Seoul City Offers 148 Types of 'Free Online Park Content' During Seollal Holiday

Fairy tales, ecology, play, healing, constellations, photography classes, etc.
Traditional playgrounds held every holiday are not operated to prevent COVID-19

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government will offer 148 free online park content items across 10 categories during the four-day Lunar New Year holiday starting on the 11th and the winter vacation, allowing citizens to experience nature more closely and learn in a fun way.

This content is the result of non-face-to-face park programs and park leisure culture projects conducted since last year due to COVID-19. It has been compiled into e-books for easy use by citizens or reorganized for easy browsing. It can be accessed on the ‘Seoul’s Parks’ website and the YouTube channel ‘Seoul’s Park’.

The offerings range from educational content such as ecology, constellations, photography lectures, drawing, and exercise equipment usage, to exhibitions of crafts made from natural materials called Park Handicraft Exhibition, and virtual park walks through pine forests that provide healing just by walking or looking at trees.

In particular, a mini-documentary capturing ‘A Year in the Dream Playground,’ which creates nature-friendly play spaces, and the creative fairy tale ‘The Legend of the Sound Fountain: The Story of Diryongi,’ based on the history of Seoseoul Lake Park and a sound fountain operated by aircraft noise, will be unveiled online for the first time.

Additionally, the 11-episode series ‘Park Exploration: The World of Creatures,’ which captures various appearances of animals found in parks, features the magpie resuming its bath for the New Year.

‘The Legend of the Sound Fountain: The Story of Diryongi’ is a creative fairy tale selected in the 2019 Park Street Arts Festival competition (by the theater troupe Shinbihan Umjigimsajeon), based on the sound fountain at Seoseoul Lake Park. The Dream Playground activity videos are mini-documentaries and play videos showcasing the operation cases of five regions creating nature-friendly play spaces, conducted as a city governance project in 2020.

‘Park Exploration: The World of Creatures’ is an interesting video capturing various creatures such as the little owl and squirrels, which are often overlooked during walks in parks and forests. ‘Reply Online Play Park’ and ‘Curious Journeys of Forest Friends’ are reorganized into e-books featuring ecological and historical-cultural play activity sheets related to parks. ‘Fun Planet Exploration’ is an astronomy program booklet conducted at Noeul Park, providing information, quizzes, and craft materials about stars, the moon, and the solar system.

The online park ecology school, ‘Anyone Can Be a Natural Scientist,’ covers various topics such as animals and plants found in parks, ecology, tradition, and farming, linked to the elementary education curriculum, adding interest and depth through videos.

Traditional playgrounds featuring games like jegichagi (shuttlecock kicking), tuho (arrow throwing), yutnori (traditional board game), and top spinning, which are usually held at major parks during Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays, will not be operated to prevent COVID-19.

Choi Yoon-jong, Director of the Green City Bureau of Seoul, said, “Citizens are very fatigued due to prolonged social distancing. Taking a light walk while maintaining distance in a nearby park to refresh your mood and enjoying park content online will be an opportunity to experience parks in a new way.”