new cycling trails in seoul ( ara canal )

 People say that Seoul is a terrible city for biking, but that is not true as long as you're not using bikes as a form of transportation to get from here to there. For those folks who just love riding bikes for pleasure, Seoul  is a great city for biking. Nearly every stream and small local river has a bike path that runs along its side and it connects to han river and from han river, you can go to many places in and out of seoul.

typical view of han river bike trail

It reached a total length of 240 kilometers of bike paths alongside han river and its tributairies which opened in Seoul long time ago and these paths are still increasing to connect seoul to many satellite city near it.
Now biking on these bike paths is the one of better ways to look around seoul.
I'll introduce one of new bike trail that has been made recently How to go to ara canal? Starting from Yeoido station, facing han river, go straight to west about 21k m. If 21 km sounds intimidating, it shouldn't. It's about a 1 hr and 30 min bike ride and, since it follows the river, is completely flat. The canal was built recently, finished about two years ago, meaning that all the paths are new and in great condition! I recommend riding on the north side of the river, as there are way fewer bikes and people over there.

view from deck on the north side of ara canal

waterfall halfway along the way on ara canal

In one sense, the canal made good sense; because the estuary of the Han river enters the sea right at the border with North Korea (the border runs through the river at that point), obviously it cannot be used for shipping; so the shortcut to the sea will allow much better access for shipments to and from the capital.
But at the same time, it is somewhat odd that the project is also seen as a tourist attraction, with cruises, leisure parks, bicycle paths etc but after 2year of grand opening of this almost 2 billion project..it seems that it didn't turn out to be what politics thought it would be... but that is whole different story
For casual bike traveller like me..i just appreciate great view and new bike trail that's in great condition