should take a look at this home page.

Most of the historical places to go in Seoul come from Jo-sun dynasty, which is the Old Kingdom in Korean history. Kyoungbok-gung was a palace for the king of Jo-sun dynasty. It has a small lake where the king played. On the roof, it has many little pretty sculptures. Nearby Seoul, there are several palaces to go visit. They are very good places for fun and to know Korean culture. They also show some traditional festivals in the palace. It's called Ka-rae, and it was a form of playing music for the king and his family on special days. But now you can listen to that beautiful sound in Kyoungbok-gung. If you want to go to see a panorama of modern Seoul, 63 Building is good place to visit. If you go to a scenic spot on the 63rd floor, you can see Seoul, which is circled by mountains and filled with lots of high buildings. This building looks so beautiful in the night. It stands in the center of lots of lights of Seoul.

Most of the places to go in Bogota are located in downtown near La Candelaria, the first neighborhood of the city. Click here to see the old streets and houses in this neighborhood. In the center of downtown is Bolivar Square, where we can find on the east side, the Cathedral, originally constructed in 1538. On the south, you can find the National Capitolio, the place where the Congress of the country is located. On the west, we find the Cardenalicio Palace, where the mayor of the city works. And on the north, the reconstructed Justice Palace that was totally destroyed in 1985. If you are interested in having a panoramic view of Bogota, you should visit Monserrate Mountain. At the top of this mountain there is a church and restaurants. You can go to the top of this mountain by train, gondola or simply walking. Other important places are the gold museum, maloka (an interactive science museum), Colon Theater, and the Bullfighting Arena.

Seoul and Bogota have remarkable differences in history and geography, but like any metropolis they have to deal with common problems like the transportation system. In addition, there are places in each of these cities that visitors can't skip. Each place has a background and gives us more information not only about the city, but also about the whole country. Knowing these key places and something as simple as the transportation system, we can explore the magic that each culture contains.

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