- 8 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:01South Korea by rail.
00:04These trains are capable of more than 200 MPH.
00:08The opportunity to explore one of the world's most successful countries.
00:13Amidst towering skyscrapers in gleaming megacities.
00:18An architectural statement.
00:21I'll ride the wave of Korean culture sweeping the West.
00:25It's got this very spicy sauce.
00:27And encounter ancient civilizations and traditions.
00:32On a peninsula divided by war.
00:35Along a border between capitalism and communism.
00:39The sense of tension here is powerful.
00:42I'll see how out of destruction and partition.
00:46South Koreans have forged an impressive new identity.
01:16Today, my rail journey through South Korea continues in Busan, the country's second city of over 3 million people on
01:24the glorious Southeast Coast.
01:34From the demilitarized zone on the frontier with North Korea, I traveled to the vibrant capital of Seoul.
01:40Via Daejeon and historic Gyeongju, I arrived in the country's second city, Busan.
01:48Crossing the peninsula, I'll visit Gyeongju.
01:51Then Gwangju, pivotal in South Korea's march towards democracy.
01:56I'll finish on the volcanic island of Gyeongju.
02:12This morning, I am exploring along the seafront.
02:16Starting on Hyundai Beach with a ride on the Sky Capsule monorail, 30 feet above ground level.
02:25This popular tourist attraction, with its retro four-person carriages, runs through Hyundai's Blue Line Park along the route of
02:34the former Donghae Nambu Coastal Railway.
02:41According to the website of the Busan Tourist Agency, the system is built to emphasize the views of the coast
02:50rather than for speed or convenience.
02:53Which, I suppose, is a good way of saying that it travels at four kilometres per hour.
02:59They could simply have said it's the world's cutest railway.
03:03That way.
03:308 miles south along the coast,
03:32at the mouth of the Nakdong River is Busan Harbour,
03:36and one of the city's best-known landmarks.
03:52I have thoroughly enjoyed the food in Korea.
03:56The meals are always hearty and generally spicy,
04:00and food from the sea features a great deal.
04:04Naturally, lots of the species are unfamiliar,
04:07so I've come to Busan's awe-inspiring fish market
04:11to further my Pissain education.
04:18Busan is a major fishing hub,
04:21not just for import and export,
04:23but processing and distribution, supporting over 6,000 companies.
04:30Jagalchi fish market is one of the largest in South Korea.
04:34Dating back to the 1940s,
04:36it's open seven days a week from the early hours until ten at night.
04:41I'm going to explore the indoor halls with local food blogger Dahi Kwak.
04:46Hello!
04:48I'm Michael.
04:48I'm Dahi. Nice to meet you.
04:50Love to see you.
04:51This is a fantastic fish market.
04:53You know, what surprises me by comparison with what I'm used to
04:57is how many of the fish and other creatures are alive in water.
05:02Yes, it's all alive.
05:03But here people want it to be really fresh.
05:07And we also eat the raw fish, just slices.
05:11Going back centuries, was Busan a place where people fished?
05:17Ah, yes.
05:17Busan was a long, long time ago.
05:20There was a small fishing village
05:22and after war, it was making a big market.
05:27You enjoy fish yourself?
05:29Yes, of course.
05:30Do you come to the market to buy your fish?
05:32Ah, yes.
05:33When I go camping nearby here,
05:35I buy the raw sliced fish and clams and I do barbecue.
05:41Wonderful.
05:42I mean, these ones, you know, I kind of know.
05:46What is that?
05:48This one is the sea squirt.
05:50Sea squirt?
05:51Yes.
05:52OK.
05:53Slice and raw and we just dip into the red sauce,
05:57spicy sauce and just eat.
05:59You eat that raw?
06:00Yeah.
06:01Beautiful.
06:01Yeah.
06:05Oysters.
06:06Yes, oyster.
06:07And oyster, in English, is more expensive one.
06:11Yes.
06:11But in Korea, it's so reasonable price.
06:13Oh, really?
06:14Yes.
06:23For all of those?
06:24All of the 10,000 won.
06:2610,000 won.
06:2610,000 won.
06:2710,000 won would be about five pounds.
06:29Yes, yes, yes.
06:29And you get all of those.
06:32In my country, that would be more than a pound.
06:35Yes.
06:35In the market.
06:37At this market, whatever you buy can be immediately prepared and served in the restaurant upstairs.
06:44What shall we order?
06:46Ah.
06:47Small octopus.
06:48This is also in the raw.
06:50Yes.
06:50Chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop.
