So — we had spent the morning in Gangnam and a couple of hours in Ewha Womans University, and in the later afternoon I was dragging my husband to our last stop for the day — the Seoul World Cup Park.
The Haneul Park stands on what used to be a landfill up to the early 90s. Massive amounts of soil had to be transported to cover the garbage and to eventually turn it into a park. Now, the park is home to hundreds of plant and animal species, and the methane and carbon dioxide that is still being produced by the garbage down below are collected as an energy source for the residents nearby.
At its highest, the garbage heap went as high as 98 meters up — and this is what you now need to either climb up or take an electric shuttle (₩5000, two-way two-person trip) to. In the evening when the air is chilly, they cover the shuttle with transparent sheets so you won’t freeze.
The sun was setting fast and (more importantly) our legs were already killing us, so we obviously took the shuttle.
The World Cup Park can be reached via a long walk from the World Cup Stadium Station (Line 6, exit 1). You need to go around the stadium counterclockwise and cross the street (more like the highway, actually) to get to the World Cup Park.
Filed under: South Korea, Travel Tales
