Seoul Forest: The Waterworks You Only Notice the Second Time

202 metres from Seoul Forest Exit 4

From Exit 4 of Seoul Forest Station (Suin–Bundang Line) to Seoul Forest Gate 2, the map route is 202 m, about 3 minutes (TMAP pedestrian route calculation).

A map app’s walking route puts Gate 2 of Seoul Forest 202 metres and three minutes from Exit 4 of Seoul Forest Station on the Suin–Bundang Line. The city’s parks page agrees: about two minutes on foot from Exit 4 of Seoul Forest Station, or about ten from Exit 8 of Ttukseom Station on Line 2. Find on a map

Past the gate, a broad path runs on between rows of trees. Rina slows down. Last time she left by the far end after dark, so this is her first time coming in through this side. It’s the same park, but a different gate makes it feel like somewhere new. On the second line of her notebook she writes last time’s route backwards: footbridge, Hill of Wind, and everything before that — “don’t know.”

Hunting ground, waterworks, racecourse

Seoul Metropolitan Government: Seoul Forest was long ago a royal hunting ground and, from 1908, Seoul’s first water-supply source. It was later used as a racecourse and a golf course. In 2002 the city decided, for citizens’ right to green space, to create a large park instead of the Ttukseom development project.

This is how the Seoul Metropolitan Government tells the park’s story. Long ago it was a royal hunting ground. In 1908 it became Seoul’s first water-supply source, and later it was used as a racecourse and a golf course. In 2002 the city decided to build a large park here instead of going ahead with the Ttukseom development project. Find on a map

The park opened on 18 June 2005. The city says some 5,000 citizens contributed funds and volunteer work while it was being made. It covers 480,994 square metres, divided into four themed areas: the Culture and Art Park, the Eco Forest, the Experiential Learning Park and the Wetland Eco Park. There are 415,795 trees, and the page gives pines, Japanese white pines and katsura trees as examples.

Rina writes four words down the page: hunting ground, waterworks, racecourse, forest. When she passed through in the evening, this was simply a big park. Following the city’s description, water and the racecourse, at least, have left traces inside today’s park. Now she knows what she’s looking for.

Flowers in the frames where water once settled

Seoul Metropolitan Government: the Gallery Garden reuses the structures of the old water-treatment plant’s sedimentation tanks as they were, as a garden of colourful flowers and climbing plants.

The first trace is water. According to the city, the Gallery Garden reuses the structures of the old plant’s sedimentation tanks as they were, planted with colourful flowers and climbing plants. The Insect Botanical Garden is a greenhouse made from the plant’s former rapid-filtration building. Find on a map

Rina spends a long time looking at the plants growing between the old frames. Where water was once left to settle, the frames now hold flowers and vines. Had she come by in the evening, these frames would just have been dark walls. You need daylight to see what’s inside them. She walks once round the edge, trying to picture which way the water flowed. She adds a question mark in her notebook.

The Insect Botanical Garden is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last entry 4.30 p.m.) and closed on Mondays. From November to February it closes at 4 p.m. The Butterfly Garden opens from May to October over the same hours, also closed on Mondays. On her evening visit, both would already have been shut. Sitting on a bench, Rina writes: “Greenhouse — daytime only.”

Three centimetres deep, and a horse called “Start”

Seoul Metropolitan Government: the Mirror Pond, a shallow pond 3 cm deep, holds the surrounding scenery like a painting, and is one of Seoul Forest’s well-known photo spots, always busy with people capturing the metasequoias reflected in it.

Before looking for the second trace, Rina stops at the Mirror Pond. The city describes it as a shallow pond just 3 cm deep that holds the scenery around it like a painting — one of Seoul Forest’s well-known photo spots, always busy with people trying to capture the metasequoias reflected in it. Find on a map

Once you know the number, the pond looks different. It isn’t a pond for depth. It’s a pond for its surface. Rina stands at the edge and looks not into the water but at the trees lying on top of it.

Photography or filming that requires prior coordination comes with place restrictions. For filming that needs prior arrangement, the city’s photography guidelines list the surface of the Mirror Pond as a place where filming isn’t allowed.

The racecourse survives as a sculpture. According to the city, the horse sculpture was made to mark the fact that this land was a racecourse before Seoul Forest existed. It’s titled “Start,” and stands for a new leap forward. Rina writes “racecourse → start” and underlines it.

The deer’s forest and the Hill of Wind

Seoul Metropolitan Government: Eco Forest (deer pen, footbridge) open 5:30–21:30.

Further in is the Eco Forest. The city introduces the sika deer enclosure as the place to meet the deer that have become a symbol of Seoul Forest. The Eco Forest, with the deer pen and the footbridge, is open from 5.30 a.m. to 9.30 p.m. Seoul Forest itself is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, but this area keeps its own hours. Find on a map

Rina watches quietly, a step back from the fence. In the evening it never occurred to her to come this far in. While she watches, she reads the four words in her notebook again: hunting ground, waterworks, racecourse, forest. Today she found traces of water and of the racecourse. Of the hunting ground there was nothing — not on the city’s page, not on today’s route. She leaves that as a reason to come a third time.

The footbridge crosses Seoul Forest in the air, running from the Hill of Wind to Hangang Park. The Hill of Wind is the highest point in Seoul Forest. That bridge is exactly the way Rina left on her evening walk. She didn’t know then which part of the park it belonged to. The city’s page lists it, together with the deer pen, as part of the Eco Forest.

As midday approaches, Rina closes her notebook at the edge of the big lawn. On this second visit she saw three new things: flowers in the frames where water once settled, a pond only three centimetres deep, and a horse named “Start” standing where a racecourse used to be.

From Yeouido through Banpo and Mangwon to Seoul Forest, four parts following the river and the parks along its banks. Next, the issue continues west to Seoul Botanic Park in Magok. Rina heads towards the Hill of Wind. Last time that bridge was the end of the day. This time it’s the way out to the river.

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