06:52Yes.
06:52Yes.
06:52Yeah.
06:53Let's have some of that.
06:54We can order the raw fish slices.
06:57We will try the flounder.
06:59And they make good sashimi.
07:01Yes.
07:01Excellent.
07:06Oh, that looks wonderful.
07:08Let me carry that for you.
07:13The fish will be accompanied by our seafood, plus an array of sauces and side dishes.
07:20Excellent.
07:22Now, I'm going to try the sea squirt, which looks so strange.
07:28It looks more like a vegetable than a fish.
07:36Tastes a bit like a sea urchin, I think.
07:38Yeah.
07:39It's nice.
07:41So, I'm going to try some sashimi.
07:44Yes.
07:55That's amazing.
07:57I've been calling it sashimi.
07:59Do Koreans call it sashimi?
08:02No.
08:02Actually, sashimi is in Japanese naming.
08:06Yeah.
08:07And in Korea, we call it way.
08:09Way.
08:10Way.
08:11And I want to show you first lettuce.
08:16Yeah.
08:16Yeah.
08:17And raw fish.
08:19Yeah.
08:20And a little bit as you want.
08:23Like...
08:23But you make yourself a little roll.
08:26Yeah.
08:26And this one is the washed kimchi.
08:30Oh, yeah, yeah.
08:31And then, wrap it up.
08:34Yes.
08:34And one bite.
08:35Okay.
08:39Neatly done.
08:41Okay.
08:54Neatly done.
08:55Wrap it up.
08:59One bite.
09:00One bite.
09:06One bite.
09:08Magnificent.
09:09One bite.
09:10One bite.
09:13One bite.
09:21Busan's harbour is dominated by its port.
09:24Covering almost five square miles, it's the largest in South Korea.
09:30Since opening for international trade in 1876, it's played a vital role in the city's success.
09:47The Republic of Korea is one of the world's great exporters.
09:51And being by no means self-sufficient, it's a major importer too.
09:56None of those goods can be exported or imported by road across the only land border, which is the demilitarised
10:04zone.
10:04So the vast majority of the trade is seaborne.
10:08With the same commitment that Korea has shown in building big businesses and railways, it has hurled itself into the
10:16development of a major port at Busan.
10:18And the modernisation and the expansion show no signs of abating.
10:25Newport is one of four that make up the port of Busan.
10:29Here there are seven different container terminal operators competing for business.
10:35BCT opened in 2022.
10:38Seungmi Lee is Chief Commercial Officer.
10:42What a pleasure to see you.
10:44Welcome to BCT Busan Container Terminal.
10:47Thank you very much indeed.
10:49I am so impressed by this port.
10:52It stretches to the horizon as far as I can see.
10:56I suppose this must now be one of the major container ports in the world.
11:01Correct.
11:01You know, this is number two global transshipment port, just next to Singapore.
11:08In terms of the total volume handled by Busan port, we are number seven.
11:11Wow.
11:12This is container traffic coming from all over Korea, I suppose.
11:16Of course, it is.
11:17Oh, let me put it this way.
11:19Busan port handles 77% of total ocean cargo handled by Korea.
11:25So, Busan port is number one container port, you know, in Korean Peninsula.
11:30Have you been through decades of great change and expansion?
11:34So, this port has long history.
11:36However, you know, Busan Newport, the area that you see here,
11:40started only from 2006.
11:42Before that, we only had Busan Old Port, closer to the, you know, city.
11:47Since 2006, Busan port has doubled in terms of the total volume.
11:52I've noticed when I've been in Korea that you have big national projects.
11:57Your railways, your big companies.
11:59Is Busan port one of these big national projects?
12:02It is.
12:03It's not just the port, but also the hinterland behind the terminal as well.
12:07So, this whole project was one of the three national projects by Korean government.
12:12What about the natural features, the topography that make it a great port?
12:16Right, right.
12:17Old port.
12:17It was okay.
12:18However, they had some limit on the water depths.
12:21You see, the container vessels are becoming larger, larger, and larger.
12:24So, our new port water depths is maximum 17, 18 metres.
12:30So, this is, you know, a natural gift that we have.
12:34Everything you export here is in a box, so I can't see what it is.
12:39What is all this stuff?
12:40You see, this is Samsung mobile phone, which is exported everywhere, right?
12:45LG Electronics, all this, you know, dishwashers.
12:48Sometimes we do the semiconductors and some steel.
12:51Also, we import a lot of, you know, products from South America, like grapes, you know, and some cheese from
12:58Netherlands.
12:59Anything British?
