071125 - Yongsan, Korea Memorial War

This time, I covered the South of Seoul, across the Han River. I took an early Subway to Yongsan which is famous for its enormous wholesale electronics market, selling everything from computers, computer parts, DVDs, CDs, cellphones, GPS (more advance than Garmin, its like GPS + TV) and many other types of electronic goods. You named it, they have it. The whole city is like an electronic district with more than 3000 stores. Few large electronic malls are located in this area. I reached here around 9am++ and most of the stalls are preparing to start their business. You will be spoilt by the wide range of varieties and the price here is about 20% cheaper as compared to Seoul.

Since the weather was lovely today and not many traffic yet, I decided to take a walk from Yongsan to Korea Memorial War. According to the map, there’s no direct walkway to Korea Memorial War except for main road which is quite dangerous. So I took the small walkway, where I have to go through the housing area, back lane, bridges and took me almost 45 minutes to reach my next destination. That was really exhausting. Lesson learned, take a subway to Samgakji Station and walk for 5 minutes, you will be at Korea Memorial War.

At the Korea Memorial War which was officially opened in 1994, the admission fee is free unless you want to enter the exhibit inside the building by paying 3000won. It’s really worth it. Upon entering the Memorial War on the West Gate, I was greeted by the Statue of Two Brothers, the elder a South Korean soldier and the younger a North Korean soldier, which symbolizes the tragic situation of Korea's ideological division. There’s a movie related to this story too.

The main building


Cute Korean boy posed for me

Then I saw this tall monument, The Korean War Monument with sculptures of people well portray the fighting sprit of the Korean ancestors.






In the outside exhibition area, there are around 100++ different kinds of weapons and large military equipments that were used in World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War are displayed

Insert 1000/2000won and this tank will roar a similar sound of the actual tank

Landing Vehicle

Sphere with faces

War plane

Helicopter

20mm Vulcan Anti-Aircraft Gun

A submarine

Air boat from US

Semi-submarine from North Korea

Interior of a war plane


Interior of a tank

Next to the restaurant, there is a wedding exhibition area, displaying all the typical Korean wedding ceremony



A carriage

Colorful rice cake

A pair of Mandarin ducks

Striking red fake flower at the wedding exhibition area

At the main building, before entering the memorial hall, there is a monument for the Republic of Korea (ROK) Armed Forces soldiers, policemen and UN Forces that were killed in action.

In the memorial hall, there are rows of black marbles monuments inscribes with names of those who dies during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

The Clock Tower of Peace, the clock on the left shows the current time and the clock on the right was stopped by battle damage during the Korean War. When Korea is reunited, a new clock will replace the broken one. Highly unlikely this will happen, looking at the high tension relationship between South and North Korea now.

I exited through the West Gate and took another 15 minutes walk to Itaewon.