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Pass Namtaeryeong, the first gateway to Seoul from the south, and you will be greeted by Seoul Grand Park, a landmark recreational site with people and nature in perfect harmony. Seoul Grand Park is internationally renowned for its scenic beauty and natural environment consisting of the Education, Natural Culture, and Amusement areas.
During the period of the Great Han Empire, Japan turned time-honored Changgyeonggung, one of the royal palaces in Seoul, into a zoo, in 1909, in an attempt to undermine Korea’s national sovereignty. As part of its effort to restore national pride and preserve its cultural assets, the Korean government created Seoul Grand Park, which opened on May 1, 1984, and transferred the animals in Changgyeonggung to the park for the restoration of the palace. Today, Seoul Grand Park is one of the world’s top 10 zoos in size and scale.
The zoo in Seoul Grand Park was renamed Seoul Zoo in 2009 to mark its 100th anniversary. It is home to over 3,200 animals of 340 species from all over the world, including the endangered lowland gorilla. The animals are categorized by their origin and genealogy and reside in an environment close to that in which they would inhabit in the wild.
The 2,975 ㎡ garden displays some 1,300 types of plants, which gives visitors an impression that they are strolling through a beautiful forest. In addition, the garden features various special exhibitions of a variety of stunning flowers, including Korean native orchids, all year round.
A leisurely walk along the 7.4 km-long path in Cheonggyesan (Mountain) that surrounds the roughly 2,876,033 ㎡ zoo, in casual outfit, will bring out the lyrical poet in you. Also, the natural camp site at the foot of Cheonggyesan will be a great place to spend a night with your family
A raft of countless ducks by the Seoul Grand Park Lake, in front of the main gate of the Seoul Zoo, and hundreds of thousands of roses of some 300 species, in Korea’s largest Rose Garden, across from the zoo, take your breath away.
Children can play with over 100 cute animals including goats, lamas, and squirrel monkeys at the nature-friendly petting zoo.
The Elephant Train and the Sky Lift are the popular transportation means in the park. The Elephant Train allows you to access the Seoul Zoo from Seoul Grand Park Station, on Subway Line 2, and the 1.7 km-long Sky Lift offers a breathtaking panoramic view of the park. The walking trail surrounding the reservoir is a wonderful way of enjoying a leisurely stroll with lovers or friends.
Having declared 2009 as the Year of Visiting the Seoul Zoo, Seoul Grand Park is geared up for its ambitious project of featuring a variety of festivals to showcase the year round mysterious beauty of nature in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Changgyeongwon Zoo, the forerunner of Seoul Grand Park.
The Spring Breeze Festival celebrates spring with dazzling silver-white Yoshino Cherry blossoms contrasted with splendid yellow forsythia flowers and azaleas, along the 7 km-long circuit road.
The Rose Garden Festival features hundreds of thousands of roses deep set in dark green thick foliage right next to Seoul Zoo.
Seoul Zoo is full of color in autumn and chrysanthemums feature as the messengers of fall.
The Winter Tour Festival leads you to a fantastic world of animals in the warm zoo covered with white snow.
The animal shows are perhaps the most popular and must-see feature in the park. The dolphin and sea lion show, which is held four times a day, presents cute and playful sea lions and the dynamic dolphins together with their trainers in the water. They are the most popular animal stars in the zoo.
Also featured are the flamingo show, in which some 80 flamingos boasts their beauty and grace, and the animal feeding and petting programs that allow visitors to feed various wild animals, such as monkeys (Ape Hall) and tigers and pet beautiful Formosan sika deer, rabbits, and lamas. The Seoul Zoo is unique in that it is Korea’s only zoo with animal feeding and petting programs in which animal trainers provide valuable information on the animals, including their habits and behaviors, while allowing visitors to interact with them.
Seoul Zoo operates the Nature Learning Center that offers elementary school children, as well as other visitors, the opportunity to learn more about nature. It consists of the animal learning center, which allows children and visitors to realize the importance of nature and develop a love for animals by feeding and petting them, while learning more about them; the plant learning center, which gives visitors the opportunity to observe rare plants and the plant ecosystem; and the insect learning center, which teaches the importance of ponds and wetlands to insects by observing and entomologizing various insects, such as dragon flies and cicadas. The nature learning center is popular among children, in particular, and may be responsible for inspiring not a few future zoologists.
Since its opening, Seoul Zoo has taken responsibility for managing and providing education for the public about rare wild animals and served as a site for recreation and relaxation. Also, it has made consistent efforts to develop into a world-class eco-friendly zoo by teaming up with the world’s leading ecological zoo designers and local ecological experts over the last few years.
It is now undertaking its long-term plan of building the Seoul Ecological Zoo, which is designed to create an environment similar to the natural habitats of its residents so that nature, animals, and humans can coexist.
An ecological zoo refers to a zoo designed to provide animals with an environment similar to their natural habitats whilst also raising public awareness of the importance of protecting animals in their natural state by communicating with major countries with wild animal habitats. It also refers to a zoo with various facilities for breeding and conserving endangered species in their natural state, as well as for research and education, rather than simply keeping animals and exhibiting them. The initial phase of the Seoul Zoo Ecological Park Construction Project aims to remove the artificial facilities typically found in most zoos, such as fences and cages, to create an environment as close to the natural animal habitats as possible.
The Ape Hall, which opened on November 11, 2009, is the outcome of the Seoul Zoo’s efforts to create a new-concept ecological zoo to enable the animals and their human companions to come to better understanding of one another.
The Seoul Zoo pursues globalization in zoo operations and management through exchange and cooperation with zoos in other countries so as to advance the scientific technology for the protection of wild animals. In addition, it will play a key role in conserving Korea’s native endangered species as a wild life conservation and protection center.
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