One day I was searching for a unique thing to do in Seoul and came across an interesting place on the blog www.boboandchichi.com. The blog is run by Scott Herder and his fiancé Megan. In one of their blog posts they wrote about their experience at Yongma Land, which can be found here.
While looking at their blog post and Wikipedia, I did some research about Yongma Land. To keep it simple, it's a small amusement park that opened in 1980 but closed in 2011. Why did it close down? A bigger amusement park in a better location was constructed on July 12, 1989. That amusement park became known as Lotte World. While Yongma Land is in a very random area of Seoul, between Yongma Park and hiking trails, Lotte World was placed right next to Jamsil Station.
Here's a little about Lotte World and its effect on Yongma Land. Two subway stations intersect each other at Jamsil Station (Lines 2 and 9) and the station itself is only a 10-minute stop from Gangnam Station. Lotte World is also half indoors and half outdoors, so it still attracts a lot of people regardless of the weather. Finally, Lotte World was placed inside a shopping complex along with Lotte Department Store. This made it a much better option than Yongma Land. Yongma Land's fan based dipped after the 1980s and never recovered after that hence it's closure.
Today, the owner of Yongma Land keeps it open for a niche group of people: photographers, video producers, people into cosplay, or random amateur photographers like me that just like unique experiences. When you go there, you just have to pay W5,000 to make your way around this abandoned amusement park. Does it seem a bit creepy? It is a bit weird when you get here, but it's also very nostalgic. You can get a piece of 1970s and early 1980s Korea at this place. That's something that you can definitely take away from this place. Scott Herder and his fiancé have nicer pictures than me, but here's what I got from the place. Enjoy!
How about a kiddie train ride with a canopy of trees? Were the trees to protect the kids from the sun? Who knows?
Here's an overview of the theme park....
And some children's rides that have seen better days....
The famous Viking ride that is full of rust....
Or a spinning ride that actually doesn't look too bad....
More kids rides that are all clustered together. The genie might want to grant this place one more wish...
Apparently this is a an octopus ride similar to the tea cup ride at Disneyland...
Once you get past the weeds and children's rides, you can see a carousel. Sometimes the owner turns on the lights later on during the day....
Here's Michael Jackson in his glory days......
And a sad looking fire truck......
Do you notice the creepy looking snowmen in front of the carousel?
And finally some old bumper cars that looked like the ones I used when I was a kid (I'm 42 now).....
What was my experience like? Well, I enjoyed checking it out. I walked from Manggu Station and it was a bit inconvenient trying to weave through the residential streets and finally finding Yongma Park. Then I had to start heading up a path just before seeing Yongma Land off to the right. A hiking trail was just behind it. Just trying to find this place was great for exercise, but on a humid day, I was sweating a lot. I can see why this place went out of business. The location is very bizarre, which just makes this place even more eerie. You can get interesting pictures here, but it's definitely only a one-time event for me.
How to Get There: It's about a 15-minute walk from Manggu Station, but it might be easier just to take a taxi from the station. The taxi driver should know Yongma Land but if all else fails, here's the address that you can type into Naver Maps:
118, Mangu-ro 70-gil, Jungnang-gu, Seoul 02180
Cost: W5,000
Phone Number: 010-9671-6104
Estimated Time You Will Stay Here: 1-2 hours
Scott Worden (The L.A.Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy
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