PAST
KOREAN ROADS PAST AND PRESENT.
BY W. W. TAYLOR.
The subject of this article was suggested to the minds of the Officers of this Society by a
motor trip which the writer made during the late winter of 1923, which is probably the longest
continuous motor trip made in this country up to that time. Before beginning the narration of that trip
it is the writer’s intention to tell some of the condition of the roads in the past and the method of travel
thereon. though to many present this will be recalling old trails, but pioneers are never averse to going
over the trails of the past cosily ensconced in an easy chain
My first trip to Korea was made in the spring of 1898 and while I had learned from my
father’s previous trip that Korea was in the Orient and an independent country, as much could not be
said for the knowledge of my boy friends and some of their elders. For years after my arrival I
received letters addressed, Korea, Africa: Korea, India : Korea, China: and Korea, Japan: and in some
cases it was carefully designated an island.
Twenty odd days across the Pacific in a boat little larger, if any, than the larger ferry
steamers plying between Shimonoseki and Fusan these days, landed our party of 13 rough-neck
miners in Nagasaki, then a leading port of Japan. Here we were kept 13 days watching the kite flying,
which I as a boy greatly enjoyed, before we were able to get a passage on a small Russian steamer to
Chefoo and then on to Chemulpo. Our first sight of the boundless horizon of mud fiats of that port
was not inspiring but our interest was soon awakened by the curious white clothes of the natives and
the enormous loads carried by the coolies on the bund, and it was this latter that particularly
impressed the miners who had swung an eight-pound hammer most of their lives and appreciated
physical prowess.
I don’t recollect whether they gave us anything to eat at Stewards or not, for that was the
leading hotel of the country in those days and for a long time after, for we were herded[page 36] on
a small coasting steamer and memory of feeds here fails me completely for a long time. We ran along
the coast hugging the shore, always in sight of mud banks, the Captain ever on the alert to run to the
sheltering-lee of an island at the first sign of danger, as he evidently had very little faith in the
staunchness of the wooden hulk he commanded, and evidently felt the responsibility for having our
party aboard, for we were the largest party of foreigners he had ever undertaken to transport to
Pyengyang 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 as
possible, 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 to
against the tide. Some of the Koreans fell exhausted from their efforts at the oars and it was not until
some 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, and
the 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 turn
back 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. Don’t 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 old
style, mounted at times on the back of a Korean pony, and at other times wallowing around in the mud
of thawing paddy fields.
I am not going to describe a Korean pony though he is rare enough these days to need
description for recent comers, but will ask you to read Dr. Gale’s description in that fascinating[page
37] book “Korean Sketches.” Just read this and then draw on your imagination to picture the
disgust 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 the
end 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 steep
rocky 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 pretty
far down the scale; for there was nothing from one end of the peninsula to the other that was worthy
of the name of road. This might raise the question of what was then considered the main artery of the
country, from Fusan to Seoul ana from Seoul to Wiju. Granted there was a route that was followed by
the Chinese envoys who came yearly to collect tribute when Korea was a vassal state, and over which
officials travelled to their posts, but wheeled carts never passed over them and the Chinese and
Korean 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 ridden
all the way from Pyeng- yang to Seoul on a bicycle. Dr. McGill won everlasting and well-deserved
fame 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 vacation
trip to Wonsan Beach and passing through that gorgeous mountain scenery, look out of the window
and catch glimpses of this old road at certain points where it touches the right-of-way, and you will
get an idea of travel in the good old days, now gone forever thank the Lord. Don’t 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 any
distance was the transport of the japanese army in their victorious march against china. Undoubtedly
work 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 small
branches can be better imagined than described.
