Seoul Grand Park

Template:Short description Template:Template other Seoul Grand Park (Korean: Template:Category handler) or Gwacheon Seoul Grand Park (Template:Category handler) is a park complex to the south of Seoul, South Korea, in the city of Gwacheon. Opened on May 1 in 1984.

Facilities at Seoul Grand Park include hills and hiking trails, Seoul Grand Park Zoo, Children's Zoo, a rose garden, Seoul Land amusement park, and the Seoul Museum of Modern Art.

The attractions all have separate admission fees. Line 4 of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway stops at Seoul Grand Park Station. A shuttle bus from the station visits the art museum and upper park entrance.

Facilities

Seoul Zoological Garden

Seoul Zoological Garden or Seoul Grand Park Zoo or Seoul Zoo (; Template:Category handler) is the first zoo in the Korean peninsula.

The Seoul Zoo has more than 3,000 animals from 330 species. The zoo is the 10th largest in the world and a recognized member of the Species360 (formerly International Species Information System or ISIS) and the World Zoo Organization.

History

File:Shokei-en Park in 1930s.JPG

Shokei-en Park in the 1930s

The Seoul Zoo was created on November 1, 1909, by the Japanese, in the former royal palace of Changgyeonggung, which was under the changed name of Changgyeongwon (; Template:Category handler) or Changgyeong Park, the "gung" standing for the Korean word 'palace', and the "won" standing for the Korean word 'park'. The zoo opened in November 1909 with Siberian tigers, kangaroos, ostriches, camels, orangutans, and other animals. The Japanese also built a botanical garden, and museum on the site.

Towards the end of World War II the Japanese gave orders to kill the animals in the zoo, poisoning 150 animals. Animals that survived this had to also survive the end of the war, when all the remaining zookeepers fled the zoo.

After independence in 1945 and the turmoil and destruction of the 1950–53 Korean War, the zoo was restocked through donations of wealthy Koreans as well as gifts from foreign zoos. The zoo was maintained by the South Korean government at Changgyeongwon until 1984 when it was relocated to its current site in Makgyedong, Gwacheon.

On July 27, 1987, due to the heavy rain that occurred at the time, a landslide occurred around 5:00 am in the area of the Carnivore Enclosure section where 21 animals of 7 species were housed. This complete destruction, the tiger cage's isolation fence was destroyed in half, and two coyotes escaped, captured and reaccommodated. Assuming that the jaguars housed in the zoo died after being buried in the soil, the Seoul Zoo find the corpse, but it was not found. A 10-year-old female jaguar escaped. It was confirmed that she had run away, and the search started at 12:00 on the same day, and at around 18:30 on July 28, 37 hours after the incident occurred, at 245m above sea level in Mt. Cheonggyesan, it ended with being killed.

On the morning of December 6, 2010, while the Seoul Zoo moved Kkoma (; lit. kidTemplate:Category handler) who is a male Malayan sun bear to the quarantine area and cleaned the release area, he opened the door with his front paws and escaped to Mt. Cheonggyesan. Since the Malayan sun bear is small enough to be captured, the zoo was planned to capture Kkoma alive rather than kill. The tracking continued for about 9 days, but it was difficult to directly capture Kkoma, and a trap operation was conducted to catch him by decoy rather than tracking to reduce the stress caused by excessive tracking. On December 13, 2010, Kkoma ate snacks, cup noodles, Yōkan, etc. and drank juices and a Makgeolli at the food stalls on the mountain. Then, two days later, on December 15, the 9th day of the escape, Kkoma was caught in the trap that had been set up, after that, he was shot with a tranquilizer gun to calm down and move inside the trap, and returned safely to the zoo.

On August 5, 2012, a male white rhinoceros, Kodol, escaped from the inner room and went into the zookeeper's kitchen and tool storage room, but was injured by bumping into the body in a small space. Water guns were fired to send them away, but Kodol died of heart attack.

In Pacific Land Aquarium, Jungmun Tourist Complex, Seogwipo-si city, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins caught in fishing nets were originally supposed to be released, but they were illegally purchased from fishermen and mobilized for dolphin shows. Meanwhile, Seoul Grand Park brought in illegally caught dolphins in 1999, 2002, and 2009 by purchasing or exchanging Geumdeung, Daepo, and Jedol (Template:Category handler) (or Jedoli (Template:Category handler)), respectively. On March 2, 2013, after the illegal capture became known, environmental groups called for the dolphins to be released. On March 12, 2013, the city of Seoul decided to release Jedol, who was young and had just been bred, after hearing the opinions of experts. The decision to confiscate the dolphins was made through the criminal trial against Pacific Land Aquarium, and this judgment was upheld in the first and second trials and confirmed by the Supreme Court on March 28, 2013. On April 8, dolphins was confiscated. The confiscated dolphins were four: Chunsam, D-38, Taesan, and Boksun. On May 11, Jedol was moved to Jeju Island. Afterwards, they received wild adaptation training at the fish farm in Seongsan Port. On the afternoon of July 18, Jedol was released. Taesan and Boksun were moved to Jeju Island on May 14, 2015, and released into nature on July 6 of the same year. Goodbye, Thank You for the Fish (; Template:Category handler) which is a non-fiction about the process of releasing Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins including Jedol into the wild, was published on May 15, 2017. In Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Jedol, Sampal, Chunsam, Boksun mentioned by Woo Young-woo who is a main protagonist obsessed with whales and dolphins.

On November 24, 2013, an accident occurred in which a zookeeper was bitten and killed by Rostov, a Siberian tiger.

