NamSan park, seclusion in the city

Walking home from the Noryangjin fish market; after having crossed the mighty Han river, then through one of Seoul’s red light districts, continuing past the Itaewon neighborhood I finally reached the south entrance of Namsan park. The Namsan park is located all around the base of the Namsan mountain which has on its top the famous N Seoul tower that I talked about in a previous post here.  I was approaching it from the south side.

Despite being almost in the middle of Seoul if such a thing exist it is extremely calm and peaceful. I had walked around this park the previous day and had promised myself to walk through it when I had the opportunity.  The opportunity presented itself the following day so I took it.

After having finished a delicious piece of pizza at Pizzarium (you can read about it here) it was a quick uphill walk to the base of Namsan park. Now when I say it was a quick uphill walk perhaps you should keep in mind that it’s close to a 30 minute uphill walk with a steep incline for a few large sections of the walk.  Once you’ve cleared that walk you’re now at the base of the mountain and Namsan park.  Looking at the below picture you would have walked up to the stairs, turned left and the crossed a small pedestrian bridge over to the park:

The base of the park was exactly what you would expect from any park. Without knowing what the signs were saying I simply went with the flow. As I’ve mentioned a few times It seems like often when you have no idea where you’re going you’ll find the most interesting things. I saw a few Koreans families enjoying the park and many individual Koreans walking their dogs or simply enjoying the forest park by themselves.

The initial park area was quite even and smooth with several flower beds and paths.  Notice in the one picture with the path leading down, I took this one because I was looking for a washroom:

Before going down I snapped a few pictures of the south region of Seoul:

Turned out that there wasn’t a washroom down that path but there was a nice rest area with some exercise equipment and a natural spring.  When I wandered down the stairs to the rest area I was looking around for a washroom when an old Korean lady yelled out “MUL!”.  It took me a second or two to register that she was yelling out “water”.  So I wandered a little closer and found a nice fresh water spring and took advantage of it to sit down, drink a little water and relax.

You can see the exercise and rest area, a storm water system for when the rainy season begins and a stone engraving located near the spring.  When I asked my Korean friend for the translation he explained that it said “Namsan stream”.  There were plenty of dogs and you’ll see a couple (male and female) below, they were extremely well behaved and waited patiently as their master used the exercise machines.

After resting for 10-15 minutes I walked up the stairs and once more used my instinctive “walk up the path with the highest incline” technique.   While walking upward I encountered this little tree that looked like it was dropping popcorn from it’s branches, check out the close up i think it’s worth it.   The small flowers were falling at a rate of a couple per second:

Shortly afterward I reached what I refer to as the small summit or the “middle” of Namsan mountain park where I discovered some washrooms.  My Korean friend explained to me that over the last few years Seoul had been making an effort to place public washrooms every where.  Much to my surprise as a foreigner most of these washrooms are very well maintained and clean.  Here’s a quick example to explain just how clean these are.  I also thought the wildlife sign was nice, notice how all the animals look nice except for the menacing snake?  Not sure if this is intentional (if the snakes here are poisonous or not) but I thought it was funny:

Finally a few more minutes walk from the washrooms there was a paved road which had a nice wooden walkway and buses running tourist and Koreans from the bottom of Namsan mountain/park up to the base of N Seoul tower.  The nice walkway was on the left side and notice the storm water drains for the rainy seasons.

Continuing to hike up the wooden trail I had the opportunity to take another side trail.  Despite the already long day of hiking that I had done the weather was wonderful so I took advantage of it and headed down the path.  Below you can see the entrance to the path in question.  What I thought was really nice was the comfortable chairs and tables that they had on this side trail.  I also really liked the exit surrounded by bamboo.  As a westerner from the colder provinces this was the first time I had a chance to walk amongst naturally growing bamboo:

Shortly after exiting the side trail, there was a “photography deck/area” which had been built to provide a superb view of the southern part of Seoul.  Here you’ll find some beautiful shots including some that have the famous Han river in the background  You’ll also see one shot containing the N Seoul tower.  It marked the true “half way” point of my hike.  Once I reached it I would then proceed to hike down the norther side of the mountain.  If you’ve checked out a few of my other pictures you’ll no doubt notice the difference (or lack of) smog in these pictures.  It was a good clear day to snap some pictures:

Another 10 or 15 minute of hiking and I reached the top of Namsan mountain park and the base of the N seoul tower.  Here you can see a few shots of just before I arrived to the above mentioned area.  When you see the yellow road blocks you quickly come to realize that there are military related and used as a way to prevent cars and tourist from entering.  You’ll also notice a close up of the N Seoul tower.  This was taken a few minutes before reaching the base and starting down the north side of the mountain.  Finally you can also see parts of the old fortification wall (not to be confused with the mount Bugaksan wall, this one is completely different):

One the way down, I encountered some more public washrooms, exercise areas and a final photography deck.  I’ll bunch all of these pictures together as they wrap up the whole Namsan park nicely:

This whole hike was only part of a larger hiking day.  I’ll have a post linking everything together shortly.