Promotion of the 'Gwanaksan Park 24 Project'

[Seoul District News] Gwanak-gu Develops 24 Neighborhood Parks at Gwanaksan Foot for Attraction by Specializing in 3 Major Zones, Fostering Future Parks Combining Nature and Culture as New Landmarks in Seoul's Southwest Area · This Year, Two Sites in Nangok and Nakseongdae Districts Under Feasibility Study and Basic Planning... Dongdaemun-gu Offers Emotional Stability Opportunities to Residents Weary from COVID-19 and Enables Easy Urban Farming Experience with Box Garden Distribution from 2022, Applications Accepted on Dongdaemun-gu Office Website from 22nd to 31st

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) is focusing on promoting the ‘Gwanaksan Park 24 Project’ so that residents exhausted from life can enjoy the benefits of nature and culture widely anytime, 24 hours a day, nearby, and regain vitality.

Gwanaksan is a representative mountain in the Seoul metropolitan area visited by about 7 million people annually on average. It is highly accessible and features hiking trails including the Seoul Dulle-gil, Nakseongdae Park, Sillim Valley District, and Ecological Park, making it a popular space for citizens’ rest, leisure, and culture.

Meanwhile, most of the Gwanaksan foothills near residential areas are privately owned, which made it difficult for administrative agencies to manage issues such as indiscriminate forest damage, unauthorized cultivation, and illegal dumping. However, with the ‘Compensation for Long-term Unexecuted Urban Parks’ and the ‘Seoul City Urban Management Plan Amendment,’ 24 neighborhood parks were newly designated last year, enabling the district to systematically manage the parks.

In response to these changed conditions, the district conducted a service project last year to establish a new master plan, preparing a comprehensive plan for making Gwanaksan neighborhood parks famous and a basic concept for park development by district.

According to the service results, the future vision of the ‘Gwanaksan Park 24 Project’ presents a 'platform for life healing' where nature and culture converge. The 24 neighborhood parks at the foothills of Gwanaksan are divided into three zones, each specialized as ▲parks where life is revived ▲parks where emotional healing takes place ▲parks flowing with cultural dignity.

The first zone includes 12 neighborhood parks in the Misung, Nangok, and Nanhyang-dong areas, where forest damage is severe and small parks are scattered. First, the forest ecosystem near residential areas will be restored, and facilities such as a silver playground garden, park golf course, comfortable five-sense forest trails, and children’s themed playgrounds will be created to develop it into a living-close park.

The second zone consists of seven neighborhood parks in the university and Samsung-dong areas. Existing facilities such as Gwanaksan Adventure Forest, camping site, water play area, and healing center will be refurbished to create a premier park, expand the Samsung-dong Urban Agriculture Park, and transform it into an emotional park. The third zone includes five neighborhood parks in the Nakseongdae and Namhyeon-dong areas, where the region’s historicity will be preserved by refurbishing existing historical and cultural spaces and newly creating traditional culture parks, future-type smart gardens, and event plazas.

First, this year, two neighborhood parks in the Nangok and Nakseongdae districts will be developed. Based on the current basic concept service results, feasibility studies and basic plans are underway.

A district official said, “Gwanaksan is a famous mountain loved not only by the 10 million citizens of Seoul but also by the entire nation and is a specialized resource of Gwanak-gu. According to the new regional development strategy, we will nurture the 24 Gwanaksan parks along with Byeolbitnaerincheon as new attractions in the southwest area of Seoul.”

Dongdaemun-gu (Mayor Yoo Deok-yeol) will distribute box gardens in 2022 to provide emotional stability opportunities to residents tired from COVID-19 and allow them to experience urban agriculture through easy crop cultivation.

A total of 750 box garden sets (up to 2 per person, 8,000 KRW each), consisting of eco-friendly boxes, soil, seedlings, and cultivation manuals, will be supplied so that residents can easily grow crops in various small spaces inside their homes, such as balconies.

Applications for the box gardens can be made online on the Dongdaemun-gu Office website’s citizen participation page from 10 a.m. on the 22nd to 4 p.m. on the 31st.

For more details, contact the Economic Promotion Division of Dongdaemun-gu Office.

Yoo Deok-yeol, Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu, stated, “I hope many residents can enjoy not only emotional stability but also the small joy of growing and harvesting through the simple box garden cultivation that can be done at home.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.