October 3, 1970: A Football Game at Camp Red Cloud
	September 19, 1970: At Dr. Kim's/Namsan Mountain
	Return to the Index for 1970

I have been down to Seoul numerous times since my arrival here in Korea, but this Saturday I am going to make a day of it. I'm going to hop on a Kimchi bus right in front of Howze and then get off just inside the northern boundary of the city. Then I plan to pretty much follow my nose as I walk through the city, including areas I haven't really explored yet, towards Yongsan. There, I will do what I've done before- have dinner at the Officer's Open Mess and then take a military bus back to Camp Howze.

I won't add a map here of the bus route into Seoul from the stop near Camp Howze; you've seen that route numerous times before already.

However, I did take one picture a few miles down the road toward Seoul of what I had thought on previous trips was some sort of commercial facility, or perhaps some kind of modernistic religious building. I remember that I asked our Korean accountant, Sammy Ko, what the building was, and he told me a bit about death in Korea.

Burial is not common in most parts of Korea. Here in the northern area, any land suitable for a US-style graveyard is needed much more as farmland, and in any even the burial practice was never widespread (except for notables). Cremation is the normal practice, and in most houses one will find one or more ancestors sitting on a shelf in a kind of small, makeshift shrine. That building is one of the largest crematoria in this part of Korea.

It certainly is situated in a pretty area, but even the facility itself is located up a rocky hillside that is itself unsuitable for agriculture. Anyway, I rode the bus into the city, and at one of the first stops it made, a stop I knew to be about three miles (as the crow flies) from Yongsan Army Post.

Note from the present:

At left I have put a map I created that covers the entire length of my walk today. Since the map is much taller north to south than it is wide (east to west), I have put it in a scrollable window. If you have just gotten to this page, the map is positioned at the northernmost part of my walk.

You will see a red line wandering through the map; that was my route today. I can pretty accurately draw the route now, a half century later, because of the still-existing structures and locations that I can identify and the order in which the pictures were taken. When I was wandering through typical side streets and back streets, I can only approximate my route, as there are no identifying landmarks that still exist. (Most of the small streets and alleyways I traversed are totally gone, replaced with the new, modern, glitzy, downtown Seoul.)

On the map I have marked the stops (and pictures) I can identify so you can follow along on my route. You can use the vertical scroll bar at the right side of the map to move it up or down as we go, so you can see the entirety of my route today.

As we go, I am also going to supplement the narrative with another resource available in the present- the aerial view. Some things I photographed in 1970 still exist today, and I think it may be interesting for you (as it was for me) to see how they have changed- or not.

I hope you enjoy this walk through Seoul; it will turn out to be one of the longer weekend excursions that I had in this amazing city. Everywhere around me I saw photo opportunities, and I can say now, from the vantage point of 2022, that had digital photography been available to me then, there wouldn't just be 30-40 pictures from today- there would have been many hundreds.

When I got off the bus, I found a fairly major street heading off to my left- a street I'd not explored up to this point. So I headed up the street and presently came to what looked like a small park. It turned out to be the Sajikdan- a Korean Neo-Confucian altar where South Korea used to perform the national soil and grain ceremonies during the Joseon Dynasty.

Here is the entrance sign as I saw it, and as you can see the sign is in both Korean and English. I have enlarged the English translation and put it at left for you to read. Looking beyond the sign, it appeared that they were either renovating or adding onto the park. The building in the far background is, I discovered, a school.

Along with the royal palace (Gyeongbokgung) and the Jongmyo shrine, the Sajik shrine is a fundamental symbol of the new capital city created during its first year. This site is located west of the palace (which we will go by a bit later on), at the feet of Inwangsan Mountain.

Walking past the sign, I took another picture of the park itself, and you can see quite a lot in that picture at right. In the background is 1000-ft Inwangsan Mountain. The name literally means "mountain of generous king" in Korean. The mountain is quite spread out- a series of huge granite peaks which distinguish it from other mountains in Seoul. Each rock is named after its characteristic form.

