By this time every year, major landmarks in downtown Seoul like City Hall and Gwanghwamun are decorated with bright Christmas lights. But this year, instead of the traditional red and yellow, all is bathed in the soft blue of light-emitting diodes (LED). Take the Galleria Department Store in Apgujeong-dong, for instance. Its top-end brand house West, known for its 4,330 glass disk-covered unique exterior, spent around W300 million (US$1=W925) to place special LEDs on all the glass disks, which were then connected to the computer system to emit blue Christmas illumination.
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Christmas lights at Lotte Department Store¡¯s Avenuel in Myeongdong, Seoul.
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Myeongdong¡¯s Lotte Department Store bloc also turned blue. It used LEDs on all of its buildings including the Young Plaza, Avenuel, and the main store, spending about W1 billion. Young Plaza, in particular, is breathtaking as the entire glass wall is covered in blue.
But Korea¡¯s lighting experts are most impressed by Shinsegae Department Sore¡¯s main branch. The store took its inspiration from Lyon Cathedral in France, transporting some 300,000 ice-white LEDs from the European country. But though the LEDs are nominally white, they look blue with the color temperature as high as 5,000 to 6,000 kelvin. The Chosun Hotel in Sogong-dong also installed blue lights on its exterior, and the Imperial Palace Hotel in Nonhyeon-dong encircled all the trees with blue light bulbs.
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Shinsegae Department Sore¡¯s main branch in Chungmuro, Seoul.
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LEDs cost five to six times more on average than filament bulbs, but the extra money is what¡¯s making Seoul nights look special. It is estimated that LEDs account for 30 percent of this year¡¯s whole lighting market or some W600 billion.
Christmas lights went up faster this year. Last year, the lights came on in December, but this year most buildings have turned on their lights at the beginning or middle of the November. They also started their lighting at 4-5 p.m., about two hours earlier than last year. Hotels keep their lights on for eight to 10 hours, and department stores for three to five.
The shift from filament bulbs to LED not only means much brighter lights but also a big cut on electricity. While LEDs are expensive to buy, they only use half of the electricity and can be used semi-permanently. ¡°Our main building uses 300,000 LEDs that cost only W30,000 for five hours of lighting every day,¡± says a Shinsegae insider. The Chosun Hotel turns on around 1 million bulbs for 10 hours and pays only W127,000 a day.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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