The Stars & Stripes has recently published a four part series of articles on the notorious Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul. The series is actually pretty good and provides some insights about the neighborhood that even I didn’t know such as how Itaewon received its name in the first place:
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. [Stars & Stripes]
Of course Stars & Stripes made sure to ask Koreans what they thought of the neighborhood:
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. [Stars & Stripes]
That is definitely the perception that many Koreans have of Itaewon, but is it valid?
Personally I don’t hang out much in Itaewon when I am in Korea, but I have never had any problems when visiting the area. Probably because I never hang out at places like the Kings Club or UN Club where trouble just seems to brew at.
Anyway, you can read all four articles in their entirity at the links below:
Troops Remember A Place Known for It’s Vices
Itaewon: Land Values to Shoot Up As Yongsan Garisson Vacates
5:09 am on January 4th, 2009 1
They should have reported a bit more on the Muslims and Nigerians in the AO.
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5:19 am on January 4th, 2009 2
[...] HT: ROK Drop [...]
5:25 am on January 4th, 2009 3
Who are the two girls in the picture? They look really ugly and trashy.
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6:27 am on January 4th, 2009 4
Well Tom, I’d hate to pass judgment on them, but there are such types who won’t give you the time of day unless you’re African-American or Nigerian, and by the background of this pic they do appear to be standing on the sidewalk facing King Club, so they just might be K-Lo’s (Koreans who think they’re J-Lo).
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6:38 am on January 4th, 2009 5
LOL @ K-Lo.
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6:49 am on January 4th, 2009 6
Koreans who hang out in Itaewon are usually trashy, I’m sorry to say, as are many doing business around most US bases. I was at first a little depressed by the climate around my current post until I realized that it’s due to the Koreans around here not giving a damn about us vs. all of the greenback-hungry leaches I associated with before.
I’m surprised that S & S went down the bar-girl route in their profile, being that they’re largely just a USFK propaganda mouthpiece these days. I feel ashamed of my race and nation when all that we can remember about a place are prostitutes and venereal disease. My fondest memories of Anjung-ri are of drunkenly smashing things with my fists, so I am no different. Being drunk and eating a boatful of street-vendor hamburgers in Songtan also stands out.
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7:24 am on January 4th, 2009 7
“Koreans who hang out in Itaewon are usually trashy,”
Agreed! But like I always say, flies are attracted by shit.
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7:31 am on January 4th, 2009 8
You’re right, Tom. Americans lie to themselves about this, but you’re right.
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10:04 am on January 4th, 2009 9
Here is my brief view from the expat language instructor side.
I never went to Itaewon except for one brief trip in day time with another teacher to buy some ties early in my time in Korea (1996).
Over the years, I met some other Canadian and American instructors who’d go to Seoul specifically to go to Itaewon a couple weekends a month or so or even more regularly the closer I lived to Seoul.
It was easy to see Itaewon was a Spring Break type place – like Panama City when I was in high school and college — a place where people went (that wasn’t their home) to go crazy binge drinking and other forms of debauchery. And where people would do (bad) things they’d never think to do – that were even out of their character – because they had entered a morality free zone – a place where you felt like you could not only get away with anything but were supposed to as part of having fun.
Itaewon was also the main place, it seemed, where some teachers I knew would buy their drugs.
I never cared to visit the place.
But, then again, I never particularly cared for the entertainment sections of cities I lived in — areas where everybody was Korean. When I was in college, I didn’t mind such places much, and I don’t look down my nose at people who still head out to those kind of places, but by the time I went to Korea, they weren’t the kind of places I particularly cared to go to.
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10:16 am on January 4th, 2009 10
Interesting story. I am still on the fence about the place. Some friends visited Seoul and stayed up at Hilton. Hilton sent them to Itaewon for BBQ. They left me a message and I met up with them. Food was good. Environment was more Westernized than most BBQ joints (ajumma spoke some English, menu, signage, etc.). One friend who had been to Korea before wanted some after-dinner Soojeonggwa (???). Ajumma never heard of it. Could’ve easily been our pronunciation, so we wrote it out in hangeul. Still nothing. Made us wonder where we were…
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6:12 am on January 5th, 2009 11
Leave the place to the Muslims and Nigerians. It is a nasty place full of flies.
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7:13 am on January 5th, 2009 12
[...] stuck out when I glanced at the Seoul map was the mention in the Stars and Stripes four-part piece on Itaewon that it used to have pear orchards. Well, they’re right there on the [...]