Dark Roasted Blend: Ghost Rides: Abandoned Parks in South Korea

Ghost Rides: Abandoned Parks in South Korea

"QUANTUM SHOT" #500
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"Final Destination", Asian Style

When we published Part 1 of our "Abandoned Amusement Parks" series, we received numerous tips about spooky post-apocalyptic fun places around the world, and we intend to gradually spotlight the craziest of that bunch. Let's start in South Korea, as Jon Dunbar sends us his account of exploring various dilapidated parks around Seoul (slowly expiring, and not used as movie sets yet)

UPDATE:This info is from Suwon City Hall: "the parks mentioned in the article are scheduled to be developed as a self-supporting new town with general administrative complexes and high-tech industrial sites. To start the foundation work for development, the parks were closed in the winter of 2007." This is what's it going to look like:

See the official site here

...and these interesting sites will be removed forever. So here is the opportunity to see them before they are gone and appreciate their hidden beauty:

Woncheon Lakeland in Suwon (a small town of 1 million people that lies about 30 minutes south of Seoul). Not just one, but two old amusement parks lie there, full of surreal and bizarre sights. It starts pretty normal, at the park gate (slightly dented on right side - maybe a truck took a turn too fast)

More weird gateways appear, and then - bingo! - a "castle of horror":

Giant Pez dispensers! no less:

The Mini-Car control room sports (half of) a spooky clown, and a big red button, labeled in Italian:

The cars are filthy and covered in dust, but have a nice variety - from bikes to fire engines:

This upside-down boat ride looks pretty rickety (good to climb up while escaping from some raving maniac in the moonlight) -

Funny and creepy details lurk at every step:

Something reflective and very avantgarde... and more great dusty control rooms (which say "Cast Only") -

Enter this crazy "smiling squirrel" cabin and never come out again:

"Medical sensitivity" seems to strike from behind:

... and maybe they meant "not allowed to GET pregnant?"

False advertising:

Urinals? No, "Jumping Frog" rides (an open mouth with a single red tooth, ok?) -

That frog has its proportions all screwed up:

Looks like something from "Happy Tree Friends" cartoon:

Crying natives... and a doorway into the "Castle of Horror" -

Walls covered in eyeballs and a submerged lower level:

Nearby is the abandoned floating restaurant:

... and another one:

Snake Lights - and an eagle with kegs of beer...

Jon Dunbar also recently revisited the Okpo Land on Southern Korean island of Geoje (which we covered in Part 1) - taking pictures of other creepy / weird rides there:

(all images by Jon Dunbar, used by permission)

CONTINUE TO NEXT PART! ->

Click to read the first part ->

Also Read: DRB "Urban Exploring & Abandoned Places" Category - and - Nightmare Playgrounds!

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COMMENTS::

17 Comments:

Jetty said...: Creepy. Nice post!; ___
FranzGorg said...: all coasters has been manufactured by italian industry Zamperla
http://www.zamperla.it/

ciao; ___
alvarhillo said...: It´s remember me the movie "Chihiro´s travel" from Miyazaki.; ___
Lau said...: Wow..! Great post, that place must be creepy at night
;); ___
Jon said...: Okpo Land was very peaceful at night. We went up there at 2am while very drunk. The third picture from the bottom with the swirling lights was taken from the ride as it was rotating, and we could see the city way below.; ___
Anonymous said...: FYI,
I would like to correct
some mistakes here.

First of all, the author of this post was not actually supposed
to go inside. It's forbidden
to go inside as it will be
under construction very soon.

Second, it's not likely abandoned.
Around the resort, there are gonna
be new housing area(apartments), and the resort will be transformed
to bigger park!
hope this helped u guys understand!

if you wanna see pictures,
pls refer to the pictures below.

http://pds54.cafe.daum.net/image/10/cafe/2008/06/28/17/57/4865fccfe88fe

http://pds83.cafe.daum.net/image/14/cafe/2008/07/28/15/47/488d6b848cb1f; ___
Jon said...: Hey Anonymous,

You obviously have no idea what urban exploring is if you think I made a mistake.

There were no signs, in Korean or otherwise, forbidding entrance. Nobody stopped us, despite the fact we were crawling around there for several hours and seen by many people.

Thanks for posting your pictures. If there is anything South Korea needs more of, it's soulless highrises.; ___
YeonJoo said...: It's great that you guys were able to take pictures of this place, since this place will be gone soon due to the apartment complex construction plan throughout the area. The price of the land in Seoul and its suburban areas including Suwon is considerably expensive because of "supply and demand". (e.g. 1300 ft2 of apartment, not a house, costs minimum $300,000 average and up.-plz google the population density in these areas if interested.) And that's why people would like to utilize this piece of land to build more housing to live.

By the way, FYI, it's kind of sad and true that Koreans really don't talk to Foreigners because of the language barrier. Don't be surprised!; ___
Anonymous said...: Just so everyone's clear:

-A city of 1 million may be large by western standards, but in Asia it's relatively small, especially when it's a little south of a city of 10 million.
-A site is abandoned if it has been vacated and is awaiting demolition. The two significantly large neighbourhoods of vacated houses awaiting demolition that are within five minutes of my home are abandoned.
-Not everyone sees beauty the same way. The Japanese have a word, haikyo, which relates to the hidden beauty found in sites like this. There are hundreds of people all over the world who seek out places like this. Korea is not unique in this way.; ___
StripeyUnderpants said...: I want that big, green gargoyle! ^_^; ___
Jacques said...: Remember the movie "Big", with T Hanks...the wish machine is somewhere in those parks.; ___
story1357 said...: Anonymous,
we see the beauty in these places. When we say weird or creepy we really mean cool. :)
Where are these abandoned neighborhoods you speak of?; ___
Anonymous said...: "It´s remember me the movie "Chihiro´s travel" from Miyazaki."

I believe this film was released in the U.S. as "Spirited Away."
(Chihiro's Dad mistakes a portal to the spirit world for the entrance to an abandoned amusement park; surreal eerieness ensues).

Yes, I had the same thought, looking at those pictures.

This and "Castle in the Sky" by Miyazagi are amazing, and well worth renting; but do not select the English language version: it changes the stories too much. Read subtitles on the original Japanese-soundtracks.; ___
Anonymous said...: awesome; ___
Jon said...: I'm sad to report that the front gate arch has been removed.

South Korea is filled with large abandoned neighbourhoods. In the near future I'm thinking of putting together a report on them for this site, but for now you can see a ton of photos on my site.; ___
Anonymous said...: Too bad you weren't able to get inside the floating restaurant with the windmill. Maybe come back at night and borrow one of the boats to get across. Would suck if the door leading up turned out to be locked.; ___
Jon said...: Oh, I later got into two of the floating restaurants. The one titled "...and another one" has some pretty cool stuff inside.; ___

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