September 5, 1970: A Visit to Blue Lancer Valley
	August 15, 1970: A Visit to the Buddhas at Yongmi-ri
	Return to the Index for 1970

Today I am going on an excursion to Yongsan in Seoul. This won't be a money run or an official trip, but one of my friends, an officer over in the motor pool, wanted to go into Yongsan to the grand opening of the new PX. He and a couple of other guys want to see if some stuff they want is going to be available. So he's used his "pull" to sign out a jeep and driver from the motor pool to run us into the city and back. I also am looking for some stereo stuff and some camera lenses, so I am going along.

You've seen a map showing the routes from Camp Howze into Yongsan on an earlier page. Since I can't be at all sure of the exact route the bus took from the stop out by the road at Camp Howze and the stop near Yongsan (basically just the central bus stop in Seoul), it doesn't seem worthwhile to repeat it here.

The nice thing about riding in the jeep is that there is no top, and so there is nothing to get in the way of picture-taking. I can also sit up high in the back seat to see over LT Moss and the driver.

In my first picture at left, you can see a typical major street in the northern outskirts of the city.

This drive wasn't like a money run; we had no sirens and no escort and so we had to obey all the usual traffic rules. We left that to our driver, and he stayed pretty much within the lines, but wasn't above crossing the double yellow line (if there was one) to get around some congestion.

At this busy intersection you can see some of the highway construction going in in Seoul, probably in conjunction with the new expressway to Pusan.

We are coming down from an overpass and merging onto a busy street.

Our purpose was to go to the PX, and as soon as we got to Yongsan, that's exactly what we did. We weren't the only ones there, of course. Our driver parked the jeep and stayed with it while we went to try to be some of the first people in the new store.

This looks a lot like any Grand Opening of a store in the States. There were a lot of other servicemen trying to be among the first in the store as well. While you can order what you want from the PACEX catalog, it can take a month or more to get it.

Here's another scene from the Grand Opening. That's Namsan Mountain in the background, which is a popular place to visit. I will be doing that sometime soon.

We were able to get in fairly early, but our success rate was spotty. A couple of guys did find what they wanted, but not nearly everything. I was able to find some filters and a wide-angle lens for my new Nikon camera. A month ago I'd ordered a new tape deck, and I was curious to see if they had it. When we all returned to the jeep, we found our driver with a few other KATUSAs who'd been pressed into service from other bases north of Seoul. We gave him some time to relax while we compared notes on what we'd found. About 90 minutes later we were headed back to Camp Howze.

At left is some of the new construction in downtown Seoul. Even in the couple of months I have been here, I can see that Seoul, at least, is undergoing a transformation. Here is a large complex being built; there seems to be a parking garage, a mall or shopping area, and a highrise office tower.

Note from the present:
This was one of those pictures I thought I might be able to identify, given the conjunction of a new building, which could conceivably last for a half-century, and a nearby church. So I started looking at Churches in downtown Seoul, and while I found some with steeples like the one I could see, none had such an office complex nearby. The closest match was the Seoul Cathedral, but it is at least now in the middle of a parklike setting.

I suppose it is possible that even this new building could have been torn down and replaced in fifty years, so I couldn't really be sure. I would give a lot to know just where this picture was taken, but I've found no reliable tourist or historical source to ask.

There is a lot of highway construction in Seoul, which is good, because the traffic in the city is pretty bad most times. There aren't a lot of private cars now, but that's changing.

On the outskirts of Seoul, I am looking up a hill from the street. Notice that the houses go partway up the hill, until it is too rocky to build any higher. How those buildings get services I have no idea. Much of northern Seoul is composed of these rocky hills. It does look like they might be fun to explore.

Outside the city, now, we are heading north along the main road. The weather was quite nice and I got some good pictures. While we are headed only to Bongilcheon, the road is known to servicemen and their drivers as the highway to Munsan, the first town of any size at all (actually, the largest town between Seoul and the border).

We had an interesting excursion into town. I know it was a workday, but things are typically pretty slow in the Finance Office except and mid-month and end-of-month, so Colonel Fuentes was OK with me taking part of the day to make the trip.

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

	September 5, 1970: A Visit to Blue Lancer Valley
	August 15, 1970: A Visit to the Buddhas at Yongmi-ri
	Return to Index for 1970