At left is a current aerial view of the park area and you can compare it to my pictures. I expected the altars and probably the statues to still exist today, but I think it is interesting that the school does, too.

Inwangsan is famous for its views, the mountain is entirely within the ancient Fortress Wall of Seoul. I would have liked to climb up there to experience those views, but US Military are told that unless there is a marked trail or something like that, soldiers should avoid climbing random peaks anywhere around as it is hard to tell what areas are regularly patrolled by the South Korean Army.

In my picture, which looks up towards the school, you can see one of the large statues on this site; this one represents Lee Yulgok, one of the most prominent scholars and philosophers during the Joseon Dynasty who lived from 1536 to 1584.

When the 1st king of Joseon dynasty established the country, he built up the main palace in the center of Seoul. Then, he built up Jongmyo shrine on the left of the palace and Sajikdan on the right of the palace. Everyone who passes in front of the statue stops briefly and bows, especially the older people.

Two platforms surrounded grass were once used to make offerings to the god of land (Sa) and the god of grains (Jik) with the belief that the destiny of the entire nation was dependent upon the mercy of these two deities as well as the deceased royal ancestors who would be prayed for at nearby Jongmyo Shrine. These ceremonies were conducted at key moments on the Lunar calendar. Joseon rulers saw these rites as the most important of state affairs to ensure the safety and prosperity of their dynasty and performed them in February, August and in times of drought as well as in times of trouble.

The park was named in 1395 by Taejo Lee Sung-gye who made the first Sajik altar, as well as built Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo Shrine. Rites were held here regularly dating back to the Three Kingdom Period in Korea from the 4th to the 7th centuries. Under Japanese colonial rule, these rites were abolished in 1908; they have not yet been formally reintroduced. Offerings to the gods included slaughtered cattle, pig and lamb as well as grains, followed by ceremonies offering silk, welcoming the deities, offering three wines, sharing the food, and finally lighting the written prayers on fire.

There is something you should note in the picture above, right. It is that new high-rise building that you can see in the distance. It was one of the clues enabling me to trace today's route, as I took another picture of it a little later on my walk. From Sajikdan, I followed the main street, which had turned east. In the next few blocks, I took a few interesting pictures.

This large building appears to be a school, and putting it in sequence with my next pictures, it should have been located very close to Sajikdan. I have looked on current aerial views and can find no building matching it. The reason seems to be that almost every structure in the next few blocks has been replaced in the 50 years between then and now.

I saw this building on the north side of the street. Korean building construction seems to use scaffolding made of wood, which does not seem too study. I assume that the cloth stuff both protects the workers from the elements but may also protect people below from any falling debris.

In that second picture, you can also see the dome of another building in the distance. As I walk down the street, I will get closer to it and eventually get a picture of it.

On the way down the street, I saw the building at left ahead of me on the south side of the street. If you look closely, you can still see some scaffolding at the very top of the structure; the building is just now being completed. I've mentioned elsewhere that I sometimes have trouble finding things I'd photographed on aerial views from the present, but this building seemed familiar to me in the present- as if I had seen it again somewhere.

Indeed, I was able to located it on an aerial view circa 2020. On the aerial view at right of a short segment of my walk today, you can clearly see this building on the south side of the street.

Shortly after I passed that new building, I came to what looked like an old oriental gate on the north side of the street, and through the gate was the building with the domed tower that I had seen a few minutes earlier in the distance. Now things get a bit interesting. First, let's have a look at the gate itself.

Inset Picture Description

At left is my picture of the Gwanghwamun Gate, the main and largest gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace. It is located at the top of a major "T"-intersection in Seoul, and it faces down Sejongno Avenue, one of the city's major thorofares. As a landmark and symbol of Seoul's long history as the capital city during the Joseon Dynasty, the gate has gone through multiple periods of destruction and disrepair.

Here is what I wrote about the gate in my slide narratives in 1970:

"This is a decorative building in front of the Government Center in Seoul, Korea. It is a pagoda that stands in front of the large government building and although it is very old, it has been restored. The wooden roof is ornately carved and painted."

