strawberry's diary: Seoul 1950

1. Lots of Chinese characters...

2. Roughly guessing, they are waiting for the tram...

Now Korea doesn't have tram system though, it used to be.. and i can see the tram rail in the center of the troad where it was used to be.....

3. Probably American gov office .. or camp..

4. Bank of Chosun (not existing anymore or the name was changed..)

朝鮮 chaoxian , Chosun(in Korean), you probably can see a lot. this is the name of the country back then. I think the official name was not chaoxian in 1950 but it probably used more than the official name.. since people are used to it.....

5. Store where rich people can buy stuffs...

which called 洋品店 (yang pin dian in Chinese, yang pum jum in Korean)

or pawnshop.....

6. Poor people.... :(

7. Uninted Ntions commission on Korea...

I tried to find which building it was, failed!

8. People moved to South by carrying stuffs on their back like in the picture.

I don't think they are fleeing because no other people are around...

but anyway.. the carrier on his back called Ji-gae... very common thing back then.

9. You can see the traditional building far behind in the picture..?

along the road behind the car, there is one building with odd roof on it.

That building must be one of the boundary of Seoul...

There are four big gates , four small gates. I cannot tell which it is...

10. on the Left, it says 歡迎 , Welcome UN

on the right, Let's go for the unification..... :P

11. This is one of the gate I said earlier.

Now those gates and other historical monuments are preserving well.

but back then people can go up and touch things too.

However, gov worried people destroy them so that now we only can see from outside.

12. on the wall, it says alcohol drinks and some snacks.

and on the window. you might recognize 식 wall 당

which is 食堂, restaurant. I guess they sold meals and drinks together...

13. have no idea where it is.. I am thinking they are in the fountain ...

and during the winter it must be frozen................

14. again, Ji-gae. remember people use it when they were fleeing to South.

the lady or guy is trying to stretch his/her knee......

15. She must be selling something...

Just in case you are wondering, We used to have Hijab (arab traditional clothes which woman wears. I believe you know this)

But what I am wondering is that it is not really common to wear them in 1950...

women should wear it during the Chaoxian Dynasty which was collapsed by Japan in 1900...

i am guessing they are wearing it because it is cold...........?

16. 店紗羅一樂, ( dian - sha - luo - yi - le )

but you need to read from the left. It used to be from right to left in the past with Chinese character.

which means, le-yi-luo-sha-dian. le-yi is I think the name of the store. and luo-sha is from Portuguese raxa which is one type of fabric.. now I knew. I have never heard of it before... so it must be fabric store.

and about 髮理! now I think you can recognize. which should be opposite way as you assume. li-fa is hair cut .

17. hmm some building... people used to sell things a lot like that... I guess...

18. Again, another guy sell things in front of the store .. haha

what funny is some chinese characters are reversed way from the left. but some are not. It is possibly the transition period...

Here hui-xiao-lu"-guan(會笑旅館) is from the right...

it is Inn. lu"-guan is inn, huixiao is just name.

About guan. character is bit different from traditional chinese. I don't think it was mistake.. I am guessing they have their own simplified which used unofficially.

Why a lady sit inside of the inn with some products on her right?

another sign on the left side of the building, X南商會 (I don't know what X character is.. anyways, something-nan-shang-hui, shang-hui is store at that time. so where the lady works is probably shang-hui , not the inn)

19. Tram!

I wish we still have it , but not anymore...

20. stream... and house...

Amazingly, I should say these houses are not poor people's.

It's my rough guess, but there is two stories building on the left, which means the town is not really poor. I am thinking they are quite rich........

Country was deadly poor at that time.

21. I wish I could see some pictures in summer .... to see how people wear.

22. 兄第 xiong-di, (hyung je, in Korean) on the bus.

xiong-di as you know, brothers.

it doesn't really look like bus.. more like toy car...

and apparently horse is the power... o.O

and one more thing in the pic. can you see the lady behind the lady with baby on her back?

there are two ladies in a row. one is pink with baby on. and the other one is holding things on her head.

That is the traditional way to carry heavy things. I don't really get how much it feels lighter when I carry things on my head. but it needs skills of course, if you need that skill, it must be a lot easier to carry than any other part.. as far I heard.

Now it is really rare thing.. only old ladies do it rarely.

23. Those kids must be working in circus camp or super rich considering what they are wearing.

but there was class in 1950 it was hierarchy society.... so if rich, none probably wear funny ike that.

I am guessing they are working for some concert or circus... kind of..

of course they are low class...

24. haha a lot of English characters you can read.

Of course, it must be somewhere in foreigner town. probably for American soldiers or people in embassy.

As far as I know, the photographer was Westerner :)

25. So much like North Korea now.....

No car, few bikes.. few people.. People would believe if this is picture of North Korea..

26. Asian radish is all piled up on the ground haha.

(It must be radish.. )

chinese characters, bao-jian-shi-guan (保健食館, it is reversed way on the sign) is restaurant as you assume.

and radish must be for them.......? no idea.

Some traditional market, you can see those scene even now. but not really common ;)

for the comparison.

26.

27. horse... is another way of carrying things at that time.

As far as I know, horse must be expensive... but I have no idea how people have horses...

roughly guess, he is employee of horse owner.. or he is also not really poor........

28. lady is selling food. it looks quite different but you remember traditional market pictures I showed you earlier. the food is probably similar and the way of table is similar that seller (cook) is sitting on the other side and people come, sit and eat.

behind her, there are lots of jang dok dae which is crock pot.. Still it is commonly used even though the way of making the pot is different now... people say traditional, original way is A lot better ...

because air can go in and out easily but the factory made pot is not really good for food inside to breath..... :P

anyways that pot is for fermenting and preserving food or liquid sauce.

Some have really bad smell.. :P haha because it is on fermenting!

Kimchi is kept in them too. :)

but the kimchi refrigerator is a lot common thing now...

Almost everyone has it just like refrigerator.

29. I can see bar xiong-di-jiu-dian (兄第酒店) on the sign of the building...

and I have no idea what ladies are doing...

Are they selling something..?

or considering the guy is holding the crock pot on his shoulder by having nothing inside. Possibly it is crock pot store...

and also people don't keep crock pots together like that. they are kept at home underground (yes! part of it is buried not to be rotten) or yard.

however, they are in public. so probably it is new :D

30. Bird eye view of the same place.

it is the same place because xiong-di-jiu-dian , (xiong-di bar) is still there haha

it must be market place :)

31. It looks like really old time...

It is amazing that we can see these traditional scene in color.

lucky me that Korea was developed super fast after 1970... so that possible to enjoy color picture of OLD time....

It is almost unbelievable that country was that poor and underdeveloped not too long ago...

32. market :D

33. market... It is traditional market

Still some are existing except that they have roof and inside area.. and also aisle is a lot narrow...

Again I can see xiong-di-jiu-dian! on the left side haha

34.must be somewhere american soldier camp is........

35. Voila ! it is just like North Korea........................

anyone can believe if there is no chinese character sign( N.korea does not use foreign words whatsoever except FEW FEW words. TV is square box something like that.)

the traffic lady is still existed in N. Korea as you know.

So far I know, the reason they don't need traffic sign is because there is no car! hahaha

36. rifle .. People guessed they are Japanese cops.. none knows. but I don't really think Japanese cops can act like that in 1950. It is 20 years after being extricated.

What they are wearing is traditional (70's style) school uniform.

70's