Seoul Plaza
Oval lawn on the site of a former traffic circle, hosting festivals, protests, concerts and a winter ice rink.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Seoul Plaza traces how a six-lane traffic circle in front of Seoul City Hall turned into open lawn, starting with a sweltering night in June 2002 when hundreds of thousands of fans in red shirts sat down in the intersection during the World Cup and refused to move. It follows city planners as they watched the crowd swallow their busiest roundabout and began asking an odd question about the road's future. A fountain had marked the spot for forty years before that night.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Gwanghwamun Square
Vast pedestrian plaza guarded by a towering bronze admiral, backdrop to Korea's largest peaceful protests.
Cheonggyecheon
Revived urban stream lined with walkways and bridges, once buried beneath a busy elevated highway.
Seoul Forest Park
Riverside urban forest on a former racetrack, with deer, a butterfly park and bike paths.
Tapgol Park
Small city park built around a glass-encased, ten-story stone pagoda from a fifteenth-century Buddhist temple.
Seonyudo Park
Former water purification plant reborn as an ecological park, its concrete tanks now botanical gardens draped in ivy.
Yeouido Hangang Park
Riverside park of running paths, lawns and cherry blossoms on the site of Korea's first airport.