For a reason I will explain in a moment, I actually walked through one of the three openings; a couple of them were roped off, but you could go through one, and the image at right shows the beautiful and colorful ceiling decoration inside. At the time, this is what I wrote:

"This is the decorative painting on the inner roof of the arch in fron tof the Government Center. Later, you will relate the location of this arch to a broad avenue which leads into the center of the city; the arch commands a position much as our Capitol does in relation to the Mall."

Let me continue with the gate's history. Gwanghwamun was first constructed in 1395 as the main gate to Gyeongbokgung Palace, the main and most important royal palace during the Joseon Dynasty. During the 1592 Japanese invasion, it was destroyed by fire and left in ruins for over 250 years.

Gwanghwamun was reconstructed in 1867 along with the rest of Gyeongbokgung Palace by the order of regent Daewongun during the reign of Emperor Gojong. The gate stood until 1926, when the Japanese government had it deconstructed and moved it some distance away, to make way for the massive Japanese Governor General Building, which is what I walked through the gate to see.

The Korean War completely destroyed the wooden structure of Gwanghwamun, and its stone base lay in complete disrepair and neglect. In 1968, during Park Chung-hee's administration, the stone base was again relocated in front of the Japanese Governor General Building, and the wooden superstructure was also rebuilt- but in concrete (although it looked like wood to me). This was the gate as I am seeing it today.

The Japanese General Government Building was constructed in 1926 by the Empire of Japan on the site of the Gyeongbokgung complex, the royal palace of the Joseon, when Japan controlled the Korean peninsula. Until 1945, it was the seat of the Japanese Governor General. After the Japanese surrender, the building saw South Korean independence in 1948, becoming the seat of the National Assembly. It was damaged during the Korean war, but not restored until 1962 for use during government functions.

This picture, a stock photo taken in the early 1990s shows the orientation of the building; it faced down the avenue towards central Seoul. After the Korean War, the Seoul government brought the Gwanghwamun Gate back to approximately the position it had before the Japanese moved it some distance away in 1926. This was the orientation of gate and building when I took my picture of the building.

Now for the interesting thing. I returned to Seoul in 2018, and my partner and I visited Geunjeongmun Palace. We entered the grounds through the same gate you see in the right-hand photograph above. Once inside the gate, we walked north for a ways until I turned around and took the picture below.

Imagine you are on the opposite side of Gwanghwamun Gate and a short distance down the street- the vantage point of the photo at left, above. What do you notice? That's right- the Japanese General Government Building is gone!

When I took the photo at left, I was standing in the footprint of that huge building. As it turns out, in the 1980s there was a growing movement that said the building was a reminder of the time when Korea was ruled by a foreign power, and that the building should be demolished. It was- the year after the picture showing the gate and the building.

But there is something else interesting. The photo at left looks south and a bit west, which was the direction from which I came in 1970. Remember that skyscraper that you saw a picture of above? The one that had some remaining scaffolding right at the top? If you don't remember it, just click on the skyscraper in the photo at left. That skyscraper is the same one that was just being completed in September, 1970! (Although the old picture looks at it from the opposite side.) So we know its lasted for 48 years, and it looks like it's still in very good shape.

From the Gwanghwamun Gate, I turned and headed south along one of Seoul's major thorofares- Sejong-daero. This broad avenue points directly south towards Yongsan Army Post, between two and three miles away.

One of the first important buildings that I passed was on the east side of the avenue, and it was a building that I'd seen before- the US Embassy. That's the picture at left. This seems to be another building that hasn't changed much; here is a picture of it in 2020:

The US Embassy has operated in Seoul continuously since the end of the Korean War. The current chancery building was built in 1962 for USAID, but became the Embassy in 1964. The Chancery is located in the heart of downtown Seoul, in the Jongno-gu district. It is on the main street leading to the Kyongbok palace, and directly next to several major Korean government agency buildings. At the time of its construction the building was one of the tallest in Seoul and comparatively modern. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul has traditionally played a key and prominent role in South Korea politics. Issues such as the ever-present danger from North Korea, the presence of U.S. troops in South Korea, and the deference of South Korea to the U.S. have been factors that lead to such importance.

