korean roads past and present

8/13/2019 Korean Roads Past and Present

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the coast hugging the shore, always in sight of mud banks, the Captain ever on the alert to run to thesheltering-lee of an island at the first sign of danger, as he evidently had very little faith in thestaunchness of the wooden hulk he commanded, and evidently felt the responsibility for having ourparty aboard, for we were the largest party of foreigners he had ever undertaken to transport toPyengyang at one time. Yes, Pyengyang was our destination, but we never reached it on that steamer

for we missed a tide when we got up a way and our good skipper decided to get us off as soon aspossible, and with this end in view dropped us off somewhere between Chinnampo and Pyengyang.We were soon huddled in san- pans and told to keep going, which was a mighty hard thing do toagainst the tide. Some of the Koreans fell exhausted from their efforts at the oars and it was not untilsome years later that we discovered that this was a polite way of letting us understand we could take a

spell. We probably showed up pretty well for I remember we had heard of the General Sherman, andthe fate of her loomed up before our imaginations and spurred us to heroic efforts. I suppose that

many of you have tried your hand at the native oar and will predate our efforts against the swift tide,spurred on by our apprehensions. After about ten hours of this work many of us were ready to turnback but a good breakfast at Dr. Wells, place, which my father after a great deal of scouting had

managred to find, we felt better and looked forward to our overland journey to the Unsan Mines,

which was our destination. Dont think patient listener or reader that I have drifted away from my

subject for it is right here that I relate my first experience with the Korean road of the Kusik or oldstyle, mounted at times on the back of a Korean pony, and at other times wallowing around in the mudof thawing paddy fields.

I am not going to describe a Korean pony though he is rare enough these days to needdescription for recent comers, but will ask you to read Dr. Gales description in that fascinating[page37] book Korean Sketches. Just read this and then draw on your imagination to picture thedisgust and scorn on the faces of those six-foot Western miners when they saw what they had to ride,

and compare them with the broncos of the ranch at home. Many swore that they would walk to theend of the earth before they would mount on top of the huge pack that the little creature was carrying,but after a few hours of plodding through sticky clay and stumbling over hidden boulders, up steeprocky passes and down the slippery other side with an endless vista of the same sort of country, even

the most stubborn yielded and climbed aboard their mounts, and this weird procession of foreigners,with the Chinese cook, Beans, bringing up the rear, straggled along for three days.

It is often said that transportation is civilization and if so, then Korea at that day was prettyfar down the scale; for there was nothing from one end of the peninsula to the other that was worthyof the name of road. This might raise the question of what was then considered the main artery of thecountry, from Fusan to Seoul ana from Seoul to Wiju. Granted there was a route that was followed bythe Chinese envoys who came yearly to collect tribute when Korea was a vassal state, and over whichofficials travelled to their posts, but wheeled carts never passed over them and the Chinese andKorean officials suspended on the stout shoulders of their chair coolies never felt the bumps or jolts.Many will remember the thrill of pride at the endurance and pluck of some missionary who had riddenall the way from Pyeng- yang to Seoul on a bicycle. Dr. McGill won everlasting and well-deservedfame by driving a light horse cart from Seoul to Wonsan, a distance of 500 li, or 160 miles. The writer

made it by pony and considered it one of the hardest in Korea. The next time you are on your vacationtrip to Wonsan Beach and passing through that gorgeous mountain scenery, look out of the windowand catch glimpses of this old road at certain points where it touches the right-of-way, and you willget an idea of travel in the good old days, now gone forever thank the Lord. Dont get mixed and

mistake one of the new [page 38]Government roads, but if you see a washed out rocky sort of cow trail, that is the remains of

an old road. Probably the first wheeled traffic to make a journey over the korean roads for anydistance was the transport of the japanese army in their victorious march against china. Undoubtedlywork was done on the roads at this time, but they were soon allowed to sink back into their primitive

condition. If such was the condition of the main highway of the country, the condition of the smallbranches can be better imagined than described.

