A popular hang-out area for elderly people. Right outside the Pagoda Park.
Pagoda Park or Tegul Park is a hang out spot for elderly people, mostly men. There is a buddhist temple here as well, attracting a lot of visitors.
Then there are some 60+ year old Baccus Ladies, named by the energy drink they sell to disguise the now restricted prostitution. Right outside thick walls you´ll find a diverse and numerous amount of street vendors. Same pattern. Old men playing games, eating, getting their hair done, with this striking intimacy among men, with hard working women serving them. All relaxing, having a good time or just sharing loneliness with brothers. A sad tranquility resting over the place, or the opposite, a peaceful haven for men in the sunset of their lives.
I´ve seen many big cities but never this mix of people seemingly from diverse trajeries of life. My vision blurred by some women hauling big chuncs of cardboard on even bigger pushcarts, passing checkerboard players with a big audience. I asked a local friend; can you please help me to interpret all this? I got some answers.
Men with drinking issues or otherwise not capable of living a family life used to do business around here, but something went wrong. With a wife, a bottle too much every nigth, in the end taking control or just bad luck. They fall. Literally, they fall to the street, a reminder for others but still accepted and adapted.
Prostitutes still working, most of them 60+. A family structure in transformation. Omens of the new era? Or just a very clear vision of an everlasting Korean patriarchial culture. In Hongde, a youth complementary, and a ride on the same subway line, you´ll se couples, tons of them, displaying themselves as if it was the entire mark of success.
Comments