Choheon - The Wheel of Class

A Korean choheon in the late 19th century Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff

Spring is in the air and the bike lanes along the Han River are filled with enthusiastic riders (many of them ― judging from their behavior ― are still learning to ride), wandering pedestrians who are more concerned with taking a selfie than staying in their designated lanes and electric scooters whose daredevil drivers seem to have watched too many action movies. Bicycle riding in Korea is an enjoyable adventure with a long history.

In April 1884, George Woods, a naval surgeon, wandered the busy streets of Seoul observing the officials and noblemen passing by. Most of them were mounted on "sleek, fat, white ponies with long tails and braided manes" ― each led by a groom, while others rode in chairs borne by two or four bearers. However, the "most curiously mounted" of these nobles was one man who rode in a "choheon." In his journal, Woods wrote:

"[The noble] had an ordinary chair arranged on a frame supported by springs, and this mounted six feet in the air on a single wheel, while four men walked on either side to propel the vehicle, and to keep it in balance. It is an old affair, I am told, but it seemed like a novelty as it moved along with the rapidity of a bicycle."

Savage Landor's sketch of a choheon in Seoul in 1891. Corea or Chosen: The Land of the Morning Calm.

Woods' assessment of it being "an old affair" was relatively correct as it had been invented more than four centuries earlier during the reign of King Sejong and, purportedly, had been viewed by visiting Chinese envoys as a great curiosity. Some members of the Chinese entourage were so enchanted by these wondrous wheels that they bravely mounted and rode them for short distances as a novelty. The choheon were painted in one of two colors ― red (vermilion), if they were for palace use, and black, for nobles.

By the time Woods visited Korea, the use of the choheon appears to have been on the decline as there are very few mentions of it in the correspondences and articles of Western visitors ― with the exception of Arnold Henry Savage Landor, an Englishman. Landor visited Korea in the winter of 1890-91 and provided an informative and entertaining description ― seeping with dry English humor ― of a Korean high official traveling to the palace:

Riding a bike allows you to get off the beaten path in places such as Gangwha Island in 2019. Robert Neff Collection

"You can see that [the noble] is a 'somebody' by the curious skull-cap he is wearing, curled up over the top of his head and with wings on each side starting from the back of his head-gear. His flowing silk gown and the curious rectangular jeweled stiff belt, projecting far beyond his body, denote that he is holding a high position at the Corean Court. A coolie marches in front of him, carrying on his back a box containing the court clothes which he will have to don when the royal palace is reached, all carefully packed in the case, covered with white parchment. Numerous young followers also walk behind his unsteady vehicle. There you see him perched up in a kind of arm-chair at a height of about five feet―sitting more or less gracefully on a lovely tiger skin, that has been artistically thrown upon it, leaving the head hanging down at the back. Under the legless chair, as it were, there are two supports, at the lower end of which and between these supports revolves a heavy, nearly round wheel, with four spokes. Occasionally the wheel is made of one block of wood only, and is ornamented at the sides with numerous round-headed iron nails. There may be also two side long poles to rest on the shoulders of the two carriers ― one in front and one at the back ― a few extra strengtheners on each side, and then you have the complete 'attelage' [team]. So you see, it may be a great honour to be carried about in a similar chair, though to the eyes of barbarians like ourselves it looks neither comfortable nor safe. India-rubber tyres and, still less, pneumatic ones, have not yet been adopted by the Corean chair-maker, and it appeared to me that a good deal of 'holding on' was required, especially when travelling over stony and rough ground, to avoid being thrown right out of one's high position. The grandees whom I saw carried in them seemed to me, judging by the expression on their faces, to be ever looking forward patiently and hopefully to the time for getting out of these perilous conveyances. Certainly when going round corners or on uneven ground I often saw them at an angle that would make the hair of anybody but a grave and sedate Corean official stand on end. The palace gate reached, he is let down gently, the front part of the chair being gradually lowered, and, with a sigh of relief, steps out of it. Immediately he is supported on each side by his followers, and thus the palace is entered, the mono-wheeled chair being left outside standing against the wall, and the tired carriers squatting down to a quiet gamble with the chair-bearers of other noblemen."

King Cheoljong's maternal family's house on Ganghwa Island in 2020 Robert Neff Collection

Landor implied that he witnessed several officials traveling about Seoul on their choheon but I question the accuracy of his observation and suspect he may have been exaggerating. As mentioned earlier, there are very few references by other contemporary observers of this mode of transportation. Also to consider is that rickshaws were introduced into Korea from Japan some seven years earlier and were growing in popularity ― especially with the younger and more progressive elite. Even the bicycle made its initial ― albeit very brief ― appearance on the peninsula in the mid-1880s.

Unlike the choheon and the rickshaw, bicycles are still zipping around the city as forms of transportation, exercise and entertainment for people of all ages ― small children on bright-colored bicycles with training wheels, occasional riders on the green city bikes, and the packs of elderly riders in bicycle attire that, at times, seem more revealing than it should.

I encourage you to go out and join them and witness Korea and its beauty on a bike.

Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.