A Profile of the “TDC Ville”, South Korea
The “TDC Ville” known in Korean as Bosan-dong, is the section of the city of Dongducheon located just across the street from the front gate of Camp Casey.
Camp Casey front gate, with Soyo Mountain in the background. I once saw a soldier arrested by the KNPs for pissing on the Indian statue.
This area is known as the “TDC Ville” because Dongducheon used to spelled Tonducheon and was shortened by soldiers to TDC. The ville is a bunch of old run down buildings that house a mixture of eating establishments, clubs, and shopping stores. The ville has actually seen much recent change. A large portion of the ville was knocked down to make way for the new subway line that runs through Dongducheon now.
New Dongducheon subway station
The new subway station is just a short walk five minute walk south of Camp Casey’s gate one. The subway is connected to the Seoul subway system and the trains running from Dongducheon actually reach Uijongbu in about 20 minutes. To reach downtown Seoul it takes about an hour and a half. Soldiers can even take this subway line all the way to Songtan, just outside of Osan Airbase, but it is a long two and a half hour ride.
Some of the new buildings across the street from Camp Casey.
One of the fortunate things about knocking down the old buildings is that it has actually brought some much needed urban renewal to the ville. Some park like features have been constructed along with some newer buildings. There are still a number of vacant lots where nothing has been built yet, but I’m sure additional buildings will be constructed in due time.
Vacant lots left over from the subway construction
The ville is boxed on its eastern side by Highway 3 while on its western side is the Highway 3 bypass and to it’s north is Camp Mobile. The south of the ville is the Korean portion of Dongducheon known as the 2nd Market area.
Ville area highlighted in red
Shopping in the Ville
The shopping in the ville is really outstanding. You can buy a great hand made suit for about a $100. The tailors can make any suit that you have a picture of. I currently own three suits made in the TDC ville and I have never had any problem with them. You can also have leather jackets made. My leather jacket has lasted seven years so far with no defects. In the ville you can have unit coins, plaques, and other memorabilia made for the half the price it would cost you in the states. I actually had a buddy state side who sent me money to buy some plaques for his unit and to mail them to him because it was cheaper buying plaques from Korea and shipping them then buying them at his current post.
Plenty of shopping to be found in the TDC Ville
You can also buy lots of great Korean trinkets to send to your friends and family. Plus if you like furniture, Korea sells lots of beautiful hand crafted furniture with great oriental designs on them. This is just a small sample of what is for sale in the ville. If you need something the shop owners will find it and sell it to you at a reasonable price. Just make sure you bargain with them because the shop owners will initially give you a high price. In Asian culture you are expected to haggle over prices. So don’t feel rude trying to drive a hard bargain with the local shop owners because it will save you money.
The view from the entrance into the TDC Ville
The Food
The only American fast food establishment off post is the Subway located just outside the front gate. There is actually a Kentucky Fried Chicken located in the actual Korean part of Dongducheon but it is located quite a distance from the camp. The other restaurants are local Koreans who cook up everything from hamburgers, steaks, pizza, and Korean food for hungry GIs. Also it is possible to find Filipino eating establishments as well.
The Night Life
As far as the night life is concerned the TDC ville is loaded with clubs. The majority of the clubs are really sleazy joints with the infamous “drinky girls” in them. If you don’t know what a drinky girl is, let me explain it to you. A drinky girl is usually a third country national from mostly the Philippines that you can buy a drink of usually orange juice for $20 bucks and they sit there and make conversation with you. I’m not kidding it costs $20! What is more amazing is that people keep buying them these drinks. The last time I was in Korea the girls would at least hang all over you and you could feel them up but things have changed now quite a bit.
Picture of a “juicy girl” in the TDC Ville from a Time Magazine article on human trafficking and the US military in Korea.
Plus the last time I was in Korea the prostitution was quite public and in the open. The bar owners would always hit you up to buy the girl’s time for $200-$400 and to go back to the hotel and do whatever. However, things now are much more concealed due to the recent exposure the whole prostitution scene received due to multiple exposes’ in multiple media outlets expressing their outrage at prostitution in Korea. The problem I got with this publicity is that it is implied that the US Army is allowing this prostitution to go on when it is the Koreans that are allowing it.
What really annoys me is that the drinky girls in the media are treated as victims even though most of them know what they are getting into and enjoy the attention and financial incentives of being a drinky girl. The few Russian girls that are left are in it for money and are really smart about playing soldiers and sucking as much money out of them as possible. I know many a GI that has lost his shirt to a Russian drinky girl. The Filipino drinky girls are mostly looking to get married to a GI so they can escape the poverty of their home country. I can’t say I blame them.