The road over which we had travelled to unsan had been put in some shape to bring inmining machinery some two years before by my father when starting work at the mines, but theofficials would not even keep it in repair, and in the lapse of two years it was back to its pristine


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beauty. A bull cart would undertake the adventure if well paid, but no date of arrival was set we hadsome very essential replacement to the mill sent up overland from seoul, paying an enormous figure.After two months two foreigners went after them and returned triumphantly after another month, andthe mill hung up all the time. Most of the machinery for a long time was made in sections andtransported on the faithful pony, or by cow back. In winter when the snow was on the ground, we

were able to make use of the primitive korean sled. The preparation of this road, and the one frompakchun, was probably the first work done on roads except for military purposes, outside of theenvirons of cities or roads to tombs. Many times on the trip of the thirteen from pyengyang to unsan,all bands would have to lend a hand to pull a pony and its rider out of a bog, grabbing whatever wasprojecting. The next time your car runs off the road or you have to make a detour on account of a

washed-cut road, think of the good times we old timers did not have.I now pass on to the second phase of my experience with korean roads, for after five years

at the unsan mines i became restless and sought pastures new, and, as most of the searching was doneover korean roads and from the back of a korean pony, there was some pretty rough going. The year

THE REMAINS OF AN OLD ROAD (See page 38)


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BULL CART [page 39]1904 saw the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war and I signed up with the New York

Herald as correspondent, and March of that year saw me getting better acquainted with travel in Korea

for I made the trip from Seoul to Pyengyang and from Pyengyang to Wiju with Kuroki s army. TheSeoul to Pyengyang was 550 li by the long route, and 500 li by the short, and a similar distance toWiju, the total being, as the mapoos (horse-drivers) would always agree after a most vociferousargument, 1000 li, or about 300 miles. During this period the Japanese army engineers had done somework on the road, but 120 li per day was good going, and I honestly believe there was no other animalin the world save the Korean pony that could have made this distance day after day under theconditions and with equal loads. The Japanese engineers did not attempt to keep up the repairs on thisroad, as they soon were busily engaged in building a new railroad from Pyengyang to Wiju, and fromPyengyang south, and had not yet in view the fine system now under construction.

In 1904-5 and 6 I made many trips in the interests of the New York Herald, and prospectingtrips on behalf of the Collbran Bostwick Mining Syndicate, and everywhere I went it was the same,appalling roads, lack of bridges, or only the most primitive makeshifts. I would like to describe someof the wonderfully fascinating scenery and glimpses of native life which compensated for the hardship,but I must get on. From Pyengyang across country to Wonsan, the 500 li was little more than a

rough trail. A glance at the map will show you that this route takes one over the backbone ridge ofKorea, and it is the great cost of tunnelling here that has kept the Japanese from making betterprogress on this important railroad line. At that time the country covered by that route was verysparsely settled with a few struggling farmers at intervals between the villages. At night the hill-sidesglowed and blazed with the fires set by nomadic farmers to clear off the trees and shrubbery. As soonas the ground was cool they planted their crops of buckwheat and potatoes in this highly fertilized soil,

did this for a year or two and then passed on to a new bit of hard wood forest and [page 40] laid wasteto it, leaving the last place to the mercy of the torrential rains which, no longer held in check by thetrees, swept away every vestige of soil. This sort of savage agriculture was practiced all through thenorth and, fostered by the lack of transportation, Korea lost huge tracts of valuable hard timber, andupset natures conservation of the rainfall In those days stopping places were widely separated, and in

the mountains the mapoos(horse-drivers) talk turned to robbers and tigers, both of which were by

no means uncommon. When forced by necessity to travel by night, as I was, the scene becameweirdly picturesque for we were lighted on our way by the yamen runners with blazing torches which


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shed showers of sparks, who with eerie cries to keep away the tigers and to bolster their courage, ledus with a final crescendo of yells to the village where a new relay of torch bearers escorted us on tothe next station, and so on through the night This stands out in vivid contrast to a trip over a good roadin a motor car with a warm bath and comfortable hotel at the end, which it is possible to takeanywhere now in this same vicinity.

During: the war and two years afterwards I travelled this section North, East, South andWest, and what I have written of the roads already holds true for all the rest, and the roads through thesouthern provinces, the granary of Korea, were in nowise different With the Korean policy ofisolation and discouragement of travel to the outside world, it is not sur-prising that a lack ofappreciation of the vital necessity of good internal communication should prevail, with a

corresponding backwardness in all the other arts and sciences that have to do with the physicalcomfort and well-being of man.