The road over which we had travelled to unsan had been put in some shape to bring in
mining machinery some two years before by my father when starting work at the mines, but the
officials would not even keep it in repair, and in the lapse of two years it was back to its pristine
beauty. A bull cart would undertake the adventure if well paid, but no date of arrival was set we had
some 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, and
the mill hung up all the time. Most of the machinery for a long time was made in sections and
transported 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 from
pakchun, was probably the first work done on roads except for military purposes, outside of the
environs 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 was
projecting. 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 done
over 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)
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. The
Seoul to Pyengyang was 550 li by the long route, and 500 li by the short, and a similar distance to
Wiju, the total being, as the mapoos (horse-drivers) would always agree after a most vociferous
argument, 1000 li, or about 300 miles. During this period the Japanese army engineers had done some
work on the road, but 120 li per day was good going, and I honestly believe there was no other animal
in the world save the Korean pony that could have made this distance day after day under the
conditions and with equal loads. The Japanese engineers did not attempt to keep up the repairs on this
road, as they soon were busily engaged in building a new railroad from Pyengyang to Wiju, and from
Pyengyang 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 prospecting
trips 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 some
of 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 of
Korea, and it is the great cost of tunnelling here that has kept the Japanese from making better
progress on this important railroad line. At that time the country covered by that route was very
sparsely settled with a few struggling farmers at intervals between the villages. At night the hill-sides
glowed and blazed with the fires set by nomadic farmers to clear off the trees and shrubbery. As soon
as 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 waste
to it, leaving the last place to the mercy of the torrential rains which, no longer held in check by the
trees, swept away every vestige of soil. This sort of savage agriculture was practiced all through the
north and, fostered by the lack of transportation, Korea lost huge tracts of valuable hard timber, and
upset nature’s 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 became
weirdly picturesque for we were lighted on our way by the yamen runners with blazing torches which
shed showers of sparks, who with eerie cries to keep away the tigers and to bolster their courage, led
us with a final crescendo of yells to the village where a new relay of torch bearers escorted us on to
the next station, and so on through the night This stands out in vivid contrast to a trip over a good road
in a motor car with a warm bath and comfortable hotel at the end, which it is possible to take
anywhere now in this same vicinity.
During: the war and two years afterwards I travelled this section North, East, South and
West, and what I have written of the roads already holds true for all the rest, and the roads through the
southern provinces, the granary of Korea, were in nowise different With the Korean policy of
isolation and discouragement of travel to the outside world, it is not sur-prising that a lack of
appreciation 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 physical
comfort and well-being of man.
Before passing on to my motoring experiences in the country which were principally with
that gallant friend of the pioneer, the Ford, I want to speak of the King’s Highway, probably the first
real 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
NEW’ ROAD OVER MOUNTAINOUS SECTION [page 41]
Bostwick. It was laid out of generous width, and the bridges were of Oregon Pine. With only the most
casual attention, just before some ceremonial, it remained in good condition for a long period, for the
materials 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 Undertakings” was ¥1,500,000 with which to construct four roads, namely :一
From Chinnampo to Pyengyang,
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 162½ 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 construction
and completing of which were to serve as models and a stimulus for further work to be undertaken by
the 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 as
well as means were employed by the Japanese in construction[page 42] of these roads, and I will treat
lightly 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 and
South Kyong-Sang. Further roads on the East Coast between Chong-jin and Sungjin were also
commenced in 1909. The four roads previously mentioned were completed in December 1909. Many
of the roads constructed throughout Korea have been built by local labour, aided by subsidies from the
Central Government Daring the period previously mentioned and up to 1912, which probably are the
greatest years in Korea’s history as far as road construction is concerned, more roads were planned or
completed than in any other periods After careful investigation the Government General adopted a
plan 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 of
23 roads measuring 580 ri at an estimated cost of ¥10,000,000. Table No. 1, attached hereto, will give
an 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 first
mentioned and planned prior to the annexation, amounting to 8 ri.
During this period the custom called ‘‘Pyuok,” which had long been in vogue but seldom
used except when some official was to pass through the distict, was enforced, and much repair of
roads between villages was accomplished. In this connection, while the labour was furnished by the
village, the expense of bridge building and heavy cuts was borne by the special local expense fund
During 1911 an ordinance by which roads divided into four classes was enacted.
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 Provincial
Government 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 been
said, and this in the way of an adverse criticism, that Japan undertook and built this fine system of
roads from a purely selfish military point of view ; but a study of the map and tables given will soon
show the student of road construction that this is not entirely true and that large parts of these roads
were 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 and
happiness 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 possible
thereon, 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 or
their 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’s
rule and its bearing on road construction. In this connection we should mention Count Terauchi’s
administration covering the five years up to and including most of 1916, and it was during this period
that Korea’s fine system of road building on a grand scale was planned ana largely carried out It has
often been said that many of the roads and streets were planned by Count Terauchi by the simple and
often sought method of taking a rule and drawing a straight line through the section the street or road
was 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 would
have failed utterly. There is no doubt that the natives suffered at times where roads passed through
their land, or their labour was demanded, but in the writer’s mind they have been fully compensated
by the increased value to land in their districts that these efforts have brought forth.
