It's an economic powerhouse, and renowned for its food, culture, and NewJeans.

它是一個經濟強國，以美食、文化和 NewJeans 而聞名。

But we're not here to talk about Seoul, we're here to talk about Sejong City: the new guy replacing Seoul as South Korea's administrative capital.

但我們今天不是在談論首爾，我們要談論世宗市：取代首爾成為韓國行政首都的新城市。

Like Seoul, Sejong has an economy, and I'm sure at least some of their jeans are new.

和首爾一樣，世宗也有自己的經濟，我相信他們的牛仔褲至少有一部分是新的。

But if you've never heard of it before, it's probably because it was just a bunch of peach farms until the South Korean government whipped it up into a capital city about a decade ago.

但如果您以前從未聽說過它，可能是因為在大約十年前韓國政府將其建成首都之前，它只是一堆桃園。

But how did they do that? And why?

但他們是怎麼做到的呢？為什麼？

Our journey begins on the presidential campaign trail in 2002.

我們的旅程從 2002 年的總統競選開始。

At this point, things have been going pretty well in South Korea for a while: they've hosted the Olympics, they got into the UN, and the GDP's as high as it's ever been.

在這一點上，韓國這段時間的情況還算不錯：他們已經他們舉辦了奧運會，進入了聯合國，國內生產總值也達到了歷史最高水準。

And as such, people are starting to think less about making the country richer, and more about making sure everyone gets a slice of the national money pie.

所以人們開始不再考慮如何讓國家變得更加富裕，而是更多的是要確保每個人都能從國家的金錢蛋糕中分得一杯羹。

Because, the money pie is very much in Seoul.

因為，首爾的「錢景」很好。

The Seoul Capital Area—comprising the city itself, plus Incheon and the Gyeonggi Province—has just under half of the whole country's population on under 12% of its land, and the income gap between there and everywhere else is widening.

首爾首都地區——包括城市本身，加上仁川和京畿道——在其不到 12% 的土地上擁有全國近一半的人口，而且該地區與其他地區之間的收入差距正在擴大。

So out on the campaign trail, candidate Roh Moo-hyun floats a big idea: take a bunch of the people and jobs in Seoul, and push them somewhere else.

因此，在競選過程中，候選人盧武鉉提出了一個偉大的想法：將首爾的大量人員和工作轉移到其他地方。

Because, come on, Seoul has enough going on without the government kicking around.

因為，拜託，首爾已經發生了足夠的事情，無需政府干預。

Sharing is caring, right?

分享就是關愛，對嗎？

So when Roh gets elected, he sets his big move-the-government plan in motion.

所以當盧當選後，他就開始實施他的「移動政府」大計劃。

But not everyone's into it.

但並不是每個人都喜歡。

It'll disrupt a lot of people's lives, plus there are certain operational conveniences that come from having the country's financial, cultural, and administrative capitals in the same place.

它將擾亂許多人的生活，而且國家的金融、文化和行政首都位於同一個地方，將帶來一定的營運便利。

One not-into-it party, namely the oppositional Grand National Party, filed a complaint with the Korean Constitutional Court,

不參與其中的政黨，即反對黨大國家黨，向韓國憲法法院提出申訴，

which ruled in 2004 that Seoul's capital status was so universally understood that it was part of the "unwritten and customary constitution."

2004 年，該委員會裁定首爾的首都地位已被普遍理解，以至於它成為「不成文的習慣憲法」的一部分。

And sure, an "unwritten and customary constitution" is, by definition, nothing, but turns out robe guys can say whatever.

當然，根據定義，「不成文的習慣憲法」什麼都不是，但事實證明，穿長袍說什麼就是什麼。

So now the government has three options: get a written Constitutional amendment passed to call Sejong the capital, ditch Sejong entirely, or adjust their plans a bit.

因此，現在政府有三個選擇：透過書面憲法修正案，將世宗定為首都，完全放棄世宗，或稍微調整他們的計劃。

So, they did the last one.

