Seonyudo Park

Love is in the air, what with Valentine's Day steadily approaching and our 1 year anniversary. Good feelings and warm heartiness have been my mood lately. Although, some of the kids at school were a little too feisty this week.

BK has been less inclined to trek it out to where I live, so we have been meeting in Seoul on the weekends.

Last weekend we met at Hapjeong station, which is near the Han river.This trip included a visit to the Seonyudo Park. The weather was mild and leaning on the cold side, due to being near the river. But it was a clear enough day to enjoy the scenery.
After doing some reading about this place I can tell you that it has both historical and modern history.

Historical:

as a popular spot for seonbis (gentleman scholars) to immerse themselves in composing poetry and painting. During the Japanese occupation, most of the rocky cliffs were extracted to reinforce the riverbanks against floods and for construction of the Yeouido airfield.

Modern:

In 1978 it housed the Seonyu Water Purification Plant and once an area of industry (i.e. not pretty to look at.) This plant closed in 2001.

It was transformed into an public park in April of 2002.

The Park Includes:

• Four gardens, including aquatic plants
  
• Elevated paths.
• Concrete leftover from the Purification plant
• Water Play area
• Small amphitheatre
• Rusted Valves as public sculptures
• Hangang exhibition hall
  
• Basically it was a site of industry but turned into a space that tries to glorify the water purification process.
  

Although, while we were there I had no clue the significance of the grounds and that it had an exhibition hall. Neither did BK, but we seemed to enjoy poking about and wondering what was what.

With the history of the park aside, just getting a nice panoramic view of Seoul makes for great scenery.

Hehe, I caught him while he was turning around.

Seonyu Bridge:

Seonyugyo (Seonyu bridge), which links Hangang river’s Seonyudo Park & Yangwha Area with Seonyudo is made of environmentally-friendly wood. The arch-shaped bridge, also known as a Rainbow Bridge, gives out an exotic light every evening. The bridge is one of the beautiful night views of Seoul.

This bridge seemed to be the main attraction. Before you cross it, to the left, is a deck like area where you can look out onto the Han River. Also on the railing people have inscribed their love to each other. I did the same with my trusty purple pen and took a really great blurry photo of it.

As you walk up the bridge you look out across the Han River. This time of the year is great to catch site of migratory birds. I think these were some kind of geese and not swans.
And of course more views of the city, here we can see the "63" building.

After you cross the bridge you can take the stairs and enjoy the park. Here families and couples came out for picnics, fly kites, fishing and I guess whatever you can do at a park.

One interesting thing I noticed is a 7-11 placed in the middle of the park. I told BK how odd this looked and he just said "Why?!!" haha I guess it makes sense to him.

Love Shadow

We walked near the Han river and around the kite flyer's, then sat and watched some teams play soccer. But it was starting to get colder out so we headed out of the park.

On our way out we crossed a bridge to get over the highway. This bridge was covered and so the light was pretty nice.
We hopped on a bus and went to Sincheon, where we came across this store that sells foreign goods. They had the usual pasta sauce, pasta and cereal, but I think their selection of hair and face products was pretty decent. Still the prices were high.
Can you guess where this terribly blurry shot was taken?

I will give you a hint, it is where couples go....and its not a love motel.
I really enjoyed this day because it was nice to get out in nature. Again it looks like a great place to revisit in the spring or Summer, and I think I should take a closer look at the work they put into cleaning up and creating this park.