Before passing on to my motoring experiences in the country which were principally withthat gallant friend of the pioneer, the Ford, I want to speak of the Kings Highway, probably the firstreal road constructed in Korea. This road, which leads out of the East Gate to the Nine Kings, Tombs,

and to the two tombs of the late Emperor and Empress of Korea, was contracted for and built by

Collbran and

NEWROAD OVER MOUNTAINOUS SECTION [page 41]

Bostwick. It was laid out of generous width, and the bridges were of Oregon Pine. With only the mostcasual attention, just before some ceremonial, it remained in good condition for a long period, for thematerials for constructing good roads are at hand nearly everywhere in Korea. It was lined with trees

which were subjected to less vandalism than wayside trees usually suffer in Korea.Statistics are always uninteresting to the writer as well as the reader of the article, but as an

article does not seem to be complete or impressive without them, I will insert some important ones,but will travel as lightly and as quickly as possible over this stage.

Shortly after the Russo-Japanese War (1906) and when Japan commenced to exert her

paramount position in Korea, we find that one of the first grants that was set aside out of the Loan for

Public Undertakingswas 1,500,000 with which to construct four roads, namely :

From Chinnampo to Pyengyang,


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From Taikyu to Ya Nil Bay, via Kwangju,From Yonsankang to Mokpo,From Keun-Kang to Kunsan.As in Japan, roads in this country were planned so as to connect either the ports or large

cities lying in the interior with the railroads. The survey for these four roads was made in 1906 and

totalled 65 ri or 162 miles, and they were 3 to 4 ken wide, that is 18 to 24 feet.Actual work on these roads was commenced in 1907 and during this year fifteen were

completed. During this period preliminary surveys were made for seven other roads, the constructionand completing of which were to serve as models and a stimulus for further work to be undertaken bythe local government in the future.

From 1906 to the end of 1912 the state highways constructed amounted to 320 ri in length,the expense of construction having been borne by the Central Government, while the local

government had constructed and completed roads of all classes. During this period several methods aswell as means were employed by the Japanese in construction[page 42] of these roads, and I will treatlightly on this subject before passing on. Shortly after the crushing of the Ilchinhoi (Anti-Japanese

Association) with a view of employing thousands of these disarmed patroiots, Japan planned and

constructed with this labour in 1909-1910 a road 39 ri long extending between South Chulla andSouth Kyong-Sang. Further roads on the East Coast between Chong-jin and Sungjin were alsocommenced in 1909. The four roads previously mentioned were completed in December 1909. Manyof the roads constructed throughout Korea have been built by local labour, aided by subsidies from theCentral Government Daring the period previously mentioned and up to 1912, which probably are thegreatest years in Koreas history as far as road construction is concerned, more roads were planned orcompleted than in any other periods After careful investigation the Government General adopted aplan of road construction amounting to 26,000 ri. The first part of this enormous plan or scheme, work

on which was to commence in the fiscal year of 1911, covered a period of five years, and consisted of23 roads measuring 580 ri at an estimated cost of 10,000,000. Table No. 1, attached hereto, will givean idea as to the roads actually completed up to the end of 1910.

The cost and construction of these roads over a period of five years 1911-1915, is given in

Table No. 2.Of these 23 roads, eleven were first and second class totalling 117 ri in length, but not more

than 13% was completed, due to the floods, and the construction of the unfinished roads firstmentioned and planned prior to the annexation, amounting to 8 ri.

During this period the custom called Pyuok,which had long been in vogue but seldomused except when some official was to pass through the distict, was enforced, and much repair ofroads between villages was accomplished. In this connection, while the labour was furnished by thevillage, the expense of bridge building and heavy cuts was borne by the special local expense fundDuring 1911 an ordinance by which roads divided into four classes was enacted.


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SHOWING CHARACTER OF COUNTRY OVER WHICH NEW ROADS PASS [page 43]First class, roads, 4 ken or over, running between Seoul and the Provincial Seats, Garrison

Towns, Ports, Naval Stations, and Railway Centres.Second class roads of 3 ken or more, and usually connecting Provincial Government towns

with Magistrate towns or to Railway Stations.Third class roads of 2 ken were determined by the Pro-vincial Government and approved by

the Governor General.Fourth class roads were other than the above mentioned, and undertaken by the local

officials of the district through which they were run.The maintenance of the roads was undertaken as follows :

Those of the first and second class by the Government General, the third by the ProvincialGovernment and the fourth by the Prefectural and District Magistracies.