In 1915 we find that the programme for road construction was again modified so that 37
roads covering a distance of 693 ri, to be carried out in six years commencing from the fiscal year
1911, was undertaken. These, constructed entirely by the Central Government, added to those already
constructed 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 of
bridge 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 the
result 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 most
cases natural material was close at hand and the importation or bringing in over the newly constructed
roads of cement for the building of concrete bridges could have been accomplished with little
additional expense. In some cases where concrete bridges were constructed the engineers and
surveyers showed great lack of knowledge of local conditions and rainfall with the result that many of
this class of bridges and culverts went out with the first rain. These bridges of both types have not
been replaced as fast as they should have been, with the result that in many instances detours still have
to be made, while in some cases in the rainy season crossing is impossible. The engineers in charge
have 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 Korea’s great rivers, the
Han and the Taidong, will long remain as a monument to the skill of the engineers in. charge of this
particular 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 was
thrown open to the public in September 1917, while the Taidong Bridge was opened in 1923. (See
Table 4.)
The year 1917 saw the completion of the first programme of work in sight, and the initiation
of 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 work
on 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
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 to
¥300,000 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 for
the economic result of road construction.
Table No. 7 gives in detail the roads planned and under construction of the first and second
class type for the different provinces, and while, as in my other tables, the figures are in ri, they can be
easily 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 to
take 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 joy
to 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 my
article up to March 31st 1923, and give in detail the completed and uncompleted roads, first, second
and third class, with their distribution throughout the different provinces. The use of this table in
conjunction with a map of Korea and the table entitled “Distribution of Roads,” which immediately
follows, 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, the
majority of which is going into the replacement of the bridges previously mentioned, I will mention
the ¥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 the
ballasting of these roads, which
UNDEVELOPED COUNTRY WHICH IS BEING OPENED UP BY NEW ROADS[page
47]
in many instances have not had more than a dirt covering. Due to the Tokyo Government’s
policy of retrenchment in Korea, it looks as if the ‘‘Puyok” system will have to be strictly enforced,
where by five men’s labour for one day a year from each house located within 10 ri of the place where
the repair work is to be done. Why should it not be ? Would it not be criminal to allow our fine system
of roads to revert back to conditions described in the first part of my article, when farm labour, which
at certain times of the year without interference to the farmers’ routine work, is plentiful, and can be
thus 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, and
when I refer to such I mean the Ford principally. In 1911 there were two automobiles in the country,
while at the end of 1922 the number had swollen to 935. In comparison with Formosa and Japan they
make no mean showing for at the end of March 1922 Japan proper had only 8,265 cars and 1,383
trucks. The taxi, or jitney service, almost entirely Fords, now forms a very important branch of the
transport 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 all
descriptions, standard and light gauge, at this time totalled only 1,454 miles. With the general
economic depression there is little doubt in the writer’s mind that the repair and upkeep of the State
highways by methods previously mentioned, and encouragement by the state of country jitney service
is 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 no
transportation, and without assistance and co-operation from the Government there can be no motor
transportation. The policy of petty officials and the general public in looking upon the motor car as
the toy of the rich must go, and a policy of education as to the important part the car is playing today
in Korea’s transportation problem must be inaugurated. The story of Japan’s rule in Korea will always
be closely linked with the construction of the roads throughout the peninsula and the real opening of
the interior of the Hermit nation to easy and accessible means of transportation. They have driven
their 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
TYPE OF BRIDGE NOW BEING ERECTED IN COUNTRY [page 49]
[page 50]
[page 51]
[page 52]
SECOND CLASS ROAD
SECOND CLASS ROAD OVER MOUNTAIN PASS
PLANNED ROADS.
Constructed & Under Construction.
FIRST CLASS
ON MARCH 31ST, 1923.
SECOND CLASS.
[page 54]
THIRD CLASS.
[page 55]
SECOND CLASS ROADS.
[page 56]
SECOND CLASS ROAD CONSTRUCTION