他們選了最後一個。

Under the new plan, Sejong would be the administrative capital, home to most of the government's ministries, while leaving a few back in Seoul, along with the presidential residence and the legislature.

根據新計劃，世宗將成為行政首都，政府的大部分機構將在此辦公，而將幾個部留在首爾，連同總統官邸和總統府和立法機構。

Roh's term ended in 2008, and South Korea got a new president, who happened to have been Seoul's mayor and very anti-Sejong.

盧武鉉的任期於 2008 年結束，韓國迎來了一位新總統，而這位總統恰好曾任首爾市長，非常反世宗市。

He briefly tried to rally people around sending companies like Samsung to Sejong instead of the government,

他短暫地試圖團結人們將三星等公司而不是政府送到世宗，

but that was even less popular, so they kept going with the revised plan from Roh's administration, and work began in earnest in 2011.

但這種做法更不受歡迎，所以他們繼續執行盧武鉉政府修改後的計劃，並於2011年正式開始著手進行。

The site chosen for Sejong was here, a rural spot in the central Chungcheong Province, conveniently located between Seoul, Busan, and Gwangju.

世宗市選址在這裡，是忠清道中部的一個鄉村地區，位於首爾、釜山和光州之間，交通便利。

Before it got extreme home makeovered, it was called Yeongi and was home to just eighty thousand people—about as many as Parma, Ohio.

在對房屋進行徹底改造之前，它被稱為 Yeongi，人口只有八萬人，大約與俄亥俄州帕爾馬的人口一樣多。

And if you're not familiar with Parma, Ohio… exactly.

如果你不熟悉俄亥俄州的帕爾馬......沒錯，同理。

To develop Sejong, they flattened out the hills, laid down a grid system for the streets, stood up some shiny high-rise apartments, and built the office building that would draw everyone there:

為了發展世宗，他們夷平了山丘，鋪設了街道網格系統，建造了一些閃亮的高層公寓，並建造了吸引所有人的辦公大樓：

the Government Complex Sejong, a roughly two-mile or 3.2-kilometer-long building snake covering more acreage than Disneyland.

世宗政府綜合大樓是一座大約兩英里或 3.2 公里長的蛇形建築，佔地面積比迪士尼樂園還多。

By the time the government started moving ministries there in 2012, the new city had restaurants, schools, and a grocery store,

當政府於 2012 年開始將各部會遷往那裡時，新城市已經有了餐廳、學校和雜貨店，

as well as high-tech amenities like automatic trash collection, zero-waste food disposal, EV charging, CCTV security, and more.

以及自動垃圾收集、零浪費食物處理、電動車充電、閉路電視安全等高科技設施。

And if that makes you think "Wow, they thought of everything!"

如果這讓你覺得「哇，他們什麼都想到了！」

Well, not quite.

也不盡然。

Because young Sejong was missing some stuff people like, such as a movie theater, and a museum, and a hospital.

因為年輕的世宗缺少一些人們喜歡的東西，比如電影院，以及博物館和醫院。

The transit system was also pretty bad—the nearest high speed rail station is a 25 minute drive away, and Sejong City doesn't have its own subway or tram.

交通系統也很糟糕，最近的高鐵站也要 25 分鐘的車程，且世宗市沒有自己的地鐵或有軌電車。

It does have bus rapid transit, but it's not great—the routes have never been good enough, nor the buses frequent enough, to meaningfully pull people away from cars.

它確實有快速公車系統，但還不夠好——路線不夠好，公車班次也不夠好，無法有效地讓人們不開汽車。

Which is just baffling to me, because as far as I'm concerned, the whole point of building a city from scratch is the electric thrill of throwing down train lines willy-nilly before anyone stops you.

這讓我感到困惑，因為就我而言，從頭開始建造一座城市的全部意義在於，在有人阻止你之前，隨心所欲地扔掉火車線路，帶來一種令人興奮的刺激感。

Today, Sejong's bus system only provides seven percent of the city's transportation, less than half the average for a metropolitan city in South Korea.

