Between Hapjeong Station and Dangsan Station of subway line number two, there is the 1,053-meter Yanghwa Bridge connecting Hapjeong-dong and Yangpyeong-dong neighborhoods. Today’s Touring Korea destination lies under this bridge. People would hardly notice a small island tucked snugly below the cross-river structure, but Seonyudo Island provides a peaceful green respite for Seoulites from busy urban life as well as ecological lessons. Let’s go visit Seonyudo Park, Korea’s first ecological park.

- This bridge is great. The other side of the Seonyu Bridge is all green. It feels like we’re entering the world of heavenly gods. It feels strange and amazing.
- The bridge is long and its arches are really pretty. The wooden planks are good for walking, and the wind from the Han River is so refreshing. The bridge looks like a runway. With the wind blowing, I feel like I’m flying. I feel great.
- This bridge seems to take me to a paradise. It’s really nice. The wind is fresh and clean, too.

Inaccessible by car, the Seonyu Bridge is the only footbridge over the Han River. There are two ways to access the Seonyudo Park – one is to enter through the main gate located in the midway of the Yanghwa Bridge and the other is through the Seonyu Bridge. Most people would recommend the Seonyu Bridge route. Why, you would ask. Well, just walk down the Seonyu Bridge and see for yourself.

Designed by French architect Rudy Ricciotti to commemorate the centennial of the Korea-France diplomatic relations, the Seonyu Bridge was built in 2002 and measures 468 meters from end to end with a 120-meter arch. The highlight of the bridge is this arch, which forms a seven-degree hump in the midway through the structure. The curvature lends the bridge a whimsical feel. This part of the bridge transforms into the Rainbow Bridge at night when colorful lights in red, blue, yellow, and green are illuminate from below. Perhaps this is what makes the Seonyu Bridge a favorite course for young couples out on a date.

Now let’s go into the park. Seonyudo means an island where divine sages play. The name well illustrates how beautiful the scenery has been through the years. Prince Yangnyeong, the oldest brother of King Sejong, built a pavilion on the island to enjoy its surroundings and the island was a favorite background of Joseon’s most esteemed painter Jeong Seon. Here’s travel writer Lee Dong-mi to explain more about the island.

Seonyudo is also called Hajungdo, because it is located right in the middle of a river. In the olden days Confucian scholars called seonbi often built pavilions here to compose poems and paint landscapes. Poet Lee Eun-sang mentioned the island’s silver beach in one of his poems. It’s said that more than one million visitors used to descend on the island during summer. Judging from the historic accounts, the island must have had a big sandy beach and boats must have busily ferried people back and forth. Today’s Seonyudo is a little different from the scenic spot of the past.

There are quite a few differences between the Seonyudo of the past and that of today. For instance, old paintings of the island showed modest hills, but they are nowhere to be seen today. What happened to them?

There used to be a 40-meter-tall hill called Seonyu-bong, where the streams from Mt. Gwanak and Mt. Gwanggyo used to meet. It was part of a land mass with the Han River flowing next to it. But when a big flood hit the area in 1925, people took sand and earth from the hill to build embankments. There also used to be an air strip on Yeouido and airport builders brought rocks and soil from the hill to fill the ground, leaving Seonyudo with only a trace of hill. The removal of the hill allowed the river to carve out a bigger waterway through the area where the hill used to be and ultimately separated this parcel of land from the mainland, turning it into an island.

After the rocks and earth of Seonyu-bong and the silver-sanded beach disappeared, the Seoul government opened a water supply plant there in 1978 to provide water to the southwestern part of the city. The water plant fulfilled its role for over two decades until it was moved in December 2000, leaving the area available for a park. Thus was the Seonyudo Park was born in April 2002. The park was considered very innovative and eco-friendly at the time, because the park essentially recycled the water supply facilities. That is, the city did not raze all the plant facilities, but added nature on top of them, turning the Seonyudo Park into the nation’s first recycled ecological park. The story of the Seonyudo Park is described in detail at the Design Seoul Gallery.

We are at the Han River Historical Hall, also called the Design Seoul Gallery. It is a three-story building with one basement floor and two aboveground floors. The hall showcases just about everything about the Han River, especially the Seonyudo Island. Displays here show what the Han River looked like in the past, how the painter Jeong Seon depicted the island, how much water was purified at the plant, and more. All this information is provided in multimedia formats. It’s very informative to see the seasonal changes of the Han River and how people used to live around the river in the past. Visitors, especially children, are amazed at how much the area has changed over the years.