A street filled with sleazy bars in the TDC Ville.
However, the juicy girls that do play soldiers are extremely effective and if you go through my USFK Crime Archive you will see many cases of soldiers committing crime to feed their juicy girl habit. For some soldiers these girls are like drugs and is a leadership challenge that is unique to Korea that NCOs and officers coming to Korea should be aware of. Some of these relationships between young GIs and these girls in the bars end up becoming a marriage that from my own experiences I have seen filled with problems and with most of them failing.
Despite everything I have said about the juicy girls there are some good clubs in TDC. The website for Mojo’s Bar. has a pretty good list of the various bars in the ville as well as which ones to look out for. Some additional clubs worth checking out are located in the actual Korean part of Dongducheon commonly referred to as the 2nd Market Area. Have a KATUSA buddy bring you to one of these clubs so you can try something different out. Who knows you might like it. Plus there are also lots of coffee shops in the area that have phones on the tables where you can call other tables in the shop on. Weird, but fun believe it or not.
Be careful in the 2nd Market area though because there is an area near the bus station where Korean prostitutes display themselves in windows for potential customers that is known as the “Turkey Farm” that is off limits by the army. It is supposed to be off limits due to health reasons but I think it is more because the Koreans don’t want GIs messing with their prostitutes. Also in the 2nd Market Area there is lots of shopping you can do, but once again be careful because the infamous TA-50 Alley is also off limits to US personnel where they sell military equipment stolen by “slicky boys“.
A small park that has been built in the TDC Ville in recent years.
You can view more updated pictures of the TDC Ville now known as Bosan-dong at this link.
The Toko-ri Ville
Another ville area in Dongducheon is the village of Toko-ri right outside the back gate of Camp Hovey:
Toko-ri as viewed from Google Earth.
Toko-ri a few years ago used to be one dirty, sleazy, and crazy place. If you have ever watched the first Stars Wars movie and remember the bar with the space aliens in it, in the city of Mos Eisley, that is what Toko-ri was like.
Obi-wan Kenobi once described Mos Eisley as a “wretched hive of scum and villainy”, Toko-ri wasn’t much different. However, instead of horned, green, or beady eyed aliens, Toko-ri had Filipino and Russian juicy girls covered in chocolate and wax, a retarded barmaid, strippers that used to hold what was known as the P***y Olympics led by a Korean woman known as the Dragon Lady who did anatomy defying things with cigars and beer bottles, and to top it off there was even a midget. Before I had even ever stepped foot in Korea I had heard about the Midget of Toko-ri from old crusty NCOs about how they used to “stick to the midget” especially on New Years; that is how well known she is in the US military. After seeing the midget for myself I can’t imagine why anyone would want to “stick it to the midget”, but hey to each their own.
Anyway I have heard that Toko-ri has really died down and is not the wild place it used to be. I wasn’t able to confirm this myself on my last trip to Korea since my wife probably wouldn’t like the idea of me trying to confirm the status of the P***y Olympics, chocolate covered juicies, and the Midget of Toko-ri. So if anyone reading this knows the current status of Toko-ri feel free to offer you two cents in the comments section.
You can view more updated pictures of Toko-ri which is now spelled Teokgeo-ri at this link.
Overall – As you can see, the options in the TDC Ville are quite numerous. Great shopping, adequate eating establishments, and a very lively night club scene is enough to keep any GI stationed at Camp Casey occupied. It should be enough to do to get you through a year in 2ID. However, just don’t lose your shirt in the ville. Remember drinky doesn’t love you, she loves your wallet. Keep that attitude and you will be alright.
Note: You can read more from the ROK Drop featured series “A Profile of USFK Bases” at the below link:
I enjoyed reminiscing about TDC
Sgt Dave Jakupca
Tact Squad
2nd MP Company
2nd Inf Div
Camp Casey Korea
1971-1972
Holy Shit! Not Even the Same Freaking World when I was there in 1967-1969 As ASA Assigned 31E20 Sgt. Wow! UnBelieveable!
