Olympic Park: A Hill with a Pavilion on Top, and a Tree on Its Own

513 metres from Olympic Park Station, Exit 3, to South Gate 1

From Olympic Park Station Exit 3 to Olympic Park South Gate 1: 513 m, 7 minutes by map route (TMAP pedestrian route calculation). The park map on the Olympic Park website gives the Rose Plaza as “570 m from Olympic Park Station Exit 3, South Gate 1”.

By the pedestrian route of a map app, it is 513 m, or 7 minutes, from Exit 3 of Olympic Park Station to the park’s South Gate 1. The park website’s directions list Olympic Park Station Exits 3 and 4 (Lines 5 and 9), Mongchontoseong Station Exit 1 (Line 8) and Hanseong Baekje Station Exit 2 (Line 9). The park map on the website puts the Rose Plaza 570 m from Exit 3 of Olympic Park Station, by South Gate 1. Find on a map

On the walk from the exit, Lulu doesn’t raise her camera. She looks first at what her friend will see first on this walk. Through the gate, the first hill of the day is beside the Rose Plaza.

On the park map, the gates carry a direction and a number: South Gate 1, South Gate 2, East Gate 1. At the top of the note for her friend, Lulu writes the exit number and the gate name side by side. “Exit 3, South Gate 1.” In a park this big, the gate you came in by becomes your way back.

“Maru” means the top

Olympic Park website (Nine Scenes): Scene 8, Deulkkot Maru, is a 2,800 m² wildflower garden laid out together with the Deulkkot Maru rest area beside the Rose Plaza and the Olympic Culture Center. “Maru” is a native Korean word meaning the top or the best, and there is a pavilion (wondumak) on top of the Deulkkot Maru hill. From spring to autumn, wildflowers of many kinds line the slopes on both sides. Its story heading calls it a garden in the city where a festival of flowers comes with every season.

In the website’s Nine Scenes, Scene 8 is Deulkkot Maru — called “Wild Flower Garden” on the English home page and “Flower Garden” on the English Top 9 page — a 2,800 m² wildflower garden laid out together with the Deulkkot Maru rest area beside the Rose Plaza and the Olympic Culture Center. “Maru” is a native Korean word for the top, or the best, and the site says there is a pavilion (wondumak) on top of the hill. From spring to autumn, it goes on, wildflowers of many kinds line the slopes on both sides. Find on a map

The Korea Tourism Organization describes the same place a little differently: a large wildflower garden set on the slope of a small hill, with the pavilion at the very top and a narrow footpath running up between wide flower beds on either side. The park map gives the pavilion’s position in a single line: beside the Rose Plaza, at the top of Deulkkot Maru.

Lulu raises her camera once at the bottom of the footpath. Looking up, the path runs towards the pavilion at the top. Then she climbs slowly and, beside the pavilion, turns around. The slope she has just come up lies below her in one view.

In the note for her friend, Lulu writes: “Climb up to the pavilion, then turn around.” On a hill whose name means the top, she thinks the real picture is the one you see after you’ve got there.

Flowers and the lines of the slope

Olympic Park website (Nine Scenes): Deulkkot Maru’s seasonal flower guide covers field poppies and rapeseed in spring (May–June), and yellow cosmos in autumn (September–October).

Deulkkot Maru’s seasonal flower guide covers field poppies and rapeseed in spring (May–June), and yellow cosmos in autumn (September–October). Find on a map

Her friend is coming next month. The autumn flower guide covers September and October. Lulu changes her note: “Frame the pavilion and the lines of the slope together.” However many flowers there are, the pavilion at the top and the line of the slope still make a photo.

Lulu copies down the spring line too: poppies and rapeseed, May to June. That one is for whenever her friend comes back in spring. The website calls Deulkkot Maru a garden in the city where a festival of flowers comes with every season. Lulu takes the name to mean that the same slope changes its flowers with the seasons.

One Tree Hill: a lawn listed as open all year

Olympic Park website (lawn facilities): lawns open all year round — the picnic area, the family playground and the lone tree; lawns open 1 June to 31 October — 88 Madang, Jiguchon Park and Exhibition Madang. Lawns are closed during the new-shoot and dormant period (1 November to 31 May of the following year), while damaged areas recover, and in other special circumstances. Pets are not allowed on the lawns, and sunshades, tents and other activities that damage the grass are not permitted.

The way to the second hill follows one line of the park map. It places the lone tree — Nahollo Namu in Korean — on the right as you go up along the Mongchontoseong walking path, after crossing Gommal Bridge from the Seoul Olympic Parktel. The park’s English pages call the spot “One Tree Hill”. Find on a map

Why this tree came to stand alone is something Rina wrote about in the fourth piece. Lulu is noting a different line today. In its table of opening periods, the website’s guide to the lawns lists the lawns at the picnic area, the family playground and the lone tree as open all year round. The 88 Madang, Jiguchon Park and Exhibition Madang lawns are open from 1 June to 31 October.

Her friend is coming in November. Lulu stops her pen at this line. The opening-period table lists the lone-tree lawn as open all year. The same page also lists 1 November to 31 May as a lawn-control period, but it does not state whether that line also applies to the lone-tree lawn. It also says lawns are closed while damaged grass recovers and in special circumstances. Lulu writes in her note: “November: listed as open all year. Check the latest notice before going.” Pets are not allowed on the lawns, and visitors are asked not to put up sunshades or tents.

From the edge of the lawn, Lulu looks at the tree for a long while. In the photo on the website’s Nine Scenes page, it is a dense, rounded mass of green standing alone on a gentle grassy rise. So as not to stand exactly where that photo was taken, Lulu steps a few paces to the side.

Two photos out of nine scenes

Olympic Park website: “The most beautiful places in Olympic Park, the Nine Scenes” — the nine most beautiful places in the park, with a name (gugyeong, 九景) that also carries the Korean sense of “going sightseeing”, are photography spots recommended by Korea’s association of photographic artists. Scene 6 is the lone tree; Scene 8 is Deulkkot Maru.

The website introduces the Nine Scenes as the nine most beautiful places in the park, with a name that also carries the Korean sense of going sightseeing. It adds that they are photography spots recommended by Korea’s association of photographic artists. Deulkkot Maru is Scene 8; the lone tree is Scene 6. Find on a map

As the afternoon wears on, the tree’s shadow stretches out across the grass. Lulu doesn’t put the tree in the middle of the frame. She puts it to one side and leaves plenty of sky and grass for the rest. A tree on its own looks alone when there is space around it.

Commercial photography and film or advertising shoots require prior approval, and unauthorised drone flights are restricted.

Lulu’s camera is small, and she doesn’t use a flash.

Lulu scrolls back through the photos from Deulkkot Maru. There, a line made the picture: the footpath running up to the pavilion at the top. Here, empty space makes it. Two hills in one park, each a photo for the opposite reason — that is what Lulu wants to tell her friend.

Late in the afternoon, at the edge of the lawn, Lulu opens her notebook. She has two photos for her friend: the slope of Deulkkot Maru seen from beside the pavilion, looking back down, and the lone tree with plenty of sky left around it. On the first she writes, “The pavilion and slope together.” On the second, “Listed as open all year; check before a November visit.”

Lulu’s quiet recommendation comes in two parts. At Deulkkot Maru, climb up to the pavilion at the top and look back. In front of the lone tree, leave a tree’s worth of empty space around it. For the story of how the tree came to stand alone, and the path along the top of Mongchontoseong’s walls, see Rina’s piece in this issue.

(※ This article includes staged images created with AI.)