On the morning of St Patrick’s Day, I ran my first ever race – a 10km run in Seoul. Just hours after the festival to mark Ireland’s national holiday had concluded, thousands of people – many of them foreigners looking a bit tender – stood on the promenade as a heavy fog hung suspiciously over the Han River.
March and April are strange times in Korea. After five dreary months of spine-chilling winter, the gloom gives way to blossoming cherry trees, yellow dust from China making half the population ill, and spells of prolonged fog and mist.
The ‘Seoul Open Marathon’ was to begin on the banks of the Han River, in the shadow of Jamsil Stadium in southeastern Seoul. The fog that morning was so dense that the skyscrapers on the northside were barely visible as the gun sounded and off we went through the streets of Jamsil (or Jamsil-dong), an area with some interesting history.
Like most places in this part of the world, city and town areas or districts have a specific meaning, sometimes associated with the primary industry or agriculture in the region. Others have names that come from folklore or legend. For example, the town of Byeongjeom on Seoul’s Subway Line 1 roughly means ‘Bread Shop’. Yongsan, in central Seoul where the enormous US Army base is located, means ‘Dragon Mountain’. Namdaemun, historically very important as it is one of the Eight Gates in the Fortress Wall of Seoul, literally means ‘Gate of Exalted Ceremonies’. Jamsil, interestingly, is translated from Hanja as a ‘room (or place) for sericulture’. Sericulture is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk. Silkworm farming, according to Confucian texts, dates back to 2,700 BC, and today it remains an important cottage industry in Korea, China, Japan and India.
During the Joseon Dynasty from 1392-1897, inhabitants of this district in eastern Seoul were encouraged to farm silkworms, hence the area’s name. In 2013, Jamsil has over 100,000 people living in its neighbourhood and is one of the most affluent in the country. A far cry from its original meaning, Jamsil today is synonymous with wealth, business and sport.
Speaking of sport, the race started outside the Olympic Stadium, centrepiece of the 1988 Summer Olympiad and one of the main focal points of eastern Seoul. Standing next to it is the Jamsil Baseball Stadium, home of two top-tier franchises, LG Twins and Doosan Bears.
The Olympic Stadium, despite being used regularly for concerts and athletics events, looks like your quintessential 1980s architecture, a far cry from the glorious Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing. But apart from sport, the stadium is a very significant symbol for modern day South Korea. Though built by the previous authoritarian regime, it effectively paved the way for the freedom South Koreans enjoy today.
In September 1981, military dictator Chun Doo-hwan submitted South Korea’s bid to the IOC hoping to legitimise his brutal rule from increasing political pressure for democratisation, showcase South Korea’s ‘economic miracle’ and highlight the threat of North Korea to the rest of the world. However, mass protests in June 1987 jeopardised the hosting of the games. Fears over a pullout, and of international coverage of widespread democracy demonstrations and riots, forced Chun and the junta out of power. So it was that a monument intended to glorify the virtues of despotic rule was the final launchpad for open and free elections in this country.
As for the 10km race itself, I crossed the finish line with a time of 63 minutes. And with five months of glorious summer just around the corner, there’s a wonderful opportunity to run more races in different districts of Seoul, and learn more of their history.
Andrew Farrell works as an English language teacher in Korea.