13:00Of course, you know, whiskeys, the great whiskeys from Britain.
13:05Now, what about technological change?
13:08Right.
13:09Busan port has started as conventional, you know, terminal manual operation.
13:14Then we have automated our yard for safety and efficiency reasons.
13:19Tall cranes on the berth, all of them are operated, you know, from the remote control centre in this building.
13:27Those cranes over there are operated remotely from this building?
13:30Exactly!
13:31This I have to see.
13:33The dockside cranes, some standing at over 170 feet tall,
13:38are worked from the remote control centre by operators like Dong Jin Kim.
13:45Mr. Kim, I catch you at a busy moment.
13:49Please, can you describe to me what you're doing?
13:54At the moment, I'm moving one container from the ship to the berth.
14:01Which crane number?
14:04Currently, I'm working at crane number seven.
14:07107 over there.
14:08Yeah, I've got it.
14:10How many containers can you handle in a day?
14:1524 hours a day, I usually work on 600 to 700 containers.
14:24And are you doing this by eye, or is it computer-guided?
14:30I only work on the camera and the camera.
14:33I depend totally on my own eye and the camera.
14:37And now, there's a signal.
14:41Well, if you're doing it with your own eye, respect.
14:55This afternoon, my destination is Gyeongju,
14:58on the far side of the peninsula.
15:0170% of South Korea is mountainous,
15:04and the largest serbic range runs for 220 miles
15:08down the centre of the interior,
15:10before giving way to wide coastal plains.
15:13To traverse the country from Busan by rail,
15:17you must first head north,
15:18then west via the high-speed network.
15:27Gyeongju, the capital of North Juella province,
15:30lies on the Honan plain,
15:32surrounded by fertile farmland,
15:34and is one of the oldest cities in the country.
15:41It was home to the Joseon royal dynasty,
15:44which ruled from the end of the 14th century for 500 years,
15:49and left a legacy of customs and attitudes still common today.
15:54It's a popular visitor destination for Koreans,
15:57some of whom like to don traditional costume.
16:01They head to the old heart of the city,
16:03with its collection of over 800 classic wooden hannocks,
16:07the largest of its kind in the country.
16:11Beautiful traditional village houses
16:13have been conserved and are presented in this village,
16:17and today is a bank holiday Sunday,
16:21and the sun has got his hat on,
16:23and Koreans have come out to play in vast numbers.
16:29In amongst the historic homes and tea houses,
16:32artisans are still trading here,
16:35displaying traditional crafts.
16:39Brusanetia papyrifera is the paper mulberry,
16:43a deciduous tree which is indigenous in Asia,
16:46with a bark that produces long, strong, silky fibres,
16:51which have, by a highly complicated process,
16:55over many centuries been made into exquisite quality paper.
17:00And this ancient art is still practised today,
17:05and still very much in demand.
17:09The paper known as hanji has been made here in Jonju
17:14for over a thousand years.
17:17Originally used for important documents,
17:19but later for books and even wall coverings,
17:22it was exported around the world.
17:25In his small workshop,
17:27Master Gap Siu Kang leads a team of four hanji artisans.
17:33Paper making is well and truly underway as I arrive.
17:36Ah! Mr Kang!
17:39How do you do?
17:41Great pleasure.
17:43I believe this paper making method is called hanji.
17:46And when did you begin to make it?
17:49How did you learn?
18:00Does it take a very long time to learn the process?
18:11Will you show me how you make it, please?
18:14To begin with, what's in this bath?
18:17It's a bamboo material.
18:23And that is extraordinary.
18:29I can't believe that.
18:30A sheet of paper has indeed emerged on this tray.
18:35That's fantastic.
18:54This is an operation of some delicacy now
18:56to get the paper safely onto its mat.
19:14This is all hot.
19:17See the steam rising.
19:23Ah! Good.
19:24And a beautiful piece of paper emerged.
19:27That is delightful.
19:36Um, may I try that, please?
19:39Yes, you may well laugh.
19:44OK, so.
19:45I saw you doing something like this.
19:50Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.
19:52Yes, I'll fire.
19:53And shuku from side to side.
19:56The fibers from the mulberry are suspended in the water.
20:02And what we're doing here is we're trying to get a nice,
20:05neat, even layer of fibers to be on the little bamboo screen.
20:11Right.
20:12So we lift that up to get this bit of paper out.
20:20Ah-ha, OK.
20:31OK, that's looking good.
20:33And here's the pattern that's going to be left in the paper.
20:45Don't need much language at this point.
