Seoul Forest

Where it sits. Seoul Forest lies on the north bank of the Han River in Seongdong District, on the flat alluvial ground of Ttukseom, the low peninsula between the river and the mouth of the Jungnangcheon. It covers roughly 1.16 square kilometres, which makes it the third largest park in the city, and it is bounded by the Gangbyeonbuk-ro expressway on the river side, the Seongsu-dong workshops to the east and the Bundang line to the west. A footbridge over the expressway connects it to the riverside path, so the park and the Han River walk function as one continuous open space.

The story behind it. Ttukseom has been public land for six centuries. It was a royal hunting ground and cavalry pasture in the Joseon period, and the name derives from the banners raised here during royal military inspections. In the twentieth century it took on the city's overflow uses: a water treatment plant, a golf course, a sports park and, from 1954 to 1989, the Ttukseom Racecourse, which moved to Gwacheon when the site was needed for the Seoul Olympics era build-out. The park as it exists opened in June 2005 after a development programme costing 235.2 billion won, deliberately conceived as a large, free, ecologically planted counterweight to a decade of commercial development along the river.

What you actually see today. The park is organised into five zones, and they feel genuinely different from one another. The Culture and Arts Park at the western entrance is the formal end: a broad plaza, a mirror pond, a skate park, and an avenue of trees running east. Behind it the Ecological Forest holds the park's best-known feature, a fenced enclosure of deer that can be watched from an elevated timber walkway crossing above them. The Nature Experience Study Field occupies the converted water treatment plant, whose settling tanks were reused as sunken gardens and a glasshouse. The Wetlands Ecological Field to the east is the quietest part, a reed-fringed set of ponds with observation hides where herons, egrets and migratory ducks are regular. The Han River Waterside Park, reached by the bridge over the expressway, gives access to the water itself. More than four hundred thousand trees were planted, and the metasequoia and ginkgo avenues are the reason November is one of the two peak months. Because the planting is now two decades old rather than newly laid, the canopy has closed over several of the paths, which is unusual in a Korean city park and gives the central section a genuine woodland feel rather than the thin ornamental cover of most municipal planting.

On screen. The park appears constantly in Korean television and music video as the default green backdrop for the city — the running scene, the first date, the reconciliation on a bench — and the Under Stand Avenue complex of stacked shipping containers near the western entrance has been used repeatedly as a set. It is worth understanding why: this is one of very few places in Seoul where a crew can film open sky, mature trees and a recognisable skyline in the same frame without leaving the city, and where permission is straightforward. The high-rise towers visible immediately to the north-east are among the most expensive residential buildings in Korea and are widely associated with actors and musicians, which adds a certain amount of loitering to the park's western paths.

Getting there and timing. Seoul Forest Station on the Suin-Bundang Line, exits 3 and 4, is the closest; Ttukseom Station on Line 2 is a ten-minute walk from exit 8. Entry is free and the main paths are open around the clock, though the deer enclosure, glasshouse and wetland hides keep daytime hours and close earlier in winter. Early April brings cherry blossom along the western avenues and the first weekend of it is extremely busy; late October into mid-November is the better bet, with the metasequoias turning rust and the ginkgoes going gold. Bicycles can be hired near the entrance and the Han River path runs from here west to Yeouido and east to Gwangnaru without a single road crossing.

Practicalities. Paths are wide, sealed and almost entirely level, with accessible toilets at the main entrances and ramps rather than steps at the expressway crossing, which makes this one of the most genuinely wheelchair-friendly large spaces in Seoul. There are convenience stores and a handful of cafés inside, picnicking is normal and permitted, and the lawns fill with mat-and-tent groups on spring weekends. Combine it with Seongsu-dong immediately east for coffee and shoe workshops, or walk twenty-five minutes west along the river to Ttukseom Hangang Park and its swimming pools. Bring insect repellent for the wetlands in July and August.