Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Gardens & parks
순천시
Suncheon built a garden to protect its bay. Organisers said the main purpose of the expo was to preserve the mudflats and reed beds of Suncheon Bay. Suncheon Bay National Garden grew out of the site of the 2013 Suncheon Bay International G…
Gardens & parks
가평군
On the slopes of Chungnyeongsan in Gapyeong, The Garden of Morning Calm takes its name from an old epithet for Korea, "the land of the morning calm". Professor Han Sang-kyung of Sahmyook University's horticulture department designed it him…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
In the middle of Yeouido, surrounded by the National Assembly, broadcasters and bank towers, a long strip of woodland crosses the island. Yeouido Park was created on land that had been an airfield and then a vast asphalt plaza, so a walk h…
Gardens & parks
거제시
Oedo Botania is a marine botanical garden covering the whole of Oedo, a small island off the southeast coast of Geojedo. A couple spent more than 30 years shaping this remote island, which once had no electricity, into what you see today.…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Right next to the National Museum of Korea, Yongsan Family Park is a spread of wide lawns and ponds set among gentle slopes. The land was part of the Yongsan military base, used by the Japanese army in the colonial period and by US forces…
Gardens & parks
울산
Stretching along the Taehwa River through the heart of Ulsan, Taehwagang National Garden became Korea's second national garden in 2019, after Suncheon Bay. Its emblem is Simni Bamboo Forest, a long belt of bamboo along the river, and after…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Every autumn the hill of Haneul Park in Seoul's Mapo District ripples with silvery eulalia grass, yet underneath it is a mountain of rubbish. The park was created by capping and stabilising the Nanjido landfill, where Seoul dumped its wast…
Gardens & parks
성남시
Yuldong Park wraps around a reservoir tucked among low wooded hills on the eastern edge of Bundang, Seongnam. The lakeside path is about 2.5 km long and takes around 40 minutes at an easy pace, with lawns, a book-themed garden and a reed b…
Gardens & parks
인천광역시
The whole of Eungbongsan hill above Incheon Port is Jayu Park ("Freedom Park"). Laid out in 1888 by the foreign residents who settled here a few years after the port opened, it was Korea's first Western-style park. Its successive names, fr…
Gardens & parks
인천광역시
In Jangsu-dong, Namdong-gu, set against the slopes of Gwanmosan and Sangasan, lies Incheon's largest park. Covering about 2.66 km² and attracting close to 4 million visitors a year, it is one of the main green escapes of the Seoul metropol…
Gardens & parks
고양시
Ilsan Lake Park was created when the Ilsan new town was built: planners filled a stretch of empty land with water to make an artificial lake. The park covers about 1.03 million m², of which the lake alone takes up about 300,000 m², with wa…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
At the eastern foot of Namsan, right outside Dongguk University Station, Jangchungdan Park is today a neighbourhood park for walks and exercise, but it began as an altar for those who died for the country. Its name comes from Jangchungdan,…
Gardens & parks
제주시
In Jeju, house walls, field boundaries and the walls around graves are all built of black basalt. Jeju Stone Park gathers the life and myths of islanders who lived alongside stone into one museum and nature park. Dol hareubang statues, tom…
Gardens & parks
담양군
Right next to the centre of Damyang, a whole hillside is covered in bamboo. Juknokwon is a bamboo garden that Damyang County planted across Seonginsan and opened in May 2003, with walking paths winding between stems so tall and straight th…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Cheonggyecheon is a stream that runs west to east through the heart of Seoul. For decades it was buried under concrete with an elevated expressway on top; in 2003–2005 the road came down and the stream was brought back to the surface. Toda…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Tapgol Park, laid out in 1897, was Seoul's first modern public park, and it is where the Declaration of Independence was read on 1 March 1919, launching the March First Movement against Japanese rule. It is a small park in the middle of Jo…
Gardens & parks
서울특별시
Hangang Park is the shared name for 11 riverside parks running along both banks of the Han River through Seoul. This is where Seoulites cycle after work, spread out picnic mats at weekends and come for the river breeze at night, so it is t…
Gardens & parks
광주시
Hidden in a valley behind Konjiam Resort in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, the arboretum Hwadamsup is so popular in autumn that tickets for the foliage season sell out fast. The original terrain and woodland on the slopes of Nogobong were kep…