20:48Gestures will do.
20:50Oh.
20:52Good.
20:54You speak English.
20:55Good.
20:56Thank you, Mr Kang.
20:59Alongside the smaller pieces such as I've just made,
21:02the team also produces much larger sheets.
21:05These can be left in their natural state or coloured and printed,
21:10giving them a wide range of uses.
21:12You're producing lots of paper here.
21:15Who is it that buys it nowadays?
21:28How many processes had you gone through before you arrived at the solution in that bath?
21:36Hanji is an extraordinary brush to explain how to make a بن。
21:41Extraordinary.
21:42After five minutes of drying, my sheet of hanji is ready.
21:47It's lovely stuff. I mean, it's quite unlike paper
21:51that I'm used to from the West.
21:53There's a very pleasing texture to it.
21:58And seeing how it's made, it just is so satisfying.
22:03Really beautiful.
22:07Really? Do you love your work?
22:12We've made it to eat and live.
22:14Of course, I liked it.
22:29This wonderful hanji paper is not just used in calligraphy
22:35in the Eastern Hemisphere.
22:36As Mr. Kang says,
22:38it lasts 1,000 years.
22:41And so it's been used in the Western world
22:44for the restoration of ancient documents.
22:47A prayer written by St. Francis in the 13th century.
22:52The Codex on the Flight of Birds by Leonardo da Vinci.
22:57And a globe that was very much treasured by Pope John XXIII.
23:17A short walk from the historic Hanuk village
23:20is a building type that looks more familiar to me.
23:24Built in 1914, with a mix of Romanesque and Byzantine architectural features,
23:30John Dong Cathedral is the most beautiful in South Korea.
23:35The Republic of Korea has a population of more than 50 million,
23:40about double that of North Korea,
23:42although the birth rate has been falling in the South.
23:45Half the population professes no religion.
23:48But in the half that do have faith,
23:51Christians easily outnumber Buddhists
23:54and churches are to be seen everywhere.
23:58Of course, that originated with the missionaries.
24:01But after the Second World War,
24:03Christianity was associated with modernisation
24:06and also with the middle classes,
24:08since the churches sponsor elite universities and schools.
24:23Amongst its many attractions,
24:25Jeonju is a UNESCO city of gastronomy,
24:29renowned for its authentic Korean dishes.
24:32Food is an important part of the nation's culture
24:35and its distinctive cuisine is based on bold, diverse flavours
24:40and the freshest ingredients.
24:42This is the place to try a favourite dish
24:45said to have originated in the city.
25:10One thing you have to get used to in Korea is side dishes.
25:13Eight have arrived on this occasion.
25:15I have seen up to 20.
25:18Known as banchan,
25:19today's selection includes spinach with garlic and soy sauce,
25:23mixed noodles, acorn jelly
25:25and staple Korean fermented cabbage dish, kimchi.
25:35I have ordered probably the most famous dish in Korea, a bibimbap.
25:41Bibimbap means mix and bat means rice.
25:46So, mixed rice.
25:47You're likely to have beef or pork.
25:51I've got beef today.
25:53The vegetables vary according to region and look to season.
25:57This is the province of Jolla.
25:59And it's reckoned to make the best bibimbap of all
26:02because the countryside produces such excellent vegetables all year round.
26:10What you can say for sure is that the bibimbap contains a lot of Korean symbolism
26:16and it comes in fives.
26:18So, there should be five colours in your food.
26:25And it should have five flavours.
26:28Salty, hot, sour, sweet and bitter.
26:33And I give it five out of five.
26:36And I give it five out of five.
27:04My explorations have taken me to the east and west of the peninsula.
27:13In the port of Busan, seven different operators vie with each other
27:19and it's felt that that rivalry drives up performance.
27:23In the fish market, I saw stall holders yelling out,
27:27contending with each other for business.
27:30Historically, hanji paper excelled in quality
27:34and was praised even by the Chinese.
27:37And today, it's used across the world
27:40in the most delicate restorations of documents.
27:43It seems that the Koreans are driven by competition.
27:48And I believe that that lies at the heart of their success.
27:53Next time...
27:56It's got this very spicy sauce.
28:01It's really lovely.
28:04These cannot be made of volcanic rock.
28:06It is carbonate.
28:07Yes.
28:08Very special.
28:08It is unique.
28:10Unique? Yes.
28:10Wow.
28:12A quick journey from the sea to the stomach.
28:15Oh gosh.
28:17Oh ah ah ah ya.
28:18Oh oh oh ya oh oh ya oh.
Comments