The Rapid Changing Face of Korea.

For those that have been stationed in Korea may be surprised at the massive changes taking place.

Itaewon: Land values to shoot up as Yongsan Garrison vacates

By Ashley Rowland and Hwang Hae-rym,
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition,
Sunday, January 4, 2009

SEOUL — Go to Seoul 20 years from now, and chances are you won’t recognize what you see in the heart of the city: A grand, massive public park, reminiscent of New York City’s Central Park or London’s Hyde Park.

At least, that’s what Seoul city planners want you to see on the land that now belongs to U.S. Army Garrison-Yongsan.

The 630-acre military base is scheduled to return to South Korean control in 2012, along with all other U.S. bases in and north of Seoul. Troops stationed at those bases will move south to Camp Humphreys near Pyeongtaek.

South Korean government agencies and Seoul argued for years over what to do with Yongsan’s land. Sell it off in parcels, making a profit as new businesses and apartments go up? Or, turn it into a public park?

The park idea won, although the city has no timeline for building it.

A Seoul official said it’s impossible to estimate the value of that land. But real estate in the districts bordering Yongsan is more expensive than most other areas in the city.

For instance, an average-sized three bedroom, two bathroom apartment in Daebangdong, a mid-range Seoul neighborhood, costs $408,000. Some of the newest high-rise apartments being built outside the base cost more than $1 million.

Catherine Lutz, a Brown University professor who studies the effect military bases have on their communities, said servicemembers’ incomes and buying habits shape the neighborhoods where they live and work. If they make less or more money than the people who already live there, they can depress or raise housing prices.

And since U.S. troops tend to be young males, retail tends to be fast food, pawn shops, souvenir shops, and the sex industry, especially in areas where most soldiers are single or on unaccompanied tours.

"It is not at all surprising, then, that as the U.S. soldiers move out of Itaewon, the real estate values go up and shops which can afford high rents move in," she said in an e-mail.

Yongsan has both helped and hurt Seoul’s economy, according to Park Jong-gu, a tourism professor at Dongguk University who studied Yongsan’s economic impact on the city for the Seoul Development Institute. In a 2004 report, he said the base had created jobs for Koreans and helped boost the local economy, but it had also prevented development because it takes up a large chunk of space in the geographic heart of the city.

Back then he predicted that Itaewon’s economy was faltering. The neighborhood’s reputation as a shopping mecca was fading because of its poor-quality merchandise, and because police were cracking down on the sale of fake brand-name goods typically sold there, he said.

Today, Park says Itaewon’s future is brighter because the area is becoming more diverse, catering to more than just the American military population. He said businesses in the area must continue to market themselves to people with money to spend if Itaewon is to remain trendy, he said. "Creating a luxurious environment is critical," he said.

Itaewon: Troops remember a place known for its vices

By Ashley Rowland,
Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition
Sunday, January 4, 2009

SEOUL — The day James Hiden arrived in Seoul for inprocessing in 1986, the 18-year-old caught a taxi to Itaewon, where he was overwhelmed by the tailor shops and sneakers on sale for $8.

"I could not resist the Korean food, and I was fascinated by the sight of go-go dancers," he said. "When you’re 18 years old, you feel the freedom of being far away from home."

Hiden, like many current and former U.S. troops who e-mailed Stars and Stripes for this report, remembers his first visit to Itaewon with nostalgia. For many, the tour in South Korea was their first taste of life outside the United States.

They said the often-dirty, often-seedy bar and restaurant district, packed with soldiers, was where they felt comfortable and where many shaped their perceptions of the country.

Roland Keller lived in South Korea three times, first as a child in the late 1950s and early 1960s and later as a soldier.

He remembers mud paths, filthy streets and animal-drawn carts.

"Bikes and cabs were the only things running around with wheels," he said.

By the late 1970s, when Keller commanded the Army’s Camp Liberty Bell at the demilitarized zone, little had changed in Itaewon, although there were new buildings, brick sidewalks and fewer animals on the streets.

But when he returned 10 years later, the streets were much cleaner, and there was a new four-story department store, hotels and other stores where his teenage children loved shopping. There were also more cars.

"In 1988, the traffic in most of Seoul was bumper-to-bumper but in Itaewon it was always gridlock," he said.

Many remember Itaewon fondly.

"The dollar was worth a fortune back then, or at least it seemed, and the places we shopped had some great deals," said Richard Trupiano, who was 18 when he was stationed at a radar outpost at the DMZ in 1983.

Randy Ford, a retired first sergeant who was stationed in South Korea four times between 1976 and 1995, said he "loved Korea and the people."

He remembers eating greasy mandoo from a sidewalk stand, or chop chae at a restaurant at the bottom of so-called "Hooker Hill." Sometimes, an older woman working at one of the popular nightclubs would give his friends a round of beers for free.

