[One Day Ten Thousand Steps, One Day One Thousand Characters] Green Nanjin·Red Hongdae... Why Citizens Applauded on This Street

The Metasequoia Road in Sky Park at World Cup Park, Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, was created along a 1 km section of the Nanji Themed Tourist Forest Trail. Once Seoul City completes work on an additional 0.6 km section by the end of the year, the total length will be 1.6 km with an area of 9,000㎡, completing the Nanji Themed Tourist Forest Trail. Along the trail, a total of 349,800 flowering plants were planted, including 260,000 Lycoris radiata (flower cluster amaryllis), 18,900 Lycoris squamigera (surprise lilies), and 67,700 Liriope muscari (lilyturf). Eleven different species of flowering plants with varying blooming periods were selected so visitors can enjoy flowers throughout all four seasons even in the city. Among these, the Lycoris radiata and Lycoris squamigera have the flower language of ‘tender love’ because when the flowers bloom, the leaves are absent, and when the leaves are present, the flowers are absent, so they can never be seen together.

Poets' Street within Nanji Theme Tourism Forest Trail
[Photo by Mapo-gu]

The district created colonies of these two flowers and installed photo props throughout the area, turning the street into a themed street that tells a story of tender love. Along the road, 50 poems selected by the Mapo Cultural Center and the Mapo Writers' Association are displayed so visitors can enjoy poetry while admiring the flowers, and the street was named ‘Poet’s Street.’ Considering the blooming conditions and timing, the district plans to hold festivals and develop the Nanji Themed Tourist Forest Trail into a new tourist attraction in Mapo.

On May 3rd, at the Nanj i Theme Tourism Forest Trail, Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo District, district office staff, and citizens are planting flowers at the flower planting event.
[Photo by Mapo District]

The 2 km stretch from the Gyeongui Line Forest Trail through Hongdae to the Danginri Power Plant is called the ‘Red Road.’ It is a specialized street in the Hongdae area that enhances brand value as a tourist city while preventing safety accidents caused by crowd congestion. The themed street is designed with a red-centered color scheme and divided into seven zones from R1 to R7. The Red Road R1 to R2 zones are specialized for performances such as busking, while R5 to R6 zones focus on culture and arts like visual arts. The middle zones R3 and R4 are planned as streets where both characteristics coexist, and R7, which connects to the Han River, will be maintained later to allow comfortable walking.

Red Road Panorama
[Photo by Mapo-gu Office]

Near Hongdae Entrance Station on the Airport Railroad, where the Red Road begins, the ‘Red Road Power Plant’ will open around October. This place will handle street operations and program planning and sell products using the Red Road promotional characters ‘Kkaebi’ and ‘Kkaesun.’ The alleys connected to the Red Road are divided into food street (orange), dance street (red), beauty street (green), fashion street (purple), and coffee street (brown), with representative colors painted along the streets to help foreigners who do not know Hangul easily find their desired destinations. Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo-gu, said, “We will develop the Red Road into a new landmark of Seoul and an attractive global tourist destination for foreigners.”

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and Mapo District Mayor Park Kang-su are walking on the Red Road.
[Photo by Mapo District]

The two trails introduced earlier are also popular among local residents. From June 5 to 14, the district conducted an online and on-site vote among residents and district employees for the ‘Top 10 Policies of Mapo-gu in the 8th Elected Term.’ As a result, ‘Red Road’ received 1,285 votes, ranking first, and the ‘Nanji Themed Tourist Forest Trail’ ranked third.

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