Eleven Seoul Parks, Compared: Seoul Forest, Namsan, the River Parks and Olympic Park

Unlike a palace or a market, a park in Seoul is rarely chosen by the clock. Nine of the eleven here keep no opening hours at all, and only Seonyudo Park has a set hour at which it shuts. Admission runs the same way: nine are recorded as free. For Gyeongui Line Forest Park and Olympic Park both the hours and the admission field are simply empty, which does not mean they keep hours and does not mean they charge — only that it has not been confirmed.

So what to choose on is what you are going for, and how far you are willing to walk. A one-hour park and a half-day park go by the same word here, and that difference is the one worth checking first.

World Cup Park — the stadium seen from the old Nanjido landfill

Vanessaliam (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Dream Forest — the arts centre and tower on the old Dreamland site

lipot07 (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0)

Olympic Park — the World Peace Gate and the lakeside stage

Woohyun Photos (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Seoul's big parks mostly sit on land that held something else

Misjudging the size of a park is the usual way a day here goes wrong. A good many of Seoul's parks were not laid out on empty ground — they went onto land the city had finished with, and the size of that site became the size of the park.

World Cup Park was the Nanjido landfill, which took Seoul's rubbish for fifteen years from 1978. The two hills inside it are made of that rubbish. Dream Forest opened in 2009 on the 660,000-plus square metres that had been the Dreamland amusement park. Olympic Park is the 1988 Olympic venue complex, with an early Baekje earthen fortress inside the same boundary — and several of the stadiums renamed and still in use as concert halls.

The three that need half a day are exactly these three. A landfill, an amusement park and an Olympic complex were large installations to begin with, and the parks inherited their footprints, so none of them is a drop-in.

The same thing happened at the smaller end. Seonyudo Park is the old water treatment works on an island in the Han, converted rather than demolished, so its concrete tanks and settling basins survive as flowerbeds and ponds. It is also the one park here with a closing time — its history as both an island and an industrial plant still visible. Gyeongui Line Forest Park was a railway, which is why there is no car park anywhere along its 6.3km and why its operator tells you to come by public transport.

So what you go to see mostly follows from what the place used to be. To walk, the former railway at Gyeongui Line Forest Park. To look at something, the former water works at Seonyudo. To do nothing at all, the river.

There are more Han River parks than the three listed here

Yeouido, Banpo and Ttukseom are on this list, but Seoul's Han River parks are not only these three. Each district of the river rents out different things and supports a different kind of day.

Here they are only compared alongside the other parks. What each riverside district actually holds is covered separately in the Han River park guide.

Frequently asked questions

If I only visit one park in Seoul, which should it be?

Seoul Forest. It is easy enough to reach that the subway station carries its name, and the woods, wetland and deer enclosure all fit inside one loop that takes about two hours.

Can you enter Seoul's parks at night?

Mostly yes. Nine of the eleven keep no set opening hours. The exception is Seonyudo Park, which shuts at a fixed hour.

Is any of them worth it in the rain?

Seonyudo Park holds up best. The old waterworks structures are still standing, so there is something to look at under cover, and the photographs are better in flat light anyway. The rest is largely a fair-weather list.

Which park works with children?

Ttukseom Hangang Park and Seoul Forest. Ttukseom concentrates the rentable things — bicycles, water play — in one place, and Seoul Forest puts the deer enclosure and playgrounds right beside the walking route.

Which park is best for a night view?

Banpo Hangang Park. The Banpo Bridge rainbow fountain runs after dark, so you have to come in the evening to see it. Naksan Park is the other answer, looking down over the centre from the top of the wall.