(Photo by Jeon Jin-sik)
"Residents living in rural areas of Buyeo County, South Chungcheong Province, wait for buses on their way home from visiting a local market that opens every five days at a bus stop in Buyeo Town, July 15. Recently, a number of farming and fishing village buses, which are the only transportation means for those who live in remote and secluded villages in the country, have ceased operation due to the accumulated deficit of the operating companies. Those companies have reduced and stopped bus services as their financial difficulties have worsened from oil price hikes and rising labor costs, in addition to a decreasing number of passengers. As of late 2010, 101 companies ran 2006 buses in 4181 bus routes.Accordingly, elderly residents and students in those regions have encountered considerable difficulties in going to school and the market."
Looks like I'll have to spend more time waiting for less frequent bus services or consider alternative ways of getting around the country. But really the inconveniences suffered as a shoe-string traveller are peanuts compared to what the poor halmeonis and elderly ajummas are going to suffer when their main lifelines are going to be severely curtailed or even disappear entirely.
How will grandma find the way home?
Anyone remember that grandma bent double who had to make her way from her cottage to the nearest market in town by bus in the movie "The Road Home"? There are plenty of ladies like her scattered across the country and I wonder how they'll manage to carry their farm produce from their humble gardens or fields to sell in the nearest rural market without benefit of local transport.
source:
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_entertainment/488392.html
http://vladivostokfilmfestival.ru/en/archive/film/52/
