May, 1971: Seven Events in May
	April 28, 1971: A Money Run to Seoul
	Return to the Index for 1971

On the first Saturday in May, Stuart MacIntosh (my cashier in the Class B Office) and I made a trip into Seoul. We intended to use this beautiful mild afternoon to visit Namsan Mountain and then have dinner at the Officer's Club restaurant before heading back to Howze.

At left is a map of a small area of downtown Seoul, and on it I have marked the location of Namsan Mountain Park and also the Eighth Army Yongsan post a bit south of that towards the river. The two are a little over a mile apart. Below is an aerial view (circa 2020) of the Namsan facilities:

You really won't be able to do much correlating between that aerial view and the pictures I took today; in the space of a half-century, many of the facilities that we saw at Namsan have been radically altered. For example, the bandshell that you will see seems to be gone, and I cannot find any reference to the large greenhouse that was also situated at the base of the mountain.

Namsan Mountain ("South Mountain") is an 860 ft. peak in the Jung-gu district of south central Seoul. Although known as Mongmyeoksan in the past, it is now commonly referred to as Mt. Namsan. It offers some hiking, picnic areas and views of downtown Seoul's skyline. The N Seoul Tower is located on top of Mt. Namsan.

The mountain and its surrounding area is Namsan Park, a public park maintained by the city government, which has panoramic views of Seoul. It is also the location Gravity of a smoke signal station called Mongmyeoksan Bongsudae' (Mongmyeoksan Beacon Tower), which is part of an emergency communication system that has been used for centuries and is still used today. From 1925 to 1945 the Shinto shrine known as Chōsen Jingū was situated on Mt. Namsan.

Mt. Namsan has been, and remains, one of Seoul's premier attractions, and on nice days it can be extremely crowded, with thousands of people taking advantage of the facilities there- including the cable car to the top and the hiking trails to the peak for the more athletic or adventurous.

I recall that at some point, when someone mentioned Namsan Mountain in the Finance Office, Mr. Ko said that it is mentioned in South Korea's National Anthem. (NOTE from 2022: Having read that note in my picture records, I went and looked up the lyrics to the anthem online, and indeed the second verse translates to: "As the pine atop Namsan Peak stands firm, unchanged through wind and frost, as if wrapped in armor, so shall our resilient spirit.")

This is the most prominent building among those of the Namsan complex, and it can be seen from most of downtown Seoul. On the ground floor of this building were facilities that were being used by the patrons attending the park, such as a restaurant and such, and on the top of the building there is another restaurant. But as to the intervening floors, we just aren't sure.

We actually went into the building and found an accessible public elevator up to the restaurant on top, so we went up just to see what we could see. Stepping out, we found the restaurant quite busy, but we just stepped off to the side to one of the panoramic windows to get this view of the western part of Seoul.

From the restaurant, we could see most of the facilities here on the mountain's lower slope- including the cable car station, the playgrounds, the bandshell, and the park areas.

This is a good view looking up Namsan Mountain from the facilities on its lower slope. This structure was a greenhouse or arboretum, and inside were many tropical plants. You can see how busy the mountain is today.

But it is interesting to look up towards the top of the mountain. In my investigations in 2022, I saw that a structure called the "N Seoul Tower" sits atop the mountain. You can look at pictures of it online; it looks like a much smaller version of Tokyo Tower. Anyway, I was puzzled by the Wikipedia article that said the tower was constructed in 1969, because here, in this 1971 picture, the tower does not appear.

What DOES appear looks to be the tower under construction. In the present-day pictures of the structure, there is a lower section that is, essentially, a round tube, and I am pretty sure, looking at this picture, that the round concrete structure you see here is the N Seoul Tower's lower section. So I think the Wikipedia article is wrong; looking at the current pictures of the tower, I would guess that it is going to take another year or so to complete.

What Stuart and I plan to do is to make the traditional hike to the top of Namsan Mountain- something many hundreds of Koreans also seem to be doing today.

In this excellent picture, you can see the route up the mountain- and it clogged with other climbers. The trail begins around the back of the greenhouse.

From partway up the trail, I am looking back down at the bandshell and some of the park area at the base of Namsan.

I probably should have taken more pictures on the way up the mountain, but the trail was fairly narrow and there were so many people on it that it was tough to stop, look back, and compose a picture. So I actually took most of my pictures after we got to the top.

This is the only other picture I took from partway up, and shows an activity available here for the less energetic.

From just about at the top, here is what I think is the N Seoul Tower under construction.

From the top, here is a view of the western area of downtown Seoul.

The highest place on the top is a metal platform, and it was always crowded. I photographed this Korean woman renting little telescopes. Her expression was strikingly careworn.

At the top of Namsan Mountain, we noticed a group of Koreans that were, apparently, part of a wedding party.

If indeed the group just had, or was going to, participate in a wedding, I guess this would be a popular place for it.

On top of Nam-san there are observation platforms, and there was one particular scene that called out to me- the photograph above, left, of the old woman renting binoculars. She had the most care-worn expression I had seen, and it made an impact on me. I didn't spoil her privacy by taking her picture; I used my telephoto lens and was actually a good distance away.

It is certainly true that even the most blase American at times feels something for the Koreans, particularly those individuals whose lives appear to those of us who have never known deprivation to be hopeless at best. One does not see these faces too often, for these people can be supposed not to have the wherewithal to visit those places tourists are likely to go. The woman with the little banana stand that you saw on an earlier page was one example, and this woman was another. Whether she was renting the binoculars or what I just don't know, but her countenance impressed me as few things did in Korea.

I was really glad that we chose to hike up here. It was good exercise and the views were pretty neat. A couple of these views are below. I can easily see why so many people come here when the weather is nice.

Here is Stuart MacIntosh on his way down from the top of Namsan Mountain.

Here I am on my way down from the top of Namsan Mountain.

Here are two more pictures that kind of go together. Both show the fountain that is in the park at the base of Namsan Mountain. One shows a view of the fountain and the tall building next to it, taken from high up on the trail down from the top of the mountain. The other was taken just before we left Namsan to head down to Yongsan.

Walking towards Yongsan, I was impressed with the new construction that has gone up just in the eleven months that I have been here. This is one of the newest buildings in downtown Seoul.

The Remains of the Kimchi Cabana

I suppose that I should have commented earlier that Stuart and I planned to eat at the Kimchi Cabana, a restaurant on the Yongsan compound which specializes in native cooking. The food is quite good and we had got our appetites up for it.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, we found that the building had burned to the ground. This explained the smokiness that we had noticed in the air all day.

We ended up eating at the Officers Open Mess instead, where we met a couple of other soldiers who had also come into the city for the day. Since there were four of us, we decided to share a kimchi cab back to Howze.

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

	May, 1971: Seven Events in May
	April 24, 1971: A Saturday Trip to Seoul
	Return to the Index for 1971