Downtown Seoul (), also known as Seoul Central Business District or Sadaemun-An, is traditional city center and central business district of Seoul, located through Gwanghwamun of Jongno District and Seoul Station of Jung District along the Sejong-daero and Jong-ro. For its time-honored and unique geographic status in Seoul, the downtown is usually just called the Central Business District (Seoul CBD), or sometimes Gwanghwamun Business District for the landmark 'Gwanghwamun' at the heart of it.
History and status Joseon
Seoul in the age of Joseon was called Hanyang (or by official name of its administrative division and governing authority Hanseong-bu). As it was a walled city, presence of the Seoul City Wall made great influence on imagined geographies of Seoul, like the London Wall surrounding Londinium. By the Seoul City Wall, Hanseong-bu was divided into two regions; an urban downtown space named as Seong-jung () or Doseong-an () area inside the city wall, and peripheral areas named Seongjeosimni () which was a ring-shaped region 10 ris (Korean mile) outside of the City Wall.
Seoul was a planned capital of the Joseon, as geographic embodiment of Confucianism. The cityscape of Hanseong-bu's downtown area was also created by adaptive cultural diffusion of Confucianism. According to Confucian classics, construction of capital city () should follow several Confucian principles on city planning. For example, Rites of Zhou instructs principle of '左祖右社 面朝後市' (), which means 'With the main palace at the center, Confucian royal ancestral shrine (祖) goes to the left, Altar of Soil and grain (社) to the right, cabinet buildings (朝) to the front, and marketplace (市) to the behind'. Following this Confucian instruction, Jongmyo and Sajikdan were placed on the left and the right of the main palace Gyeongbokgung. Also, Six Ministries, cabinet of the Joseon government was placed right in front of Gyeongbokgung's main gate Gwanghwamun. Government buildings and official residences for the Six Ministries were built on both sides of the road just outside of the Gwanghwamun, and the road was called ( or ). However, Joseon could not place the official marketplace behind Gyeongbokgung, because the main palace Gyeongbokgung was built almost right in front of the mountain Bugaksan. So Joseon had to detour instructions from Rites of Zhou, by building the only licensed-official market in Seoul, the , along the Unjongga (now Jongno street), which was southeast side (front side) of the main palace.
This adjusted city planning in early Joseon created continuous commercial area in form of east-west axis around the Jonggak belfry, starting from southern end of the to eastern end of the Unjongga (located near present-day Wongaksa Pagoda). This traditional cityscape of Hanyang city's downtown area is still continued even in present-day Seoul, even through two major wars (Japanese and Qing invasion) in Joseon dynasty, colonial governance of Japanese Empire, and the Korean War after liberation. Government Complex Seoul along the Sejong-daero (former Yookcho Street), and headquarters of largest companies around Jongno are clear examples of such time-honored history and tradition.
Korean Empire In reign of the Korean Empire, the name of Seoul was Hwangseong (, meaning 'City of the Emperor'. Structural modernization in cityscape of Hwangseong's downtown area was started during initial decade of the Korean Empire, when the empire sustained political autonomy. For example, from 1898 to 1904, when the Korean Empire maintained autonomy in state governance, tram (1899) and electric street light (1900) were first introduced to Downtown Seoul's cityscape. Also, the Korean Empire's first Emperor Gojong relocated substantial parts of main palace's function from Gyeongbokgung to Deoksugung, and introduced modern railway transportation. These reforms led to strategic expansion of roads connecting Gyeongbokgung, Deoksugung and the Seoul Station, creating another important cityscape in downtown Seoul as form of north-south axis.
However, as the Korean Empire lost substantial autonomy after signing Treaty of 1905, Japanese colonial officials began to drive cityscape reconstruction. Spatial reorganization in this early colonial period was targeting subordination of Korean Empire's royal government and advancing authority of colonial government. Some of notable tough reforms during this period includes reconstructing royal palaces into public parks and zoo, and modernizing city roads.
Colonial Korea under Japanese rule
Although the area of Downtown Seoul inside the city wall had maintained a single integrated urban sphere for about 600 years through Joseon dynasty and Korean Empire, Japanese Government-General on Colonial Korea divided Keijō's downtown area into two modern administrative divisions of Keijō in 1943; Jongno District and Jung District. This abrupt division explains why it is hard to explain pre-modern history of Jongno District and Jung District separately.
Abrupt partition of Downtown Seoul's urban structure by Japanese colonial government was influenced by ethnic distribution inside the area. During the early periods of Colonial Korea, most of Japanese people were living in southside of the Cheonggyecheon inside the City Wall, an area named by Koreans as Namchon (), compared to Bukchon () where most of influential Koreans were living in. Despite the actual geographic dissociation between Japanese and Korean were getting mitigated over time, this geographic stereotype later encouraged local government of Keijō-fu to divide area of Downtown Seoul into Jongno District and Jung District, according to natural boundary of the Cheonggyecheon. Most of Keijō's influential economic institutions were newly constructed in southside of the Cheonggyecheon, even famous in the current names of Myeong-dong and Sogong-dong. Key examples of these buildings include Bank of Chōsen and Keijō Post Office. In contrast, native Korean people lived in relative squalor in Bukchon, an area to the north of Cheonggyecheon. The famous hanok town in Bukchon Hanok Village, created from the 1910s to 1930s during the colonial period, is one of symbolic space showing such ethnic disparity inside modern Keijō.
