2005-2162 The Buddha’s birthday illuminates Seoul

Sports
Interview
Jan Boonstra
Criss-crossing Korea
in green, by bicycle
The “Tour de Korea” does contain a cycling race portion, but its main events are designed to promote bikes to regular Korean citizens.
A traveling festival to sell Koreans
on biking for work and pleasure
Korea has caught
bicycle fever, with programs
for cyclists over
the past few months culminating
in the nation’s
first cross-country bicycle
race in late April.
The first Korean Bicycle Festival was organized by the
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Public
Administration and Security and the Seoul Olympic Sports
Promotion Foundation as a Korean equivalent of the Tour de
France, which covers thousands of kilometers over a few
weeks.
But where the Tour de France is a grueling race to determine
the world’s best endurance cyclists, the Tour de Korea
is designed as a traveling festival.
There was a race portion, covering 1,840 kilometers (1,140
miles) over nine days, stopping in 13 cities and open to 300
amateur and recreational cyclists. But on the sidelines, cycling
events were held at the 13 regional stops, and these local runs
covered just 10 to 20 kilometers each.
The goal of the event as a whole wasn’t to see who could
race the fastest or who could endure the most. The slogan said
it all: Two wheels working as one.
The event was to bring Korea together in a nationwide
drive to achieve green growth. The Lee Myung-bak administration
has laid out plans that stress ecologically sustainable
economic development, and encouraging the use of bicycles
as transportation has been a key part of those efforts. Fewer
vehicles on the roads naturally help reduce carbon dioxide
emissions.
And earlier this year, the government announced that,
over the next 10 years, it will build a bike path to run more
than 3,000 kilometers across the country.
According to the Ministry of Public Administration and
Security, 1.24 trillion won ($931.2 million) will be invested to
set up the trail by 2018. This is in addition to another
1,297-kilometer cycle path to be built by 2012 to accompany
a revitalization project on the country’s four major rivers.
The 2018 bike path will start in Seoul, pass through
Incheon and move down the west coast to Mokpo, South
Jeolla. Then the path will travel further south and make an
easterly turn toward Busan, before coming back up north to
Goseong and Gangwon, and finally returning to Seoul. No
pedestrians or vehicles will be allowed on the three-meterwide
track.
And the environment isn’t the only thing on the government’s
mind. The bike trails, some of which will run along
scenic coastlines, are expected to generate substantial tourist
revenue as well. By Yoo Jee-ho
[Press Q]
[JoongAng Ilbo]
Jan Boonstra:
In his 14 years here, Jan Boostra
has cycled 60,000 kilometers.
A
Dutch-born businessman,
Mr. Boonstra has
been riding across the
Korean Peninsula for over
14 years, biking 60,000 kilometers
in all.
“If your schedule permits, our newspaper
[the JoongAng Sunday] would
like to have an interview with you.
Let me go and visit you in Busan,” I
said to him.
He replied, “It’s OK. I’ll come to
Seoul by bike.”
And that’s how I met Jan Boonstra,
59, a resident of Yangjeong-dong,
Busan. He showed up in Seoul for
the interview, just a week after our
conversation. He’d managed to ride
all the way to Seoul in two full days.
The gauge attached to his bicycle
showed he’d traveled 511.2 kilometers.
It may be the longest he’s come
for an interview without using fossil
fuels, he said.
“I was planning to take a bike trip
during my vacation, so the Joong-
Ang Sunday has made my vacation
more pleasant.” Boonstra was
assigned to the Korea branch office
of the Netherlands-based dredging
and earthmoving company Bokalis
International BV in 1994. Since then
he has clocked up enough kilometers
here to circle the globe one and
a half times.
Boonstra showed me a map of the
Korean Peninsula in his backpack.
All the roads on the map were highlighted
in green. I got another shock
at his explanation.
He told me that the green highlights
were the roads he has traveled by bicycle.
They extended from Jeju Island
to Munsan, Cheolwon and the DMZ,
even from Wan Islet to Gangneung.
The map was covered in green.
Boonstra’s personal Internet site
(http://user.chollian.net/~boonstra)
shows in both English and Dutch all
the information he’s collected on
biking in Korea. It offers a bicycle
road map from Busan to Seoul together
with detailed information on
attractions and accommodations. All
the information available on his Web
site was uploaded after cross-checking
the Seoul-Busan route himself
three times over the past two years.
Perhaps this is more evidence that
you can’t take the Netherlands out
of a Dutchman. Boonstra was born
in Groningen, Netherlands, well
known as a bike city. He started
riding when he was an elementary
school student.
He has traveled by bicycle in 31
countries and has never owned a car,
renting one for family outings when
necessary.
He emphasized, “My bicycle is the
most precious tool in my life.”
“It is a transportation method and
a good way to keep in health... It is
just like a channel linking strangers
and strange places.”
I asked him about the recent attention
paid to biking in Korea. He
said, “It is good to see an increasing
bicycle population. However, bicycles
should be used for transportation,
not leisure.”
By Yoo Jee-ho
56 korea May 2009 May 2009 korea 57