`Silk Road` of Korean tourism on southern coast opens

The Geoga Bridge connecting Busan with Geoje Island opened Monday, heralding in the era of the "Silk Road" of tourism on the southern coast.

President Lee Myung-bak, Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs Minister Chung Jong-hwan, Busan Mayor Hur Nam-sik, South Gyeongsang Province Gov. Kim Doo-gwan and some 1,500 citizens attended the opening of the bridge held at Geoje rest stop in South Gyeongsang Province.

Former President Kim Young-sam, who had set up the plan to build the bridge and provided aggressive support as a Geoje native, and his wife also attended the opening.

President Lee said in a congratulatory speech, “This bridge will become a new Silk Road of tourism on the southern coast linking Busan, Geoje and Tongyeong (of the east coast) with Yeosu and Mokpo (of the west coast).”

With the bridge`s opening, the distance between Busan and Geoje will be cut from 140 to 60 kilometers and the time needed to cover the distance will be slashed from three hours to 50 minutes.

In addition, the savings on logistics costs will exceed 400 billion won (349.6 million dollars) per year.

manman@donga.com srkim@donga.com