There must be a limit to how much concrete one country can take before it starts to sink. The Korean peninsula isn't much of a size and the South makes up less than half of it. Yet fifty million people are crammed into this little country. Understandably, the density of population means that spacious villas are a little on the expensive side. The landscape of Korea is therefore dominated by blocks of flats (apartment blocks, if you must) stretching as far as the eye can see, each as ugly as the one before.
While out walking today I ended up at a new development which is nearing completion. I say development, but this place was more like a small town than a housing complex. There were dozens of twenty storey blocks almost ready for their tenants. Usually this place is buzzing with activity as builders scurry around doing their thing. But not today. The job is nearly done, the flats are built and only some landscping remains to be done.
So I was standing in what seemed like a post-apocalyptic ghost town. The buildings looked inhabitable but they lacked inhabitants. It was a strange feeling and, of course, a fleeting one. In a month's time the area will be alive with shops, traffic and kids.
As I stood there pondering this brief quiet hiatus between construction and habitation, I looked down and noticed that my feet had disappeared. This was strange, since I remembered visibility being one of my feet's defining charcteristics. They hadn't gone far though, they were just taking an impromptu mud bath.
I extricated myself and waded over to a patch of concrete. Safely back on terra firma, I pondered the connection between this huge collection of tower blocks and my feet's little game of hide and seek.
The ground was so wet because Typhoon Dianmu gave Korea a glancing blow yesterday. Typhoons are often thought of as bad things, as killers, but this is only part of the story. They are also life-givers since they allow crops to grow. Countries like Korea, Taiwan and Japan would not be able to support such high population densities without these annual soakings. And of course, if there were fewer people, everyone could have a semi-detatched and a garden.
It's not just East Asia were there is a co-relation between high rainfall and dense population. If you visit crowded countries like England, Germany, Holland, India or Bangladesh, it's advisable to bring an umbrella. Oh, and also, watch where you're standing.