Children's Grand Park

September 10, Saturday – I visited the Children’s Grand Park alone. It was my second trip out alone. I reached there by bus no. 33 and followed by a short distance of walk. It was very easy to identify it from its entrance. Admission is free. The park is much bigger than I expected. It has many places in there, such as the Children’s Hall, monuments, zoo and theme park. I saw a lot of senior citizens as I walked in. Some of them were accompanied by their children. They were relaxing under the shade of the trees, enjoying their meals or chatting.

First of all, I visited the children’s education center. It is huge building with many rooms for workshops and practices, such as the clay workshop, gymnasium, internet café, basketball court and swimming pool. The place seemed to be quite new.

There are many ladies and children at the information center with their baby cars. I wonder why… There is a mini theme park near the entrance. Not many people are playing there and the maintenance seemed to be terrible.

Along the way up to the Children’s Hall, I saw many beautiful decorations of cartoon characters. In addition, I came across some ugly looking Teletubies and Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs. The atmosphere there is really wonderful. Children must have like this park a lot. There is nothing much at the Children’s Hall though.

I managed to get back to the main walking trail after some walk. There are many small shops there selling hotdogs and ice-creams. I bought myself a 500 won melon ice-cream. It is a tasty. There were many old folks and parents with their children there. There is a lake and bigger theme park in the end part of the park. I headed there after eating my ice-cream.

An ajesi(uncle) greeted me as I was walking and he offered to guide me around the park. He is a businessman of a trading company and able to speak some English and Japanese. As his Japanese is better, I communicated with him in Japanese. He guided me up a hiking trail. There were many people heading there as well. From the top, we were supposed to be able to see Haeundae and Lotte Department Store from there. But, I get a nice view of the lake of the park and concrete jungle instead. I was a bit disappointed. The ajesi treated me to some traditional ice-cake called “sugopin”. It is made of red beans and do not have milk like normal ice-creams.

After the rest, we took another trail back to back where we started climbing. There are many trees there. It reminded me of Snow White when she was lost in the forest. The trees there are tall and straight. Its wood is very hard and its texture is smooth. I think that they are “balak” trees. We had some drink of the mineral water on our way back. It was very cool and refreshing.

Then, the ajesi brought me for walk beside the lake. There were some ducks and swam swimming in the lake. I was able to see some gigantic fish in the lake as well. Many people like to take pictures at the small resting place beside the lake.

The ajesi treated me some coffee and dinner after that. It was very nice of him. He even sent me off while I was waiting for the bus. I took bus no. 133 back to Naengjeong at around 6.30pm.