Abandoned Amusement Park Yongma Land in Seoul
Jen and I ventured to a woodsy area of eastern Seoul in Yongmasan, Jungnang District to visit Yongma Land. It was quite the trek (and completely worth it); after a few subway transfers and hopping on a train to the Mangu Station stop; we hopped in a taxi (it's cheap fare, under 5,000 won and around a 5 minute drive) which took us into what seems like a far removed area of the city (a couple blogs/sites say it would take approximately 10 minutes to walk there from the station, we would estimate that it would take at least 20 minutes to walk there - and you have to take steep hills into account, which are not fun to walk up on a hot/humid day). The taxi drove from the bustling city streets onto narrow stoned pathways to reach the entrance of the abandoned amusement park, Yongma Land.
Yongma Land opened in the early 1980s and was a family-friendly amusement park; it now mainly lies in ruins but still receives many visitors (some of them being KPop idols, and music videos and KDramas have been shot here). Upon arriving, we noticed an unassuming man (who look liked a nearby resident caretaker of the grounds, but I believe is the actual owner of Yongma Land), near the (what looked like) ticket booth. Jen spoke to him in Korean and we each paid him 5,000 won (a little under $5) to enter the park.
At that point, we could roam about and take as many photos as we wanted throughout the park (quite literally just get up, on, in rides - just be careful since there obviously is no maintenance on the rides/structures and the last thing you want is to get injured or to damage anything). It was really quite an interesting experience and place that I could get lost in there for hours. Some rides like the carousel were still fully intact (if you visit around dusk, you can usually ask the owner to turn on the lights for 5-10minutes for around 10,000 won) but a vast majority of other rides were in complete disarray; some rides covered in overgrown vines. There were also a variety of furniture, statues and props all strewn across the amusement park grounds.
The grounds itself is not that large but there is quite a bit to see and open and hidden nooks to discover and take photos at. If you are in Seoul and want to do something off the grid and unique, I highly recommend visiting Yongma Land - you can say you got to visit and hang out in an abandoned amusement park...in SEOUL! If you're not walking back to the Mangu subway station, you will still need to walk down the dirt/stone pathways until you reach the main street to be able to hail a cab - we stopped by a small convenient shop to grab ice creams for the walk back. If you want to make the most of your time at Yongma Land, grab snacks or a small lunch before heading to the park and enjoy lunch in the amusement park. If you're planning on doing any kind of commercial filming/photographing the cost to enter Yongma Land may be more and I'm not sure how you go about setting that up beforehand, but the cost shouldn't be an astronomical amount (a trip advisor tip noted that professional photography can be taken for a 10,000 won admission fee).
Yongma Land
118, Mangu-ro 70-gil, Jungnang-gu, Seoul 02180, South Korea
Take the Jungang Line or Gyeongchun Line and get off at Mangu Station - take exit 1.
There will be a round about curb in which taxis are usually waiting and you should be able to catch one.
If you want to walk, when you take Exit 1 and come out onto the street level from the escalators, you will want to continue walking straight but stay to the left of the round about until you will reach the major street, Mangu-ro. From here there are many options on which direction you want to walk, I've included a map below so you can map out the streets you would want to walk (unfortunately Google Maps does not currently give step by step directions on how to get around anywhere in Seoul as everyone uses the platform Naver, but you should be able to manually map out directions).
Now for your viewing pleasure, click play below to see KPOP group CRAYON POP with their music video Bar Bar Bar filmed at Yongma Land
