Woman filmed bathing in Cheonggyecheon stirs outrage online

A middle-aged woman was caught on camera bathing in broad daylight at Cheonggyecheon, a popular urban stream in central Seoul, drawing widespread criticism online.

A video titled "The ultimate villain spotted at Cheonggyecheon" spread across social media and online communities Monday after circulating over the weekend.

The footage shows a middle-aged woman in a sleeveless dress sitting on a stone wall along the stream, washing herself with stream water. She had brought soap, a basin and other bathing supplies, and poured water over her body, lathered herself with soap and scrubbed her skin — all while passersby, including tourists, walked nearby without apparent concern.

While people dipping their feet in the stream to beat the heat is a common sight, openly soaping up and dousing oneself with water is far rarer.

Viewers reacted with dismay. "She must have thought she was at a mountain creek," one commenter wrote. Others called the scene "embarrassing, especially with so many foreign tourists around," while some said the behavior was "hard to explain with a normal state of mind."

Cheonggyecheon is an approximately 10.84-kilometer stream running through central Seoul. Restored in 2005, it combines natural waterway features with an artificial channel, sustained by releasing about 40,000 cubic meters of water a day drawn from the Cheonggyecheon Plaza area — making it, in effect, an artificial stream.

Under the Seoul Metropolitan Government's current ordinance on the use of Cheonggyecheon, swimming, bathing and similar activities in the stream are prohibited.

The bathing incident follows an earlier controversy in which a middle-aged man and woman were filmed scooping up "lucky coins" from Palseokdam, a stone pool along the stream, and pocketing them.

In a two-minute, 23-second video that spread Sunday, July 19, a woman with her face hidden behind an umbrella waded into the stream, collected coins and placed them in a bag she had brought with her.

A sign at Palseokdam states that collected lucky coins are used to support children's education programs at home and abroad through organizations including the Seoul Scholarship Foundation and the Korean Committee for UNICEF.

The Seoul Facilities Corporation said it will respond firmly to any prohibited activity confirmed at Cheonggyecheon — issuing on-site warnings and, if necessary, reporting offenders to police.