On August 19, 2018, at 9:40 am, the dismembered cadaver of a murder victim was found in a hiking trail of the Mt. Cheonggyesan near the parking lot of the Seoul Grand Park.

In the process of euthanizing all animals at the outdoor range due to bovine tuberculosis that occurred at the South American Pavilion from 2021 to 2022, this fact was covered up, saying that it would prevent excessive fear for a year.

Seoul Land

Seoul Land is an amusement park in the Seoul Grand park complex. It opened in 1987, just before the 1988 Summer Olympics. It has about 40 rides and has approximately 3-3.5 million visitors per year.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art is a museum in the Seoul Grand park complex. It was initially established in Gyeongbokgung on October 20, 1969, but was moved to Deoksugung in 1973. The Gwacheon venue opened in 1986.

Exhibits

Seoul Zoo

As one of South Korea's largest zoos, stretching for more than 2,420,000 square meters, Seoul Grand Park aims to make Koreans think deeper about conservation. It also vows to become a healing zoo, which provides welfare for both the animals that call the zoo home by creating eco-friendly habitats, and for the people that come to observe and learn about these animals. The zoo holds the ideology that it will promote happiness through both animal studies and preaching coexistence between animals and humans.

Seoul Zoo actively participates in conservation efforts around the world, and has its own conservation lab, the Conservation Education Center(Template:Category handler), which researches endangered Korean native animals, including Long-tailed gorals and Seoul frogs.

Flamingo Pavilion

The Flamingo Pavilion is the first exhibit visible by visitors, after entering through the main gate. It hosts four species of flamingoes, including Greater flamingos, Lesser flamingos, Chilean flamingos, and Caribbean Flamingos.

1st Africa Pavilion

The 1st Africa Pavilion is dedicated to the many herbivores of Africa. It is formed of a giant enclosure in the center with several smaller enclosures surrounding it, with an indoor exhibit detailing the zoo's history. The giraffe enclosure in the center and the other great herbivores of Africa are positioned to imitate the wide savannas of Africa. Animals that call this area home include giraffes, Grant's zebras, blue and black wildebeests, ostriches, gemsboks, with fennec foxes and black-tailed prairie dogs in the outer rim.

The Africa Pavilion also formerly housed a waterbuck, the only specimen of its species in South Korea. It died of old age on October 3, 2019, at the age of 18.

2nd Africa Pavilion

The 2nd Africa Pavilion hosts many rare African animals. It consists of a large pool, divided into sections, with other exhibits stretching away from it, accompanied with an indoor exhibit. This sector hosts hippopotamuses, Barbary sheep, Dall sheep, and meerkats. It is also home to pygmy hippopotamuses, which are highly endangered in the wild, and scimitar oryxes.

The zoo formerly hosted two pygmy hippos, a male and a female. When the female died, the old, blind male, named Ha-mong(Template:Category handler) was left alone. With efforts from Korean citizens, Seoul Zoo and Colchester Zoo in the United Kingdom agreed on a deal to transfer Colchester's female pygmy hippo, named Julie, to Seoul. Julie entered Korea in October 2015. She is now renamed Na-mong(Template:Category handler). Ha-mong died in 2020.

3rd Africa Pavilion

African predators are the theme of the 3rd Africa Pavilion. It has an African plain motif and the habitats are littered with rocks and tall grass to best imitate the natural habitats of African mammals, with observatories dotted around. Animals on display include lions, cheetahs, spotted hyenas, sable antelopes, and common elands.

Ape Pavilion

The Ape Pavilion is dedicated to the many species of primates. It hosts many primates, including western lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, Bornean orangutans, olive baboons, hamadryas baboons, mandrills, De Brazza's monkeys, and grivets. In April 2011, the Ape Pavilion's chimpanzee enclosure unveiled a tall climbing tower, about 24 meters tall, designed to stimulate and enrich the climing nature and behavior of chimpanzees, in part with the zoo's behavior enrichment program.

The Ape Pavilion underwent renovations in October 2023, and reopened in December 2023.

Large Animal Pavilion

The Large Animal Pavilion is home to some the most impressive animals in the zoo. Animals on display include Ankole cattle, African buffaloes, water buffaloes, wild yaks, black rhinoceroses, white rhinoceroses, American bison, and Asian elephants.

The zoo's four Asian elephants, all of them female, have a long history with the zoo. Sakura, 60 years old as of 2025, the oldest elephant in Korea, was formerly exhibited in a private zoo in Japan, when she was only seven months old. When the zoo closed in 2003, she was brought to Seoul Zoo, but her long time in solidarity made it hard for her to integrate. It was not until 2018 was Sakura able to fully stand as a member of the Seoul elephant herd. Kima, 33 years old as of 2025, is the matriarch of the Seoul elephant herd and largest among the zoo's four elephants. Kima was one of the first elephants at the zoo when it opened at its current location in 1984. Sugela, 21 years old as of 2025, arrived from Sri Lanka as a donation from then-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who had liaisons with Korean humanitarian aid, in 2010, alongside a male named Gajava. Sugela gave birth to a baby elephant, named Hee-mang(희망, "hope" in Korean) in 2016. Gajava died from a particularly deadly heat stroke in 2018.

Cultural reference

• Dooly the Little Dinosaur (1987) - Season 1 Episode 2 "Grand Park Disturbance" (Template:Category handler; original airdate: October 7, 1987)

External links

• Seoul Grand Park - Seoul City Official Tourism
• Website of the Korean Association of Zoos & Aquaria