I was stationed on Camp Hovey from ’89-’90. My first time off base was to go to TDC. Mind you, this was a Saturday around noon. I was walking down a “street” and some older lady stopped me asking if I wanted a “pretty, young, girl” I had no clue what I was about to walk into. I knew nothing was going to happen as I was broke at the time, but I played along anyway. Curiosity got the best of me I guess. Anyway, she takes me down an alley and there are literally a dozen women standing in windows. Question answered, I left. After about two or three months in country, my reply to “Pretty, young girl” Became either “Blonde only” or “Little boy” These replies would get them away from me in a hurry. I never had an “alley cat” as they were called. Being I was stationed on Hovey, I mostly partied in Toko-ri. I read the description of the place on here and back then it wasn’t as bad as he made it sound. The was no midget or retarded barmaid, but there was a dancer/stripper that would, in fact, use lit candles in her act.Dripping hot wax all over her body, no chocolate though and no Pussy olympics. There were far fewer clubs in Toko-ri, but they were akways packed full of GIs. No filipinas or russians, just Koreans and the odd chinese girl now and again. $20 and two $8 drinks for a “short-time”, $40 and 3 or 4 drinks for an “overnight”. Trust me, these girls were into their work. I had one woman pull my crank out while I was sitting at the bar, trying to get me to buy her a drink. I had one stand on my chair facing me and she put her skirt over my head. Sure, some of the girls didn’t want to be there, but most did, and you could tell the difference. If you were with a woman in a club, no ther woman in that club would sleep with you. That was the case in almost ALL of the clubs in Toko-ri. At least it was when I was there. The women wouldn’t have you if they didn’t like you either. If you were a prick to them, they stayed away from you. I always treated them with respect and never did anything with them or to them I wouldn’t have done with a girlfriend. Some of these women were drop dead gorgeous too. Some were ugly as sin also. I must admit, I slept with a lot of club girls a lot of times, but it never, ever felt like I was sleeping with a prostitute. There were exceptions, one to be exact. This woman grossed me out right from the start. Crudely rubbing baby oil on herself in an extremely overt fashion. In other words, one leg high in the air, and rubing like she was washing her car. Huge turn off. I paid my money and when we finished, as they always do, she began to wash my privates. I took the opportunity the release a hard nights worth of penned up gas at that exact moment, silently of course. You’d swear she saw a ghost. She jumped up, and ran out of the hooch. She came back a minute or two later with a wash basin full of warm, soapy water and a wash cloth. She then proceded to was my crank, wash my balls, wipe my ass, then wiped my arm pits for good measure. I must admit, I almost pissed myself from laughing so hard. Back then prostitution may have been illegal, but it was right out in the open. I didn’t ever hear about human trafficking or anything like that. My year over there was fun. I had a blast. As with all things, i’m sure it has changed over time. I can see by the photos that the only club left from my time is the Grand Illusion. I actually started a bar girl fight there one night. It was purely unintentional, but still funny as hell. The club owner was tending bar and she was hammered. I was hammered so I was asking her for a short time. Now, she knew I was kidding, she was playing along with the joke. Flirting back at me, the whole while winking. Apparently one of the girls didn’t find it amusing and they started to argue. One thing led to another and there were a dozen or so girls duking it out on the dance floor as my buddy and I made a hasty retreat. Fun times. Got kicked out of the town by SP one night for peeing in the floor bed in front of that club too. At least I didn’t have to walk home. Good times. Wish more guys would share some experiences on here. I have so many more stories about that place to tell.
Fucking idiots. You could tell that they wanted to be there? Egotistical motherfuckers. They were treated no better than the hookers in Harlem. The better the acting, the more money they brought in. How old were they?? You don’t know, don’t care, do you? Would you want your wife, daughter, mother treated like that? Oh…wait…not your problem, it was Korea’s fault.
As for Prostitution being legal at that time , that didn’t go for you GI. I know you saw that same movie I did upon arrival – you know, the one where the guy’s Dick turned black?
Mary Mary…
…quite contrary.
As an opening non-sequitor, there was a tranny bar in Utica called “Midnight Mary’s” back in the 70s. While at Griffiss AFB, we’d make snide and vulgar jokes to each other about which officers and NCOs might be patrons.
Back to the present, the ‘ville #BuyMeDrink culture is/was no worse than the glass houses, the barbershops, the tea houses, and all the related stuff near bus stations and train stations. Room salons were potentially worse as the women were treated with absolute contempt by men who ought to have known better.
Sin infects and affects all humans. And the effects and subsequent defects color all of us, too. All. Of. Us.
Hating people and ranting about one particular sin I think I don’t have doesn’t make me more holy than them. We’re all filthy and fully marinated through and through.
The only “out” is through Christ. Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-10, etc.
