Suncheon City Creates 'Living Forest' at Dongcheon Riverside Retention Basin in Ocheon District

Bringing the National Garden Closer to Citizens in the Heart of the City

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Suncheon City (Mayor Heo Seok) announced on the 10th that it will create a living forest, a citizen rest area, by 2021 at the Dongcheon riverside retention basin in the Ocheon district.

The living forest is being created to expand the Suncheonman National Garden into the city center for the 2023 Suncheonman International Garden Expo, providing a resting space for citizens and attractions for tourists.

The living forest will maintain the function of the Dongcheon riverside retention basin while being composed of five themes over 245,000㎡: Greeting Forest, Meeting Forest, Living Forest, Waterside Ecological Wetland Garden, and others.

About 230,000 trees and herbaceous plants will be planted, creating a citizen rest area featuring water and wind, flowers and fragrance, sunlight and shade.

Additionally, various cultural experience spaces, rest areas, and exercise facilities will be created together.

Suncheon City expects that the living forest creation will provide new attractions and experiential content to citizens and tourists through a citizen market linked with Korea’s largest food truck night market and flea market operations.

A Suncheon City official stated, “We will continuously create living forests in the city to complete a garden road linked with the tourism industry and build an ecological economy city where ecology supports livelihoods.”

Meanwhile, the Dongcheon riverside retention basin was completed in 2019 as a disaster prevention facility to protect citizens’ safety from disasters by preparing for flooding in low-lying urban areas due to the overlap of high tide at Suncheonman and heavy rain.