‘Anyang-Cheon(stream)’: Insects, Flowers, Birds
Anyang-Cheon, also known as a branch of the Han River in South Korea, originates from the Jijidae-gogae hill in Uiwang City. It meanders through the heart of Anyang City and eventually joins the Han River. Spanning approximately 22 miles, this stream is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, creating an ecologically rich environment within the city.
Anyang-Cheon holds a special place in the hearts of many as it serves as a popular destination for exercise and leisurely walks. However, it is also a thriving habitat for numerous animal and plant species. By taking a slow stroll along the stream, carefully observing the trees, grasses, and underwater world, one can encounter a fascinating array of creatures. The shapes and activities exhibited by these inhabitants reveal the inherent beauty of nature.
Over the course of eight months (from January 2018 to August 2018), I captured photographs of insects, flowers, and birds during my walks along the stream. Along the 4-mile stretch from Gwanyang-Bridge to Bakseok-Bridge, I discovered around 150 different species, including insects, birds, flowers, and aquatic animals. In Anyang-Cheon, the insects and wildflowers I encountered were often small and required keen observation to spot. Despite their size, they revealed their unique beauty through their forms and colors. These small creatures continuously emerge and fade away with the passage of time, representing the eternal yet ever-changing nature of life.
'Anyangcheon Stream': Word Collection through Web Crawling
This chapter presents the words that have been collected and analyzed using web crawling. To gauge people's interest in Anyangcheon Stream, I entered the keyword "Anyangcheon" in the search bar on the internet. The search duration was set from January 1, 2009, to April 25, 2019, in order to retrieve blog posts that mentioned Anyangcheon Stream. As a result, a total of 120,150 web addresses were collected. These addresses were then classified based on three popular portal sites: Naver, Daum, and T-Story. Web crawling was utilized to gather the full text of blog posts, and the sentence structure analysis tool "Konlpy Mecab" was used to analyze the collected articles containing the term "Anyangcheon." Nouns were extracted from these posts and organized according to their frequency of use.
In this chapter, you will find the words that ranked among the top 300 most frequently used nouns in the blog posts related to Anyangcheon Stream, collected from the internet between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2018. The analysis of the collected words revealed that the most frequently appearing words were related to real estate and architecture, such as "apartment(아파트)," "officetel(오피스텔)," "villa(빌라)," and "new construction(신축)." These words appeared consistently throughout the year, regardless of the season or environment. The second most frequently appearing word was "bicycle(자전거)." When searching for blog posts using Anyangcheon as a keyword, it was evident that the majority of the posts were about cycling, exercise, or community activities along the Anyangcheon walking path, as indicated by words like "riding(라이딩)" and "course(코스)." Next, there were words related to seasonal leisure activities and events, such as "festival(축제)," "snow sled park(눈썰매장)," "water playground(물놀이장)," and "autumn(가을)," indicating that people visited Anyangcheon with their children or as a family for these activities. Words related to nature, such as "ecosystem(생태)," "nature(자연)," "environment(환경)," "walk(산책)," and "flowers(꽃)," could be found in the following ranks. Despite being an ecological restoration stream, there were not many posts about the ecology and natural environment of Anyangcheon. Lastly, notable words included "date," "popular restaurant," "taste," "coffee," and "rice," which were associated with dating culture.
Copyright © 2019 Seongbae Cho. All Rights Reserved.