There is a village named Geombok-ri outside the east gate of Namhansanseong Fortress where the old Namhansanseong path passes. Geombok-ri's name originated from Geombukcham, one of the relay stations located in the area that was installed during the Joseon Dynasty based on the relay station system. A relay station, or yeokcham in Korean, is a term combining yeok and cham that refers to the agency responsible for transportation and communication of the traditional era. Geombukcham was a post where people from the countryside on their way up to Hanyang via the old Namhansanseong path could stay before passing through Namhansanseong Haenggung Palace. Common citizens, however, could not use these stations, so they would usually stay at a jumak, a traditional Korean tavern. This seems to be how the use of jumaks spread so rapidly in the late Joseon period. As if to carry on the tradition, there are numerous restaurants in business in Geombok-ri where Geombukcham was originally located. Although the stations and taverns have long since disappeared in Geombok-ri, the jangseung, a Korean traditional totem pole, still stands in its place to greet passersby.

Yeok, or a station that lies at the core of Joseon’s yeokcham system, was responsible for delivering official documents of the central and provincial regions, transporting public goods, receiving envoys from other countries, and providing accommodations for them. However, as the Ming Dynasty’s pabal, or post station system was introduced after the Japanese invasion of Joseon, functions such as communication of military information generated on the borders were mainly delivered via pabal, and the yeoks served as a traffic route for transport of government supplies including public items and goods presented to the king. Joseon did its best to maintain the yeokcham system as verified in Yuan and introduced by Goryeo. Despite the fact that the system resulted in various defects and negative aspects as years passed by, there was no superior transportation and communication system more outstanding than this one, so great efforts were spent to continuously reform and maintain the system. But the wave of modernization was inevitable; the system that Joseon strove to keep until the end was eventually abolished in 1895.

The yeokcham system, the transportation and communication system in Joseon Dynasty, was a systematic means installed to support the transfer and management of documents, envoy visits, or transportation. People traveling on official duty could borrow horses at a yeokcham, or station, for use. In the late Joseon period, however, the private or unauthorized use of horses increased, and as operation of the stations struggled due to cost issues, supply and demand for horses became unstable. Where goods were transported on roads, stagecoaches on four wheels carried by oxen were used instead of the two-wheeled sodalguji. Why does an ox pull a stagecoach? At the time, a carriage could be carried by either a horse or an ox.