Seoul‘s “Wishing Well” set to collect more than US$86,000 by this summer

Cheonggyecheon Stream in downtown Seoul is known as a “wishing well” where people make a wish with coins and despite the swift modernization of society, it seems people still like to turn to the tried and traditional way of making a wish.

Cheonggyecheon is an 8.4 kilometer long recreation space in the middle of Seoul..created as part of an urban renewal project to symbolize the nation’s growth and development.

According to a new report on Tuesday the Seoul City government says all the coins tossed into the stream, since it was restored 7 years ago, will surpass 100-million won, or about 86-thousand U.S. dollars, in August.

The report says that about 1.2 million coins have been tossed into the stream over the past 7 years. Estimating that each person throws around 2-coins each officials believe about 600-thousand people have visited the “wishing well.”

All the coins collected in this stream are donated to various charities on a regular basis. On Tuesday, Cheonggyecheon officials held a public event to donate a year‘s worth of coins collected from the stream.

Park Seung-oh, Supervisor Seoul Facilities Mgmt. Corporation said, “The Korean coins collected, which amount to about 38-million won, is being given to the charity, ’Community Chest of Korea.‘ And the 31-thousand foreign coins, from 62 different countries.are being donated to UNICEF today.”

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Park Sae-jin swatchsjp@ajunews.com