I still have a stain around my neck from that fake gold and fake Gucci watch I bought.. I did like that bulgogi and rice… They had killer corn dog stands outside also
The brothels in South Korea are weak compared to Germany and Amsterdam. The difference between the prostitution in Germany and Amsterdam is that it legal and it is a regular job.I was stationed in South Korea twice, back in 2000 and also in 2013. The nightlife there is a trip. I have seen soldiers get paid and will be broke on the same day due to buying girls drinks. I was broke like that back in 2000 during my first tour there. To me a single soldier with no responsibilities or bills should ever be flat broke.
Was in the 1/9th at Hovey in 77 and 78, also had the 1/23rd and 1/38th Inf there as well most likely three of the most hardcore regular straight legged units any wheres to be found including today, we trained hard and partied hard what little time we got to, all the field problems and DMZ patrols, Hot Apple and the Thunder Bolt Mission did not have a lot of time if you broke that year down but what the heck it was still peacetime and crazy. I doubt that when I was there there hadn,t been much change since the Korean Conflict, getting on these sites 6 or 7 years ago completely different by looking at the photo,s, all the girls were Korean away from payday $5 to $7 for a short time around payday $15 or a little more. Going thru Casey,s main gate was the VD guild top 10 board with the street girls always sitting at #1. Only made it to TDC maybe 6 times if that, like the fellow said in the comments hung around Toko-ri most, a lot more simple but not the faction of clubs, I did believe that at least a few of those girls were tricked into being there and kinda owned their soul to the company store but most was pure whores not much different then those around the bases in the States, what,s with all the name changing of Tokori and TDC? Left there Jun of 78 saw a couple of girls at Campbell that landed a Husband just kept walking when I saw one at the PX she had that look please don,t say anything hope it worked out, always thought that I would return but hung it up after 9 years of service sometimes thinking should of stayed other times glad I did. All and all glad that I was there for an year try to watch Korean movies when they are on pretty good too..
For some of the younger ones out there the bar girls was legal, they got checked by US Army medics so many times a month and got a stamped VD card. When they entered a bar they put their card in a rack beside the door when the MP,s came in they would check them out, could still get the clap or shanks from them but was better then taking your chances with the street girls, most Company Commanders would ask to see your condom during any inspection to avoid being the leading company for VD cases that month, a total different time and world back then. Had always heard and believed that the 2nd D lead the world in VD cases and that Columbus Ga was the worst in the States.
I was there 1989 – 1990. They didn’t have the VD cards, but if a girl was there one day and gone the next, you knew what was up. I gotta say, there were some beautiful women in some of the clubs in Tokori. There were some dogs too, but for the most part, they were nice looking women. I was one of the guys that treated them nice. With an exception or two, but 99 times out of 100 I was polite. I gotta say, that worked to my advantage. We went down range every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Monday and Wednesday were because we had light PT tuesdays and Thursdays. Go to the gym on Hovey and pass out in the bleachers. Only backfired on us twice. Once was a battalion run, I shit my pants and ran straight back to the barracks. The other time was a 15 mile road march with gas chamber after 2 miles. That was fun. Aside from that, we drank like fish and screwed anything that moved. Never needed a shot, if you know what I mean. Shit hole country, but GREAT, GREAT times.
I took up for one girl when a buck sgt was on her, he had got the clap from her thought that he was going to take my 18 year old head off, back then the girl got cleaned up and came back to work but sometimes they would ship them to different locations. I was always the nice guy but got to admit immature as most of us was, but when we got far off most of the Koreans were good people, Witness an Korean funeral with the Happy Mount on a hill top, a platoon of us went and painted the children orphanage one weekend, things like that are my best memories of Korea with of course all of those friends that we made maybe seeing one or two on a Army base later always wondering about the others.
I enjoyed Korea. I was in the only AF unit at Camp Red Cloud back in the early 90s. The juicy girls were a trip! Most of the leather, shoes, and trinkets sold was garbage. A helluva ride though. Outside of the bar scene, most Koreans are better and more decent people than most Americans. Same for Japanese people.
79 – 81 2nd S&T BN Bn. S-4
Now CAMP Mobil
Lived in Quonset huts
Now new buildings
Short time. $10
Overnight. $20
If anyone has pix of
S&T BN
or the VILLE during that time
(79-81)
Please forward me a few lol
I lost all my pix in a basement flood
MOOARDON @ Gmail.com
THANKS. DON.
Here’s a link to the patch! Rumor has it, it was awarded in a local bar after 100 missions into tdc. lol
https://www.facebook.com/usmilitarypatches/posts/503226338165711
Iwas there in 1979 TDC I had a blast I wasn’t much of a drinker, but the music was loud, and the girls were fun had a hutch downtown and a girl of course, TDC looks totally deferent now from the photos .