Gran Canaria is an island whose distance from Korea exceeds 17,000 kilometres. This is one half of the way around the world – between two places which have been, in spite of their mutual distance, historically interconnected since the 1960s for the reasons of the post-war emigration.

The Island of Gran Canaria and Korea have been interlinked for dozens of years. These are links reaching even the personal sphere of the actors about whom this story is. Father of Chang-Hyun Moon (Yuna) was a captain of a Korean fishing fleet. From Busan he set out on a world cruise, across the Pacific, he sailed through the Panama Canal and crossed the Atlantic Ocean up to the Canary Islands. He sailed halfway around the world on his ship. Fate, however, prevented him from continuing in his voyage further in order to return back to Korea, circumnavigating the entire world. He has never returned to Busan anymore.

Forty years later, his son Yuna, a civil engineer specialised in transport constructions and focused on social responsibility and sustainability, suggested finalisation of his father’s dream and implementation of the remaining half of the way around the world on the roads, namely in an electric car.

Yuna going with his father by a Kona

For this challenge, Yuna has chosen the Hyundai KONA electric car with lithium-ion accumulators with a capacity of 64 kWh, the highest power output of 50 kW (204 k) and operating range of 449 kilometres.

Morocco, Spain, Gibraltar, France, Monaco, Italy, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Kazakhstan, China and South Korea – these are 22 countries whose inhabitants will become witnesses of Yuna’s transit on his way to Busan. He started his adventure on the 15^th May and his arrival at Busan is planned for the middle of July.

The Hyundai Canarias company has prepared the special web site to the project entitled “Road to Busan”.