He said he would stretch out on the seats inside Hamilton Hotel’s disco and sleep to avoid breaking the military’s curfew. At 5 a.m., after curfew, he and his friends would buy coffee and a newspaper, then wait for a bus back to their base.

"There was an old beggar we called halaboji (grandfather) and we gave him our change and took him with us to eat sometimes," Ford said. "In the winter of 1980, we bought him a coat."

Prostitution in Itaewon was widely accepted and controlled by U.S. military and South Korean police. Sex workers were required to carry veneral disease cards.

If a soldier caught a sexually transmitted disease, he told military police what club he had been to and what woman he had been with.

"Many times, the soldier might not even know who he had been with, and many of the ‘contacts’ were just, ‘Miss Kim, black hair, slim build, streetwalker,’ " said Ford, who helped check VD cards.

After soldiers located the prostitutes, those who were "hot" or who had forged VD cards were sent to the "monkey house" in Sinchon, where they were locked in for seven to 10 days until they had been treated, Ford said.

Sometimes, Ford had to go to a brothel and sort through the VD cards to find one suspected of having a sexually transmitted disease. The older women in charge of the brothels welcomed him with soft drinks and snacks.

Itaewon: What's in a name?

Itaewon has long been known as the foreigner’s neighborhood in South Korea.

The area got its name more than four centuries ago, when invading Japanese troops broke into a Buddhist temple there and raped the nuns.

When the Korean government returned to Seoul after the invasion, it allowed nuns who had gotten pregnant to live and raise their babies there at a nursery established for them.

The area was named I Tae Won. "I" means "different," "Tae" means "fetus," and "Won" means "home." Some Japanese troops who surrendered at the end of the war settled in Itaewon, establishing a permanent foreign presence there.

During the 1600s, Itaewon’s name came to mean "large pear tree" because of the trees planted there. There isn’t a single remaining pear tree in Itaewon.

Itaewon is know home to most of Seoul’s expat population.

Itaewon: Koreans embrace Seoul’s ‘exotic’ district

By Ashley Rowland and Hwang Hae-rym,
Stars and Stripes Pacific edition,
Sunday, January 4, 2009

SEOUL — Kuk Moon-kyun chose an unlikely home for her boutique flower shop — a central Seoul neighborhood famed as a hangout for American soldiers who were more likely to spend their money on beer and prostitutes than expensive flower arrangements.

Before she opened her shop, Kuk had been to Itaewon only once, to scout an affordable spot for her new business.

Growing up in Seoul’s ritzy Gangnam district, she had avoided Itaewon because of its reputation. She had heard that the American soldiers stationed nearby at Yongsan Garrison sometimes got in trouble with the police. But rent in Gangnam was too expensive, the equivalent of $2,000 to $3,000 dollars per month. A space the same size costs half as much in Itaewon.

Today, the 31-year-old said her store, which sells chic flower arrangements that average about $40, is thriving. She describes Itaewon as "exotic," and said half of her customers are expatriates — no surprise in an area that houses most of Seoul’s foreign population.

What is surprising, she said, is that the other half of her customers are Korean. Until recently, few Seoul residents had visited this area known for its bars, brothels and U.S. soldiers. Media reports of soldiers beating taxi drivers, sexually assaulting women and fighting in the bars and on the streets kept the Koreans away.

But this once-sleazy neighborhood is changing.

Buoyed by a population that has more spending money and is better-traveled than any other generation of Koreans, a number of upscale stores, cozy coffee shops and gourmet restaurants have opened in the past few years. The pace of Itaewon’s transformation has quickened in the past year, with the opening of a number of foreign chains, including a Hard Rock Café and a Calvin Klein store.

Emerging market
"It’s kind of an emerging market," said Kim Tae-eung, who has opened two Thai restaurants and a Mediterranean bistro in Itaewon in the past three years.

Itaewon has been known as the foreigner’s district of Seoul since Japanese invaders made it their home 400 years ago. For decades the area has been known as "little America" because most of its customers worked at Yongsan Garrison.

Today, Itaewon is an eclectic mix of trendy shops and restaurants, sidewalk vendors selling hats and knock-off purses, and a maze of backstreets lined with vendors, and in some spots, brothels.

Walk down the neighborhood’s congested main strip, and you’ll hear a half-dozen or more languages — Korean, English, Arabic, Russian, French, German, Chinese, Japanese, Tagalog and a mix of African dialects.

You can buy meat that meets Muslim standards, an electronic Koran and hijab on one street, African hair weaves and stewed plantains on another. The city’s only mosque is a five-minute walk from so-called "Hooker Hill," the red light district that once catered primarily to the U.S. military and now has a clientele of mainly businessmen, English teachers and other foreigners.

When Ahn Sang-joon opened Le Saint-Ex — a popular French bistro — eight years ago, it was one of the first foreign restaurants in the area.

"We were young. We didn’t have money so we were looking for a cheap place," he said.