In addition to these roads a large programme for the im-provement and building of city

roads in Seoul, Pyengyang, Fusan, Chunju and Haiju, was conceived and carried out. It has often beensaid, and this in the way of an adverse criticism, that Japan undertook and built this fine system ofroads from a purely selfish military point of view ; but a study of the map and tables given will soonshow the student of road construction that this is not entirely true and that large parts of these roadswere constructed from a purely economic point of view. There is no doubt that many of these roads

connect garrison towns with naval and military ports, but even so they have brought untold wealth andhappiness to the people of these districts through which they traverse. The Korean of the old type is

fast disappearing, and these roads and the fast transportation and communication made possiblethereon, are gradually bringing all to a realization of the value of time besides allowing them to haul

their products to market where they are able to get a fair price, taking back luxuries which they ortheir families never dreamed of in the old days.

Korea was annexed to Japan, as previously mentioned, in August 1910. but before that she

was a protectorate of[page 44] Japan for four years. Let us review briefly these nine years of Japan srule and its bearing on road construction. In this connection we should mention Count Terauchis

administration covering the five years up to and including most of 1916, and it was during this periodthat Koreas fine system of road building on a grand scale was planned ana largely carried out It hasoften been said that many of the roads and streets were planned by Count Terauchi by the simple andoften sought method of taking a rule and drawing a straight line through the section the street or roadwas to pass. This undoubtedly was far-fetched, and we must give great credit to him, and the strength

of will and power he exerted which gave us these roads where a weaker Governor-General wouldhave failed utterly. There is no doubt that the natives suffered at times where roads passed throughtheir land, or their labour was demanded, but in the writers mind they have been fully compensatedby the increased value to land in their districts that these efforts have brought forth.


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In 1915 we find that the programme for road construction was again modified so that 37roads covering a distance of 693 ri, to be carried out in six years commencing from the fiscal year1911, was undertaken. These, constructed entirely by the Central Government, added to those alreadyconstructed by the State Government before annexation, we find that these years show a total of 761 ri.

By local governments during the period up to 1915 we find that with the aid of State grants

426 ri was completed.From local expense funds during this period 989 ri was completed.Table No. 3 gives details as to the per centage of roads of different classes planned and

completed up to this period.Up to the end of March 1917 we find that a grand total of 9,102, 880 yen had been

expended on roads, showing 637 ri of completed state roads. Mention should be made in this article ofbridge construction as carried out in connection with the road programme. Unfortunately in most

instances on account of the lack of funds, wooden bridges and culverts were constructed with theresult that they either went out

[page 45]with the first heavy rains, or after a few years collapsed from dry rot. This is unfortunate, as in mostcases natural material was close at hand and the importation or bringing in over the newly constructedroads of cement for the building of concrete bridges could have been accomplished with littleadditional expense. In some cases where concrete bridges were constructed the engineers andsurveyers showed great lack of knowledge of local conditions and rainfall with the result that many ofthis class of bridges and culverts went out with the first rain. These bridges of both types have notbeen replaced as fast as they should have been, with the result that in many instances detours still haveto be made, while in some cases in the rainy season crossing is impossible. The engineers in chargehave also resorted at times to the pontoon bridge, which method is an economical as well as practical

one and could be resorted to more often. The fine steel bridges across two of Koreas great rivers, theHan and the Taidong, will long remain as a monument to the skill of the engineers in. charge of thisparticular work. The Han Bridge is 1449 feet across the main span and 621 feet across the branch span.Roth have two side-walks or foot paths 6 feet wide, while the main driveway is 15 feet wide. It wasthrown open to the public in September 1917, while the Taidong Bridge was opened in 1923. (SeeTable 4.)

The year 1917 saw the completion of the first programme of work in sight, and the initiationof s second programme calling for the construction of 25 first and second class roads measuring 477 ri

in all, with the building of nine steel bridges across important rivers at the cost of 7,500,00. The workon this programme began in October 1917 and continued over a six year period up to 1922.To the end of March 1920 the Table No. 5 will give an idea of the first and second class


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roads actually completed.Besides the first and second programme previously men-tioned, and the money involved

therein, the Central Govern-ment has annually subsidized the provinces to the extent of 100,000 to300,000 annually to assist them in the building of third class roads. [page 46]

I attach hereto a comparative Table No. 6, brought out by the Government in 1918, which

shows the number of vehicles past and present. I think it is intensely interesting and speaks well forthe economic result of road construction.

Table No. 7 gives in detail the roads planned and under construction of the first and secondclass type for the different provinces, and while, as in my other tables, the figures are in ri, they can beeasily converted into miles when it is remembered that 1 ri equals about 2.44 miles.