The Seonyudo Park has a distinctive theme. Since the area used to house a water supply plant, the park’s main theme is water.

As you can see, water is everywhere and everything is related to water. Most of the old water purification facilities still stand here, either recycled or reused. The park tried to use as little energy as possible, while playing up the role of water in our lives. Also, the rusty water sluices used to be an eyesore, but now plants have been planted there to liven up the atmosphere. The play area and the marsh are great places for children’s environmental education. All the materials used there are environment-friendly, so children learn much about natural conservation.

Rusty steelwork and unsightly concrete structures have been covered in green plants and clear sparkling water. The Seonyudo Park features four theme areas – the Green Pillar Garden, the Garden of Time, the Water Botanical Garden, and the Water Purification Center. Let’s first visit the Green Pillar Garden.

People walking on the pebbled path delight in the crunching sound of the stones. In the Green Pillar Garden rows of columns covered in vines line up on a large, recessed area. This place used to be a water reservoir, but now all the concrete roof slabs have been removed to open up the place for a garden of small, smooth rocks.

- The Green Pillar Garden is so lovely. The pillars covered in vine are very pretty and unusual, something I can’t see anywhere else.
-It now looks nothing like a water reservoir. It feels like I’m looking at an artwork.
- Those cement pillars look much livelier with the vines.

Next to the Green Pillar Garden is the Water Botanical Garden where people can see various water plants. The garden now sits on what used to be a filtration facility. The hothouse features eight water tanks, each measuring eight-by-17.5 meters, left over from the olden days. The plants are categorized by their living environment with the marsh plants and shallow-water plants displayed in the north side, while free-floating plants, floating leafed plants, and submerged plants are showcased in the south side.

Nearby is the Garden of Time where the original components of the water plant are best preserved. The two-story water sluice was left intact and other structural elements were used to create smaller gardens, such as the vine garden, the garden of sounds, the garden of colors, and the fern garden. They made use of the shape and location of old fixtures to control the sunlight and humidity for the plants. Visitors can enjoy a variety of plant species that grow in different environments.

The Garden of Time, doesn’t the name sound very poetic? The waterway is located one story above the ground to make the treetops touch the bottom of the sluice. Visitors can enjoy all sorts of different plants like the Japanese maple and the ash trees, and also a small waterfall.

The unique ambience of the Garden of Time has made it a popular filming location for movies, TV shows, and commercials. The concrete walls are richly woven in vines and a tunnel made up of more than 100 flower and plant species seem to transport you back in time to the primeval times.

The liveliness of the pine trees, silver grass, and bamboo trees balance out the dilapidation of old waterways, and the gentle breeze from the Han River freshen up the air by releasing the refreshing scent of the bamboo trees.

- Time seems to have come to a stop at the Garden of Time. I love the touch of the breeze and the sound of the water flowing. The structure has made good use of different spaces and the harmony between the cement and the trees is impressive. The garden is very pretty and it offers a lot of personal space. I think I’d come here often.
- This garden’s really unique in structure. I major in design, so I come here to get new ideas. It’s so nice here that I took a lot of pictures.

All the water channeled through Seonyudo is purified in the Water Purification Center. Befitting the reputation of a water-themed nature park, the water in the park is clean enough for children to jump in and play. An hour at the Seonyudo Park offers enough relaxation from the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan Seoul.

A once-around is not enough to appreciate every aspect of the Seonyudo Park. There is another must-see spots in the park, the Café Arittaum located outside the main gate in the southern portion of the Yanghwa Bridge. A charming inclined elevator takes you up to the coffee shop in the observation deck.

From the observation platform visitors can see the Han River flowing under the Yanghwa Bridge, as well as the Seonyudo Park and the World Cup Fountain, which sprouts water up 202 meters in the air, near the Seongsan Bridge. The panorama of scenic urban backdrop is visual windfall you didn’t expect, and a cup of coffee will taste even better against such spectacular scenery.

- It’s like a piece of painting. The green trees and wind from the river are perfect for the early summer time. I like how the wind tickles my face.
- This café appears to be floating on the Han River. The great scenery outside, the perfect weather, and the gentle waves of the river all make me feel like I’m floating.

Trees, grass, and concrete exist in harmony at the Seonyudo Park. Even a piece of crumbling concrete block and rusty steel beams are just as precious as the green plants and water. Come and see how life thrives on top of the old ruins at the nation’s first recycled eco-friendly park, the Seonyudo Park.