如今，世宗市的公車系統僅提供該市交通的 7%，不到韓國大都市平均的一半。

So that's not great.

所以這並不好。

As the government moved itself to Sejong, it didn't exactly siphon population away from Seoul the way they'd hoped.

當政府遷往世宗時，它並沒有完全按照他們希望的方式將人口從首爾抽走。

In fact, many workers just commuted there from Seoul, even though a weekday rush hour commute from, let's say, the presidential residence in Seoul to the Government Complex Sejong takes over two hours.

事實上，許勞工只是從首爾通勤到那裡，儘管工作日高峰時段從首爾總統官邸到世宗政府大樓的通勤時間需要兩個多小時。

But to many government workers, it's worth it to stay in Seoul rather than move somewhere that's kind of, well…

但對許多政府工作人員來說，留在首爾是值得的，相較於搬到....

Seoul-less.

沒靈魂的地方（沒有首爾的地方）。(靈魂 soul 跟 Seoul 諧音）

In fact, as Sejong's grown, it's pulled a lot of its population from around its own province, rather than from Seoul itself.

事實上，隨著世宗市的發展，它從本省週邊而不是首爾本地吸引了大量人口。

Think about it this way: if your banger house party's getting a little crowded and running out of snacks, you don't just start a second, worse party at another house in hopes people will leave.

可以這樣想：如果你的派對變得有點擁擠，零食也吃完了，你不會只是在另一間房子裡開始第二次更糟糕的派對，希望人們離開。

You order a pizza, open up some bedrooms, and move the furniture to make space.

你訂了一份披薩，打開幾間臥室，搬動傢俱騰出空間。

Because the truth is, nobody wants to leave a good party—they just hope other people will.

因為事實上，沒有人願意離開一個美好的聚會，他們只是希望其他人會。

And look, it's not a perfect metaphor for the Seoul/Sejong situation, but in fairness, I don't get invited to a lot of parties, and in both the party situation and the city one, the solution is more housing.

這並不是首爾/世宗情況的完美比喻，但平心而論，我沒有被邀請參加很多聚會，無論是聚會還是城市，解決方案都是更多的住房。

But despite all the controversies and bad-vibes accusations, South Korea is still moving forward on making Sejong their administrative capital, and it's not even going that badly.

但儘管有種種爭議和不良指責，韓國仍在繼續將世宗作為其行政首都，而且進展還沒有那麼糟。

They've opened up libraries, a stadium, a nice park, and more shopping.

他們開設了圖書館、體育場、漂亮的公園和更多的購物中心。

In 2020, they hit their two hundred thousand-person population target, and are heading towards a goal of five hundred thousand by 2030.

2020 年，他們實現了 20 萬人口的目標，並正朝著到 2030 年達到 50 萬的目標。

It's also made itself a great place to raise kids, with daycare centers in each apartment complex, cash rewards worth over a thousand dollars for each kid you have, and highly subsidized caregiver support for new parents.

它也使自己成為撫養孩子的好地方，每個公寓大樓都設有日託中心，為每個孩子提供價值超過ㄧ千美元的現金獎勵，並為新父母提供高補貼的照顧支持。

And they're making the bus free, so that's nice.

他們還免費提供公車，這很好。

In all, Sejong is walking in the footsteps of other purpose-built capital cities before it:

總而言之，世宗市正在追隨之前其他專門建設首都城市的腳步：

joining Canberra, Australia and Brasilia, Brazil on the list of "places where the most interesting thing about them is that they're the capital instead of somewhere more interesting."

與澳大利亞堪培拉和巴西巴西利亞一起被列入「最有趣的地方是它們是首都而不是更有趣的地方」。

Well that, in the fact that it was built to move people away from Seoul, and yet both cities have added tons of people since this whole twenty billion dollar project started.

嗯，事實上，它的建造是為了將人們從首爾轉移出去，但自從這個價值 200 億美元的項目開始以來，這兩個城市都增加了大量的人口。

Oh well! The daycare thing is cool!

那好吧！ 托兒所的事情很酷！