By bringing my figures, tables and statistics up to date, I hope patient reader or listener totake you to a subject that will be more interesting, at least it was so to me, but in writing an article of

this sort we must remember that there are certain students who get pleasure from delving into figures,and their supreme joy is to find errors. Of them I am asking leniency, as the subject which brings joyto their hearts has been a nightmare to me and the cause of the asking for postponement of the reading

of this article twice before the event actually happened.

The latest figures on road construction that I have been able to procure, bring this part of myarticle up to March 31st 1923, and give in detail the completed and uncompleted roads, first, secondand third class, with their distribution throughout the different provinces. The use of this table inconjunction with a map of Korea and the table entitled Distribution of Roads,which immediatelyfollows, will give one a very good idea of the wonderful network of roads that covers Korea.

See Table No. 8 Planned Roads.

Constructed and under Construction.

To give an idea as to what is being expended on the yearly upkeep of these roads, themajority of which is going into the replacement of the bridges previously mentioned, I will mentionthe 1,600,000 defrayed and used in the year 1922. It is estimated that a further Yen 6,000,000 is

needed to complete the reconstruction of all bridges of the type previously referred to, and theballasting of these roads, which

UNDEVELOPED COUNTRY WHICH IS BEING OPENED UP BY NEW ROADS[page

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in many instances have not had more than a dirt covering. Due to the Tokyo Government spolicy of retrenchment in Korea, it looks as if the Puyoksystem will have to be strictly enforced,

where by five mens labour for one day a year from each house located within 10 ri of the place wherethe repair work is to be done. Why should it not be ? Would it not be criminal to allow our fine systemof roads to revert back to conditions described in the first part of my article, when farm labour, whichat certain times of the year without interference to the farmersroutine work, is plentiful, and can bethus enlisted ?

Before going to that part of my article, already promised, and which will be as free from

statistics as I can make it , I wish to mention the enormous growth in the use of auto mobiles, andwhen I refer to such I mean the Ford principally. In 1911 there were two automobiles in the country,


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while at the end of 1922 the number had swollen to 935. In comparison with Formosa and Japan theymake no mean showing for at the end of March 1922 Japan proper had only 8,265 cars and 1,383trucks. The taxi, or jitney service, almost entirely Fords, now forms a very important branch of thetransport system of this country, and the next few years will see a much greater proportionate growth.In the southern part of Korea there are very few cities not touched by the railroads that cannot be

reached by motor.The total length of the roads traversed by jitney service has risen from 1,053 ri in 1919 to

2565 ri or 6258 miles (1 ri- 2-.44 miles) in January 1923. The total length of railroads of alldescriptions, standard and light gauge, at this time totalled only 1,454 miles. With the generaleconomic depression there is little doubt in the writers mind that the repair and upkeep of the State

highways by methods previously mentioned, and encouragement by the state of country jitney serviceis essential and must be carried out by the State. It has been hoped that the Government would see its

way clear to the continuation of automobiles on the duty free list, thereby encouraging the companies,who have invested heavily, to replace their present cars with those of a later model, and at[page 48]the same time encourage others to start new services. Civilized man, when he first sets foot on a

strange land, looks for a road inland, and when be fails to find one, sets to work to build one. It is the

first act of the pioneer, and Japan has surely lived up to traditions. Without roads there can be notransportation, and without assistance and co-operation from the Government there can be no motortransportation. The policy of petty officials and the general public in looking upon the motor car asthe toy of the rich must go, and a policy of education as to the important part the car is playing todayin Koreas transportation problem must be inaugurated. The story of Japans rule in Korea will alwaysbe closely linked with the construction of the roads throughout the peninsula and the real opening ofthe interior of the Hermit nation to easy and accessible means of transportation. They have driventheir roads over long stretches of rice land, over mountain and hill, long and straight, leaving on the

physical features of the country an indelible mark.

BRIDGE ACROSS THE HAN RIVER, SEOUL


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TYPE OF BRIDGE NOW BEING ERECTED IN COUNTRY [page 49]

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SECOND CLASS ROAD


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SECOND CLASS ROAD OVER MOUNTAIN PASS

PLANNED ROADS.Constructed & Under Construction.FIRST CLASSON MARCH 31ST, 1923.

SECOND CLASS.


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THIRD CLASS.

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SECOND CLASS ROADS.

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SECOND CLASS ROAD CONSTRUCTION

korean roads past and present

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