This view looks south down Sejong-daero towards central Seoul. The scene is typical of the newer areas of Seoul- wide streets, newer buildings, and well-dressed people. In this picture you can see the ubiquitous schoolchildren in their black and white uniforms. In the distance, you can see Namsan Mountain.

A bit further south down the street I looked over on the west side of the street at this interesting building with a beautiful tile mural on the front. The sign on top said "Orient Press". (I have looked for this building with the resources I have, and I don't think it exists today.)

Continuing south, I passed an impressive statue in the middle of the avenue, just north of a major intersection.

The statue of Admiral Yi Sun-sin is located at the Sejongno, Gwanghwamun Plaza in Seoul. It is dedicated to the 16th-century Korean war hero and is considered one of Seoul's major landmarks. It has been called "one of the most important instances of Korean public art".

The statue is 17 meters tall and made from bronze depicting the standing figure of the admiral, who is holding a sword in his right hand. A miniature turtle ship, a type of contemporary Korean war vessel commanded by Yi Sun-sin, is also located in front of the statue. Two models of war drums are also present near the statue.

This statue was erected in 1968 in the presence of the South Korean President. It was designed by Kim Se-jung, a sculptor and professor of art at Seoul National University, aided by the historians from the National Institute of Korean History. It was the first statue built by the Statue Establishing Committee led by Kim Jong-pil who was asked by President Park Chung Hee: “Build a statue of a person most feared and admired by the Japanese in the Sejong-no intersection.” The raising of the statue, also a part of a renovation of the Gwanghwamun Plaza, was one of the symbols of modernization and rebuilding of Korea. The armored figure of the war hero has also been considered a symbol of the then-military government of South Korea. At the time of its unveiling it was the tallest standing statue in Asia.

Next to the statue there is also a water fountain in honor of the Admiral's achievements. It is named the 12.23 Fountain, to commemorate the 23 battles he fought with 12 warships, when he led Koreans to victory during the Japanese invasions of Korea. The water jets rises to a height of 18 meters along with 300 smaller jets, which symbolize the battles he fought on the sea. A small museum is located underneath the statue.

Note from the present:
Mostly because I can, I want to show you the 2020 view of this avenue, looking north back the way I have come. You can pick out the Sun-Sin statue, and you may be able to see the Gwanghwamun Gate in the distance. At right, you can also see the next item of interest that I photographed.

At right is an oriental structure, more in the Korean style than the Japanese, that is a tribute to the 40th Anniversary Monument of Gojong’s Enthronement.

The 40th Anniversary Monument of Gojong’s Enthronement was built to honor the 40th anniversary of the crowning of Gojong as the 26th Joseon Dynasty king. Gojong became king on December 13, 1863 at the age of eleven. His father, Heungseon Daewongun, ruled for him until he was an adult in 1873.

In 1895, the wife of Gojong, known as Queen Min and Empress Myeongseong, was assassinated by the Japanese. After the assassination, Gojong, along with the Crown Prince fled from Gyeongbokgung Palace to the Russian legation for protection and for his fear of a coup d’état.

Gojong ruled the Korean government from the Russian legation for one year which outraged citizens of Korea. In 1897, Gojong left the Russian legation under rising pressure and relocated to Gyeongungung, known today as Deoksugung Palace. It was here where he proclaimed the founding of the Korean Empire, also known as the Great Han Empire. Gojong became the first Emperor of the Korean Empire.

Letters on the front of the monument were carved by Sunjong, who was Crown Prince at the time. The inscription tells how the monument honors Gojong as king and later as the first emperor of the Korean Empire.