Yet it is remarkable that the colonial government's reconstruction of Keijō was not solely driven by interests of Japanese people living in Colonial Korea, because the colonial government sincerely wanted to assimilate entire Joseon's geographic culturescape under modern Japanese influence. While Japanese people in Keijō demanded reconstruction of the city to be centered in their main residential area alongside of the 'Honmachi' (now Chungmu-ro), colonial government intentionally pursued absorbing iconic Korean spaces outside of Honmachi into modernized Japanese architecture. Clear example of what Chōsen's colonial government intended is found in construction of Government-General of Chōsen Building, built right in front of Gyeongbokgung, which is northern part of Cheonggyecheon. This building, constructed during 1912 to 1926, was directly targeting reorganization of traditional integrated downtown space from main palace Gyeongbokgung to government buildings of Six Ministries around Yookcho Street.
South Korea '50s and '60s: Liberation and Korean War
Even though the Japanese colonial government intentionally divided Keijō's downtown area into Jongno District and Jung District, its 600-years old spatial integration as Doseong-an still demanded a broad term encompassing two administrative divisions together. During the Korean War, a tragic civil war initiated by Kim Il Sung five years after Korea's liberation, United States army sent to Korea began to call this area as Downtown Seoul.
Fortunately, though some of dongs (Korean unit of neighborhood) suffered huge destruction, major areas of Downtown Seoul could evade bombardments during the Korean War. Eight neighborhoods (among approximately 400 neighborhoods) were redeveloped into modern grid patterned city blocks, due to heavy destruction during the war. Myeong-dong is one of such neighborhood. Former head of South Korean delegation to Japan in 1950, Kim Yong-ju (金龍周) claims that he was the one who advised General McArthur at the SCAP, Japan, not to bomb major areas in Downtown Seoul.
As Downtown Seoul survived harsh bombardments during the Korean War, its valuable historic sites such as Gyeongbokgung and Jongmyo could be preserved as cultural heritages. However, it also meant that even severely outdated old towns outside of Japanese modernization survived to modern day South Korea. This excessive long history of Downtown Seoul's old town area discouraged urban regeneration in the 1950s as there were too many stakeholders left, creating tragedy of the anticommons. Turning point for urban redevelopment came when the United States president Lyndon B. Johnson visited Seoul in the 1960s. Koreans were upset when their traditional heart of the Seoul city was projected in foreign TV screens as outdated old town, and this public discontent propelled redevelopment of Downtown Seoul as national initiative. Several laws for urban redevelopment to overcome severe tragedy of the anticommons were legislated starting from the 1960s, including forceful institutions such as eminent domain by designated private developers. Yet since South Korea in the 1960s were still emerging and developing country, redevelopment program for Downtown Seoul could not draw enough resources.
'70s and '80s: Urban redevelopment and decentralization
Urban regeneration occurred in the 1970s and '80s, when South Korea got developed enough to attract capital investments for such a program. The excited national atmosphere of preparing for the Asian Games of 1986 and Summer Olympics of 1988 provided chances for investors. Lots of landmark office and hotel buildings in the cityscape of Downtown Seoul were built around this period, such as the Koreana Hotel (built in 1971 along Taepyeong-ro), the headquarters building for Daewoo Group (built in 1977 along Toegye-ro), and the headquarters building for Kyobo Life Insurance Company (built in 1980 along Sejong-ro).
A priority target of urban regeneration during this period was turning Downtown Seoul from a disorganized mixture of residential and commercial districts into a homogenous central business district. Thus, one of its main goals was discouraging settlement populations in Downtown Seoul. Forced relocation of prestigious secondary schools (i.e. Kyunggi and Whimoon High School) from Downtown Seoul to the Gangnam region was a symbolic project to achieve this goal. The national government strongly supported such a relocation project through a bundle of policies called 'Equalization policy for high schools' (). Under this policy, the entrance exam for high school was abolished, and a lottery system for entrance was introduced. Yet there were restrictions for chances to enter this lottery; middle school graduates could apply for admission to high schools only near their homes. These policies prompted enthusiastic Korean parents, who wanted their children to get admission to renowned high schools by municipal lottery, to move to the Gangnam region, thus decreasing demand for housing inside Downtown Seoul. Also, this project eventually supplied vacant space available for commercial development, which were left by relocated secondary schools. The total space created by this project was approximately 27 hectares, and most of the lots were filled by high-rise office building developments. For example, the empty site left by Whimoon High School at Jongno District was developed into the headquarters building for Hyundai Group in 1986.