Broken Promises and a Childhood Lost in Time

For most of my childhood before going to school elsewhere in Seoul, I lived in Yongsan, a district in the middle of Seoul with a unique history. Home to both Seoul Station and Yongsan Station, Yongsan has been a gateway to Seoul ever since the dawn of the railway in Korea. Foreign presence also shaped this district to how it is today; the Yongsan military base in the center of the district, which was used by Japan, later the US, and now returned to the public for a large public park, essentially made this district donut-shaped, which makes different corners of this district distinct from one another.

What I want to talk about isn't a blanket statement on Seoul and its holistic qualities as a city, but rather an opportunity to look back on how different factors of the area's history shaped both me and my neighborhood.

Before I was born, in fear of rising global conflict, Seoul's house prices took a momentary dip. My parents took the opportunity to purchase an apartment right in the Yongsan neighborhood of Ichon. Not only was Ichon next to the beautiful Han River, but it was adjacent to the Han River Railway Bridge, and the former Capital Area Train Maintenance Depot. Every day, I would see all sorts of trains passing through from the windows of my apartment. Sometimes, my grandma and I would walk to the Han River Park near our apartment to say hi to the trains passing through the railway bridge, or take a peek with my dad at the railway depot.

The neighborhood was overall nice to live in. As mentioned, the Han River was basically a huge linear park that I can cycle and hang out on, and there is a footbridge across the highway to the park where I can take pictures of the trains passing along me. Groceries can be done on foot, and I barely had to venture outside before going to school.

2009 Aerial of the maintenance facility (low, blue roofs and adjacent), the post office building (center-left, square with greenish roof) and the neighborhood I grew up in (apartments along the river). Note the railway bridge (lower middle) and the new Yongsan station (center-right, grey box building) built for the new high-speed rail system.

The Capital Area Train Maintenance Depot in Yongsan was one of the biggest railway maintenance facility in Korea. Opened in 1905 next to Yongsan Station, it was also the oldest train maintenance depot in the Korean peninsula. By the time I was growing up, it took the duty of refurbishing and maintaining the various diesel trains that were still being operated, as well as subway trains for Seoul's Line 1.

Of course, nothing stays forever. I was born on the year where Korea opened its high-speed rail system, and the diesel trains I used to see every day started to be retired as I left my childhood apartment for elementary school. Plans were already drafted before I was born to close the depot and move its capabilities to the high speed rail maintenance facility on the outskirts of Seoul, and redevelop the site as the Yongsan International Business District, with towering skyscrapers on the site of the once historic depot. Finally in 2012, the more-than-a-century-old maintenance facility and the nearby post office building came down, making space for something new.

My own photo from Yongsan Station in December 31, 2025. The site of the demolished depot is on the right (west) of this photo, still lined with construction walls, waiting to be redeveloped. The apartments where I grew up in is along the background. The site was full of overgrown grass and trees in 2020-2021.

What will come in the place for the demolished facility has been in speculation for more than a decade. Timing was tragic; this was only a few years after the 2009 Yongsan Tragedy, where a fire broke out amongst a protest regarding compensation for a redevelopment site not so far away, leading to 6 people losing their lives. Since our neighborhood was also set for redevelopment, some residents, including my grandma, strongly opposed the project. Whenever I would come see my grandma, who was still living in the apartment, I would see huge banners hung across the entire side facade, expressing the lack of communication and the grievance for yet another tragedy. The project will go through several name changes and several planning maps, and when I still go visit grandma's apartment during breaks, I would see through the window the empty site where the maintenance facility was,

Current rendering for the redevelopment site, now dubbed Yongsan Seoul Core.

Perhaps, the site would have been better off if the invaluable maintenance facility was simply repurposed into a railway museum, as it was briefly proposed to relocate the museum over here. Or perhaps, the concerns regarding redevelopment was overblown, and it should have been already redeveloped into the "biggest project in Korean history." Whatever the case, the time and space I grew up in had a profound effect on my life. The area fostered my lifelong interest in trains and public transit as a whole, and now, I am pursuing a career in transportation planning. Maybe, by the time I start working as a transportation planner, this area would change again, just like how I did.