The monument is protected by a square house that is three kan by three kan. A kan is an interval between pillars. Stone columns and a rainbow shaped gate, known as Mansemun Gate, can be found on the southern wall. The building is a reminder of the traditional architectural style of the early 20th century. During the occupation of Korea, the monument, the building, and the gate were sold to the Japanese. In 1954, the monument was returned and put back into place. It sits adjacent to the underground passage at this interesection.

Major intersections have underground passages to cross the streets. Pedestrians in Korea do not have any legal rights if they are struck by a vehicle when attempting to jaywalk outside of painted boundaries. Each major intersection has an underground passage.

I was surprised that the passages also house various little shops and stores- kind of like a little city underground.

I went down into the underground passage and walked to the other side of the street- just to see what I could see. Then I returned to the Gojong monument and continued wandering generally southward.

At left is a typical shopping area here in downtown Seoul. Note the variety of people and the wooden scaffolding.

Below is a building that had some interesting signage, as if it were the headquarters of the Tic-Tac-Toe Association of Korea. I never did find out what it was for. (But I can tell you as I create this page that the structure no longer in existence.)

As you saw on the map above, I continued wandering southward, going down whatever streets I found interesting. I also photographed what I thought interesting, and here are some of those pictures.

This view looks south towards Namsan Mountain, and you saw a photograph of that new building in the center backgroound that I took from the mountain. To orient you (no pun intended), the presidential palace is about six blocks directly behind me, and I am going to turn left now, travel for a ways, then turn and walk to the tall building.

This picture was taken from the same place. You can see Chosun Hotel in center, the New Bando on the right and its arcade on the left. I have recently been to the arcade to have a suit made ($49). If they do a good job, and they come highly recommended, perhaps I can add significantly to my wardrobe.

I passed a couple of these outdoor maps on my various walks through Seoul. They are of the "You Are Here" variety, and I can only imagine they are mostly for tourists. The road to Munsan and Howze is the one going to the upper left corner north of the river.

Instead of having to stand by the curb flagging down taxis, the people who want them queue up in ready-made brackets and taxis that are vacant stop and take the people at the head of the line. If one is adept at it, though, it is quicker to flag one down than to wait.

From this point I was generally walking south, but I wandered off down side streets, following my nose and heading towards Namsan Mountain. There was a lot to see.

This picture presents an interesting contrast- the new and the old. At left and right are high-rises that could be in Chicago or New York. These are popping up all over Seoul. Between them are older, low buildings, and it was these areas that I found most interesting. The cars, mostly Japanese, seemed all to be basically the same size.

Most people in Seoul get around on the bus, and there are an amazing number of them- all of them, it seemed, putting out inordinate amounts of sooty smoke. The girl in blue and white is a "bus hostess"; she calls out where the bus is headed and how much the fare is. She also knows when the bus is already full to overflowing. She takes the fares also, giving the bus driver more time to devote to running down pedestrians.

Some of you who live in large cities (New York comes immediately to mind) are familiar with "pushcart" vendors who sell one thing or another out of movable carts. In Korea, they seem to be an institution. On almost every street one finds these kinds of vendors selling everything under the sun.

Here is one of these "small proprietors". Her store is simplicity itself- a flat board on a stand covered with the goods she has for sale. It seemed that all of these vendors sold a variety of unrelated items, and it also seemed as if any given vendor had only one or two of something.

Now, in some cases, these operations might be classified as being part of the "black market". I have seen some of these vendors selling things that were fairly obviously part of US Army supplies- from paper and pencils to food. I can only suppose that someone diverted the goods at some point, and then sold them to the vendors for them to sell in turn.

But I guess that many of the vendors were just reselling some goods they were able to purchase wholesale or get on consignment. None of these items were very expensive. I suppose they were all items that passersby might prefer to pick up quickly from a vendor rather than go into a store to try to find them.

But there is something else very interesting here. If this were a pushcart vendor, the goods would be in the cart, which would usually be at waist level. If someone were to stop to look over the goods, they could conveniently do so standing up, and the entire transaction would be done that way, as the vendor would also be standing up or maybe sitting on a stool or something. Not here.

