[Cultural Excursion] 'Exploring Itaewon's History' with Matt VanVolkenburg

EXCURSION TITLE: Exploring Itaewon’s History


LEADER: Matt VanVolkenburg


DATE: Saturday. October 25, 2025. 2:00-5:00PM

DESTINATION: Itaewon

COST: W25,000 for RAS Korea Lifetime and Annual Members; W30,000 for Non-members

MEETING POINT: At the top of Exit 1 of Noksapyeong Station (녹사평역) #629 (Subway Line No. 6)

RSVP by October 23 (Thursday) with payment of the fee via bank transfer.
Please register one RSVP at a time.
RSVP: https://forms.gle/e4Bp6p9jjSzH9x7G6

☞Payment to be remitted to the following account:
SHINHAN BANK ACCOUNT # 100-026-383501 (RAS-KB)

*Reservation is not confirmed until payment has been received by RAS Korea in advance of the event.


SUMMARY:

Itaewon is a neighborhood of Seoul that everyone knows of, even if they’ve never visited it. Associated for decades with the US military, it became a foreign enclave and, as years passed, drew in religious and sexual minorities while becoming the center of a thriving club and shopping district. It was not, however, the GI clubs that first drew foreigners to the area, but rather a housing settlement for diplomats built after the Korean War. Nor was Joseon-era Itaewon in the location it is today – it was moved southeast to its current location when Yongsan Garrison was built by the Japanese army in the early 1900s. It is most associated today with the tragic events that occurred during Halloween celebrations in 2022, celebrations that grew out of a decade or more of gentrification, but this was not the first wave of gentrification to hit Itaewon – the first was in the mid-1980s as it became a shopping mecca for foreigners and a club district frequented by Koreans.

Only in Itaewon can dive bars, hip eateries, brothels, gay clubs, foreign restaurants, a mosque, and the homes of ambassadors and Korea’s richest be found in one place. Stretching from the 1400s to the present, Itaewon’s history is filled with stories of samurai and Buddhist nuns, American soldiers and sex workers, night clubs and rock bands, race riots and AIDS scares, hip eateries and sidewalk food stalls, gangsters and drug dealers, pastors and trans club owners, and police and smugglers, among others. On this excursion we will explore their stories while examining how Itaewon has changed over the decades.

This walking excursion will set off at 2:00 pm from the top of Exit 1 of Noksapyeong Station (녹사평역, Subway Line No. 6). The excursion will last until about 5:00 and end near Itaewon Station (Subway Line 6). Participants may join Matt afterwards for a coffee or an early dinner (not included in the excursion fee) nearby. The walk has two short uphill sections; comfortable walking shoes are recommended.

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