Yongsan-gu Renovates and Reopens Itaewon Children's Park

Newly renovated Itaewon Children's Park. (Photo by Yongsan District Office)

Yongsan-gu, Seoul (District Mayor Park Hee-young) announced on the 6th that it has completed the refurbishment of Itaewon Children's Park (286-1 Itaewon-dong) and opened the facilities to residents. Itaewon Children's Park, also well known as the "Bear Playground" due to its large bear-shaped slide, was first established in 2002 and was in need of facility repairs.

After completing the construction and renovation, Itaewon Children's Park has been transformed into a safe and diverse space including ▲children's play area ▲restrooms ▲resting area ▲slopes. The funding was secured in September last year through a special adjustment grant of 500 million KRW from the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The children's play area features a combination playset, seesaws, swings, and rocking play equipment. The ground is finished with elastic pavement to enhance safety. Bears are painted throughout the combination playset, which includes slides, cloud bridges, and nets, to emphasize its identity.

Around the play area, 10 types of flowers and plants such as golden arborvitae, hydrangea, golden bellflower, and sedge have been planted so that children can experience nature changing with the seasons. The restrooms in the park have been newly equipped with one accessible restroom and one infant washbasin in both the men's and women's restrooms.

In the resting area, roofed exercise equipment has been installed and the number of heated and cooled chairs increased to ensure comfort in both cold and hot weather. The park’s slope, which previously had stone stairs, has been replaced with wooden stairs and safety railings have been installed to create a safer walking environment.

District Mayor Park Hee-young said, “It is meaningful to have created a park environment where everyone from children to seniors can use it safely,” and added, “We will continue to carefully inspect parks and resting areas that need refurbishment so that children can freely play and residents can comfortably rest in the urban area.”

Meanwhile, to celebrate Children's Day, the district conducted pre-inspections and cleaning of 40 children's play facilities (31 parks and 9 resting areas) in the region from April 24 to May 3. The inspections checked ▲the structural connections of play equipment ▲surrounding hazards ▲environmental maintenance status to prevent safety accidents and create a pleasant usage environment.

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