Any time a Korean, man or woman, wants to stop and do something where it is not convenient to stand, they drop quickly into a full squat, like the woman and her two customers are doing here. People in Korea do this all the time, and they do it for extended periods. It is not a position we are used to being in, and it is something of a curiosity how Koreans can get into and hold this position for as long as they do. I tried it, and it's not easy, and I'm fairly young.

But I know how they do it- they practice it from a very young age. When you are small, and there is not much weight to support, I am told it is easy. Youngsters do it so much that, as they grow, they also develop the strong leg and hip muscles that the position requires. Keeping your balance is also hard, but not when you learn it as a toddler.

It also requires a lot of practice to keep your balance- particularly if one was chubby. Of course, I hardly ever saw overweight Koreans, and I have no idea how hard it might be for big people to sit in this position. Do they squat because they're thin, or are they thin because they don't sit in chairs very much at all? No idea.

I thought the goods themselves were interesting, so I have expanded the image to focus in on them. On the woman's small "tray" she has both Korean and assorted American goods. You can see the Ivory soap, and there are such things as gum, ribbons, and other little sundries.

Anyone who can get his hands on some of this merchandise just sets up a little stand and goes into business. People stop and haggle over a price as a matter of course, as this couple are doing. It is most incongruous to see a well-dressed couple like this stopping to buy from one of these vendors.

It is hard to express how interesting it was to simply walk the streets of this, the most foreign city I had ever visited. Perhaps if I had previously visited the "Chinatowns" of San Francisco or Los Angeles I might not have found Seoul so exotic, but it was, and I did. Take a look at these city scenes:

This is one of the newer streets where one can transact any sort of business and buy and sell anything. I got my contact lenses in the building at left, and across the street you can buy a piano, go to a nightclub, or get a new winder wardrobe, all in separate little establishments. There is a permanent building boom in Seoul.

On this side street, the variety of people and activities is endless. Here you can see the contrast between old and new in women's clothing. Women are all well-dressed, it seems, in the city. I understand clothing is relatively inexpensive, and almost all the women, especially the younger ones, dress very well.

This section of the city is a good one, and you will see the population well-dressed, and the shops, though small, neat and clean. There is a great difference between this, and the poorer sections, where shops are smaller, the people poorer, and the city dirtier and shabbier. But I suppose that's true everywhere.

I want to use this picture to comment on Korean dress. Women tend to dress traditionally, like the woman in the Korean version of a kimono, or in the Western style, like the woman standing with her. Most women dressing in the Western style favored simple, A-line dresses. For men, the dark suit is de rigeur, as was, oddly enough, white socks. The gentleman with the cream-colored trousers shows the "casual" style for men. I never saw a Korean wearing blue jeans.

This, I suppose, is the kind of street Americans visualize as the typical street in an Oriental city. You can imagine the variety variety to be found in each of those little shops stretching off as far as you can see. Most streets were like this- almost pedestrian malls. Obviously, though, some vehicles make their way through the throngs.

In case you are interested, I investigated a good many of the shops, using a phrase Dr. Kim showed me to indicate I was just looking around, not ready to buy anything. A good piano costs 210,000 Won, or about $700. A stereo I paid $228 for in the PX can be bought here for a little over $400 (even so, the same thing in a stereo store at home would be much more). On this particular day I wandered around for hours, and have been back many times since with friends.

Here is a different kind of "street"- actually little more than an alley. As you go deeper into the centers of blocks, the streets subdivide until there is very little room at all. Many shopkeepers live in their stores, and this alley leads to the back entrances to some of them. Note the impromptu restaurant- literally a single table and a couple of chairs.

Here are two men sitting outside playing Go. As you can see, chairs are not unheard of- particularly when doing something like this which might take hours. The game has something to do with blocking off the other guy and winning his colored markers, as near as I could tell from watching them. Like a pair of senior citizens in the park playing checkers, except that most everyone seems to be able to play.

