April 28, 1971 (approximate): A Money Run to Seoul
	April 1 & 17, 1971: Second Division Moves to Camp Casey
	Return to the Index for 1971

As I have done frequently since I have been in-country, I am taking advantage of another Saturday afternoon to make a trip into Seoul. With the move of the Second Division HQ to Casey, I am some distance from the flagpole, and so am more in control of my own time. Still, I can't just take off on a weekday; that would surely be the one time that MAJ Henderson would try to get hold of me.

As usual, when I go into Seoul, my plan is to head down to the kimchi bus stop along about mid-morning. I usually have something to do in the office on Saturday, so I always plan to spend an hour or two there on Saturday mornings. But by ten or ten-thirty I am down at the bus stop, which is actually a mile up the road in the little town of Bong-il-cheon. I think maybe the bus stops in the little town that is just outside the gates of Camp Howze, but up at the bus stop I can get on the bus that is parked beside the sign that says "Seoul City"; I am not sure I know the Korean that is displayed on the front of the bus.

The inside of a modern Korean bus is pretty similar to the inside of any other bus, and so the picture at left is probably unnecessary. Still and all, the bus is comfortable and runs on time. The term "kimchi bus" refers to the older buses that run on rural routes (and many routes into Seoul). These buses are less modern, and seem to spew an inordinate amount of smoke and exhaust. It is a crapshoot as to which bus you'll get at any particular time. This morning I was fortunate to get a newer one.

I have said this before, but my typical ride into Seoul (when I am going on my own as a civilian) begins with the walk to Bong-il-cheon and the bus ride southeast towards Seoul. In all my rides into the city, it seems as if the bus does not always take the same route through the countryside, and so I doubt I could direct a taxi to get me home (which is why I usually take a military bus from Yongsan after dinner.

Whichever route the bus follows, it always enters central Seoul through the West Gate (Donuimun), one of the Eight Gates of Seoul in the Fortress Wall that surrounded the city in the Joseon Dynasty. I did not photograph that gate today, as I have previously done so on some of the money runs into town that I made to pick up or drop off cash at Yongsan.

The city, of course, no longer ends at the Fortress Wall; indeed, most of the Fortress Wall no longer exists (and a few of the gates don't, either). The actual gates, now some 500 years old, typically stand in the middle of wide boulevards now, and are considered historical monuments.

I usually take the bus through (or by) the gate and then about a mile down the road we come to a major bus stop. Although the bus I am on continues almost to Yongsan, I always get off at this major stop (marked on the map with a red star) and then walk the rest of the way to the Yongsan Compound. I do this because it gives me a chance to take a different route each time, wandering through this neighborhood and that, across hillsides, and past major historical and cultural sites. I can usually see Namsan Mountain in the center of Seoul from just about anywhere I am, and I know that Yongsan is not far from it. So getting lost is not an issue.

Note from 2021:
I would like to be able to show you maps or aerial views with the actual routes I have taken through the city, but at this point the resources that are available to me now show Seoul as it is today, not as it was fifty years ago. Save for the historical or cultural sites I have already shown you in this album that still exist today (and a few other buildings and streets that are also still in existence) however, trying to do so has been relatively unsuccessful. But not knowing exactly where my pictures were taken will not, I hope, keep you from finding them interesting.

That said, this is not one of those times, as I have been able to match two of my pictures from this afternoon's walk to actual locations in Seoul. The first of these was the image below, right.

Okcheonam

In the narrative I sent home, I described this picture as "This is some sort of religious shrine on the hillside of a creek that runs down from Crown mountain on the outskirts of Seoul, Korea." I recalled that I had left the bus stop and walked generally eastward along a hillside to get to a point where I might find good views out over the city.

So in creating this page, I looked at the aerial view on Google Maps and worked my way along the hillside that I thought I might have traversed. Lo and behold, I found that when I zoomed in enough, the exact spot I had photographed was actually labeled on the aerial view.

You can see what I found if you click on the small yellow square on the aerial view above, left. When the closer-up image pops up, note that I have marked the Okcheonam itself, and have located on the aerial view the spot where the women were washing clothes in my image.

Okcheonam, 2020

The site is called Okcheonam. The Rock-carved Seated Bodhisattva of Okcheonam Hermitage in Seoul is a large Buddhist image (over five meters tall) coated with white shell pigment, which has earned it such nicknames as the “White Buddha of Bodogak Hall” or "White-clad Avalokitesvara". One of the oldest records of the image can be found in Yongjae chonghwa (A Collection of Writings by Yongjae) written by Seong Hyeon (1439-1504).

The image is a realistic depiction of the characteristic features of a bodhisattva, including the graceful lines of the hands displaying the dharmacakra mudra and the heavenly robe draped across both shoulders and falling to the chest where it forms X-shaped folds. It nicely preserves the typical features of Buddhist sculpture of late Goryeo, making it a good source of knowledge on Korean Buddhist sculpture of that period.

I think it interesting to note the changes that have been made around the sculpture and the building that houses it in the last 50 years. But it is also interesting to note what has NOT changed, and that is MOST of what I photographed in 1971. Of course, Seoul has modernized enough so that I expect that none of its residents need to bring their clothes to the small creek that runs along Okcheonam to wash them.

So, I can place at least the first part of my walk using the location of Okcheonam. The next waypoint, however, was mundane enough so that I needed some help to locate it.

All I knew about the picture at left was what I wrote home about it in 1971: "This is a building just north of the main entrance to the Yongsan Garrison. I am not sure just what it is, but no one seems to be around today. That's Namsan Mountain in the background."

As I have done before, I decided to send a copy of this picture to a couple of organizations in Seoul that deal with the history of the city- one museum that seems to have an extensive image collection, and one historical society. Fortunately, both organizations had email addresses.

It took a few days, but the museum emailed back that the building, which is no longer there, was actually a Seoul City office building that was indeed in the district near Yongsan. The museum told me that according to their records, the building and the surrounding area has been completely redeveloped and is now right in the middle of the new, modern downtown Seoul core.

So these two waypoints enabled me to "connect the dots" on today's walk through Seoul down to Yongsan. I did take some other pictures today, but none of them are identifiable. I suspect that much of what you will see in them either no longer exists or has been modified out of easy recognition or comparison to my photos. So I will just include these other photos with the exact narrative that I sent home to accompany them:

This would be classified as a suburban area, and gives you an idea of how barren things are, and how close together everything is built.

From the top of the ridge of hills that form the northern edge of the city, I can look down on some of the nicest homes in Seoul. This one, for example, looks as if it could have been in Southern California, with rock pool, putting green, aviary and air-conditioning. This is about as upper class as the upper class gets in Korea.

This, I think, is the best view of the entire city that I have, taken from about the same place as the last shot. Off in the distance you can see Namsan Mountain in the middle of the city from which I have taken many other pictures and, if you look closely, on the right hand slope you can see a domed building that you have seen and will see in other pictures. Yongsan is on the other side of that hill.

Some of the typical residential areas of the city, taken from near where the picture at left was shot. This is an amazing contrast. In the lower left is the home of someone obviously wealthy, with privacy and a relatively expansive area of living space. On the other hand, you can see behind it the apartment building of a class of people quite lower. They did have one think in common- they both enjoyed a view.

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

	April 28, 1971 (approximate): A Money Run to Seoul
	April 1 & 17, 1971: Second Division Moves to Camp Casey
	Return to the Index for 1971