Then, most of his customers were French, Australian or American. Today, 80 percent of the customers are Koreans who want to try foreign foods they’ve heard about or tasted while traveling or studying in other countries.

He said South Koreans are more educated about other cultures because they can afford to travel. Until the early 1990s, they had to get special permission from the government to leave the country, so few people left the peninsula.

"They can see other countries, other people. They can study English," he said. "The Korean people’s curiosity is greater than it was 10 years ago."

More change coming
Itaewon will change even more dramatically when the United States closes Yongsan Garrison, headquarters to the U.S. military in South Korea and home to about 20,000 troops, civilian workers and their families.

Yongsan is scheduled to close by 2012, when all U.S. military bases in and north of Seoul are supposed to consolidate and move south to the Pyeongtaek area. There is speculation the date likely will be pushed back several years because of the cost of the move, possibly to 2019.

Even though thousands of Americans will leave Seoul in the transition, some merchants say the move ultimately will help business in Itaewon, not hurt it. The city plans to turn the garrison into a massive park that business owners say will draw more South Koreans to the area.

Other business owners, however, aren’t so sure.

Twenty-five years ago, most of Cheo Bok-soo’s customers were soldiers or civilians who worked for the U.S. Army. Today, most of the people who buy his eel-skin purses and slippers are Koreans, foreign tourists, and diplomats — but not Americans.

Cheo, who has lived in Itaewon for 30 years, said he has always felt safe there because of the presence of American and South Korean soldiers. But most South Koreans were afraid of the foreigners, he said.

He said his business has decreased as the number of American soldiers has dropped.

"Personally, I hope they remain stationed here because it is better to me and my business," he said.

Some fear still lingers
Many South Koreans said their fear of foreigners — particularly American soldiers — has kept them from shopping or eating in Itaewon. But more South Koreans say they are visiting the area, some hesitantly.

Jeon Min-kyung, a 23-year-old college student studying Chinese, first visited Itaewon last spring with her friends, and found the area "marvelous" but the foreigners wearing hip-hop clothes "scary."

Some of her friends liked it and continue to visit; some of them felt scared and never returned. She said most Koreans, even those her age, haven’t been to Itaewon because of its reputation as a place full of foreign criminals.

Jeon has gone back repeatedly, mostly to try new foods at foreign restaurants. But she only goes during the day because she doesn’t think it’s safe at night. The more time she spends there, the more comfortable she feels around the foreigners, she said.

On a recent afternoon, Kim Ji-yun, a 38-year-old housewife was in Itaewon shopping for a fake Louis Vuitton purse. The area is the best place in Seoul to buy knock-off brands, she said, and she usually shops there three or four times a year. But she said Itaewon is dangerous, so she always leaves before dark.

"The streets … have too many foreigners rambling around," she said. "I think the brand name shops opening lately on the main street are only a skin-deep change."

But her friend, Jeon Jung-won, an art dealer, said she wishes Yongsan wouldn’t close.

"It won’t be the same Itaewon without the U.S. troops here. They’ve contributed to the diversity and the exoticism that we enjoy so much," she said. On the same afternoon, Byun Ji-hong, 27, visited Itaewon for the first time, and his first impressions weren’t good.

"It’s scuzzier, filthier, messier and poorer than I expected," said Byun, who came to Itaewon to help a friend buy a fake Christian Dior leather jacket. His friend expected to spend about $300, compared to $1,200 for a real Dior. He said the area will become nicer when the U.S. troops leave Seoul.

But Kuk, the flower store owner, said she has grown to enjoy the mix of cultures in Itaewon.

"Now, I realize this place is not as scary as I thought," she said. "The longer I’m in this neighborhood, the more I like it."

Thanks for the update IHAWKER.

quote:

Originally posted by IHAWKER:
"Many times, the soldier might not even know who he had been with, and many of the ‘contacts’ were just, ‘Miss Kim, black hair, slim build, streetwalker,’ " said Ford, who helped check VD cards.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA!

quote:

Originally posted by 300_Spartans:

quote:

Originally posted by IHAWKER:
"Many times, the soldier might not even know who he had been with, and many of the ‘contacts’ were just, ‘Miss Kim, black hair, slim build, streetwalker,’ " said Ford, who helped check VD cards.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA!

and your point is...?

quote:

Originally posted by Migbuster:

quote:

Originally posted by 300_Spartans:

quote:

Originally posted by IHAWKER:
"Many times, the soldier might not even know who he had been with, and many of the ‘contacts’ were just, ‘Miss Kim, black hair, slim build, streetwalker,’ " said Ford, who helped check VD cards.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA!

and your point is...?

The description doesnt narrow things down much. Ever seen a natural blonde or redheaded Korean hooker? As to "Miss Kim" thats about on par with "Miss Jones".

Never partaken in the hooker gig back in the day. Wasn't my cup of tea was just married 4 month before shipping out. had other outleat to carry me over thr the tour of duty.