The two men in the picture above are interesting for another reason- their dress. You can tell, from the fact that they aren't wearing dark suits, that they are not "office workers". (In Japan, these workers are called "salarymen".) They might have been store proprietors taking a break, or perhaps just on their day off, or something. But they illustrate casual dress for adult men- trousers and an open dress shirt without tie.

This is the display window of a small Korean restaurant. The dishes served inside are shown in the window, so you can see exactly what it is you are going to get.

Shielding her eyes from the sun, this Korean woman and her friend lead a child on a shopping trip. Both women are in the traditional dress which, when worn as a daily outfit, indicates a higher class of living. I am told that the traditional outfits are expensive to buy and maintain.

On the topic of eating "street food", it is not advised that US personnel patronize these little places because of possible contamination of the water and questionable sanitary practices. However, when walking down the narrow streets, the smells are most enticing, and one is tempted to take a chance. (Note: I can report here that on some of my walks I did indeed try some of the impromptu "restaurants", but I took care to only eat food that I'd seen actually cooked in front of me, shying away from uncooked vegetables and such. To my knowledge, I never had an adverse reaction to food I ate on my walks.)

As I got further south, I came out onto a broader street just north of Namsan Mountain, which I've visited before and which you've seen pictures from already. You should recognize the tall white building at left; I took some pictures from there of the area I am walking through now.

Nearby was the department store I'd also photographed earlier, which sits at an intersection with a fountain in the middle. Some intersections have pedestrian overpasses, like this one, instead of subterranean passageways.

On this page, I want to repeat a picture I took on a previous visit to Namsan Mountain, because it shows you just where I am at the moment.

At left is that picture (rather, a section of it) taken from Namsan Mountain. In the center you can see a string of what look like orange globes; these were strung along and above the department store for some kind of promotion that it was running.

I decided to go inside the store just to see what it was like, and I ended up taking some pictures you might be interested in. To get the most out of them, I need to show them in a large size. To do that, I've provided below a set of four small images for these four pictures. To see the large version of each of them, just click on one of the little images. The large picture will pop up for you to look at. Just close each of those windows when you're done.

(Note that in many of the pictures, you can see the same orange globes hanging from the ceiling!)

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

The department store was interesting, but inside looked much like any other department store I'd been in, with the typical departments selling the typical things. One unusual scene, though, was the white-shirted man handing out bags of rice to shoppers who wanted to buy them. I could only imagine the bags were fairly heavy. Coming out of the store, I saw just down the street another of the gates that Seoul is famous for and which are sprinkled around the city. Like others, this one was in the middle of a large intersection.

Sungnyemun Gate

Namdaemun (officially "Sungnyemun") Gate (lit. "Honoring Propriety Gate"), is one of the Eight Gates in the Fortress Wall of Seoul, which surrounded the city in the Joseon dynasty. The gate, dating back to the 14th century, is a historic pagoda-style gateway, and is designated as the first National Treasure of South Korea. It was once one of the three major gateways through Seoul's city walls which had a stone circuit of over 11 miles and was up to 20 feet high. It was first built in the last year of King Taejo of Joseon's reign in 1398, and rebuilt in 1447.

Namdaemun (English, "Southern Great Gate") is commonly believed to have been the name imposed forcibly under the Japanese Empire, and therefore should not be used. However, Joseon dynasty annals indicate that naming the eight gates of Seoul after their respective directions was common colloquial usage before the Japanese arrived.

Namdaemun is indeed the oldest wooden structure in Seoul. The city gate, made of wood and stone with a two-tiered, pagoda-shaped tiled roof, was completed in 1398 and originally used to greet foreign emissaries, control access to the capital city, and keep out Siberian tigers, which have long been gone from the area. Construction began in 1395 during the fourth year of the reign of King Taejo of Joseon and was finished in 1398. The structure was rebuilt in 1447, during the 29th year of King Sejong the Great's reign, and has been renovated several times since. It was originally one of three main gates, the others being the East Gate (Dongdaemun) and the West Gate (Seodaemun).

