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`The subway in Seoul, the first ever built in Korea, goes into operation on August 15, 1974. The first leg of the planned Seoul subway system the Chongno Line covers a distance of 10.31km between the Seoul Railroad Station and Chongryangni. A major engineering feat, it was constructed in three years and four months at a cost of 33,000 million won. It required a total of 2,800,000 man-days. The line, which has nine subway stations, is expected to transport an average of 400,000 persons daily in the initial phase and eventually as many as 1,000,000 persons a day. The first and most urgent one of the five projected metropolitan subway lines, the subway runs through the City Hall Plaza and Chongno, the busy downtown section of the capital city, and is directly connected at the terminals - the Seoul Railroad Station and Chongryangni - with electrified railroad lines leading to Inchon and Suwon as well as the Songbuk area. As a result, travel between downtown Seoul and any major outlying area within the radius of 45km will now take less than an hour. The subway and its extensions will thus serve as the capital`s key mass transit system facilitating public transportation east through west in the core area and suburban travel south and north of the Han River. To celebrate the historic opening of the subway and give it a wide publicity at home and abroad, the Ministry of Communications is issuing this commemorative postage stamp.`