In the early part of the 20th century, the city walls that surrounded Seoul were demolished to make the traffic system more efficient. A visit to Seoul by the Crown Prince of Japan prompted the demolition of the walls around Namdaemun, as the prince was deemed to be too exalted to pass through the gateway. The gate was closed to the public in 1907 after the authority constructed an electric tramway nearby. Namdaemun was extensively damaged during the Korean War and was given its last major repair in 1961, with a completion ceremony held on 14 May 1963. It was given the status of "National Treasure No. 1" on 20 December 1962.

Another short distance away, I came across a tall building that was still under construction (note the scaffolding near the outside entrance at left), and as I saw other people going in and out, I thought I would go in to see what the new building looked like inside.

Again, I can show you exactly where this building was because I took a picture of it from Namsan Mountain a few weeks ago; it is the tall building in the picture at right.

You have also seen this building in an earlier picture on this same page. It sits just north of the street I am walking on, which is the one in the picture that turns into a bridge near the base of the skyscraper. My route will be taking me across this bridge presently.

Anyway, when I got inside, I found that the building was actually already open, and there were lots of people going up in the new, modern elevators. Oddly, there was a sign in the lobby advertising "Cafe Floor 17", and so I got the idea to take the elevator up to that floor. Perhaps, I thought, there will be some windows where I could look out and get some pictures of the nearby cityscape.

As it turned out, that was exactly what I was able to do. The cafe, presumably for the building's workers, was quite busy, and so I was able to walk around unobtrusively to look out the windows and take some pictures. (I also saw a delicious-looking pastry being served, so I bought one and sat down to have a snack.) Here are a couple of the pictures I took (a little dark because the glass was tinted.

I headed back down to the lobby and left the building, which looked to me inside to be just like any office building in the States. Then I started walking across the street bridge as I continued south.

Just out onto the bridge, I found this streetside psychic giving palm "readings". This woman's trip to or from the market with a load of food was interrupted by this palmist. She is apparently enjoying the reading he is giving her, although her small boy could not be less concerned.

Then I passed this area, one of the poorer areas that lay behind the facade of a new and modern Seoul. This area is a far cry from areas like Dr. Kim's, although he lives less than a half-mile from this spot. One of the girls in the window motioned for me to wait to take the shot so she could get her sisters.

If you'd like to get a better view of the three people in the window, just click on them.

What made my walks even more interesting was, as I said above, the curiosity that Americans seemed to engender on the part of the Koreans- most particularly the children, who would gather around at every opportunity.

Here are some Korean children playing a game on a side street. I don't know what game the three kids were playing, but I could not get their attention until I gave them some gum. Even then I only got two out of three.

I'm covered! Forced at gun point to photograph these four kids who appear to be almost Western. It seems that every individual under the age of fifteen has a desire to be recorded on film, although getting adults to stand still for candid shots is another matter entirely.

It was getting late, and I wanted to have dinner at Yongsan's Officer's Open Mess, so I continued past Namsan Mountain heading south towards the Eighth Army compound. I got some additional interesting (or quirky) pictures on the way:

Here's a novel way to carry one's infant child. I imagine is would be easier on the woman's back to use a baby carriage, but the boy does not seem to notice.

Here is a very typical street scene quite near the Yongsan Eighth Army compound.

I made some detours into the rabbit warren of little alleyways and at one point ran across this ersatz farmer's market. This is not a main market, and certainly not very clean, but it is one way goods are bought and sold in Korea.

I am walking directly towards Yongsan now, and the main streets are nicer. Just down the street from the entrance to Yongsan that I normally use is one of the local fire departments. Yongsan has its own; so this one must serve an area outside the compound.

Today's walk was one of the most enjoyable so far. But what I really need to do is to get further off the beaten path, and perhaps go up some of the hillsides to see how many people live.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	October 3, 1970: A Football Game at Camp Red Cloud
	September 19, 1970: At Dr. Kim's/Namsan Mountain
	Return to Index for 1970