Newly Reborn 'Yongdusan Park', Officially Opens as Media Park in January

Starting January Next Year, Yongdusan Park to Operate Immersive Content Utilizing R&D Technology

Including Media Wall Large Screen, Media Facade, and AI Character Guide Services

Yongdusan Park, a downtown park in Busan, has been reborn and will showcase various contents utilizing research and development (R&D) technologies.

Yongdusan Park Large Media Wall.

Busan City and the Busan IT Industry Promotion Agency have rebranded Yongdusan Park with a new Event Identity (EI) called ‘Yongdusan Media Park’ and will officially open it in January next year.

‘Yongdusan Media Park’ reinterprets the historical significance of Yongdusan Park and is composed of contents that fit new trends. Here, visitors can experience various contents utilizing R&D technologies such as ▲media wall content (large screen) ▲media facade (projection mapping) ▲artificial intelligence (AI) character guide service (kiosk).

The media facade (projection mapping) has been installed in four locations including the wall waterfall, bell pavilion, and traditional garden. It features videos related to the park’s past as ‘Busan Yeo,’ a ceramic production site, as well as scenes of the hillside roads and the development of Busan’s maritime and logistics industries. Different videos can be enjoyed daily from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at each location.

On the large media wall measuring 20 meters wide and 4 meters high, visitors can experience various public promotional videos, immersive videos, and metaverse contents (flying in the sky, touring Yongdusan) from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The metaverse content called ‘MetaWorld’ allows users to enjoy different historical eras of Yongdusan Park?prehistoric, Joseon Dynasty, and modern times?like a game. When users acquire items such as ‘jewels,’ they can customize or change their characters. The program can be downloaded from the official website.

The kiosk-based AI chatbot service is linked with ChatGPT and enables users to obtain various information through character and voice-based conversations. By touching the menu, users can access information about nearby restaurants, tourist attractions, personality type tests (MBTI), and more.

Additionally, by downloading the ‘Yongdusan AR’ app registered on Google Play, visitors can experience augmented reality (AR) games that can only be enjoyed at Yongdusan Park.

Moreover, visitors can enjoy small pleasures throughout Yongdusan Park, such as kinetic art applying pose estimation and robotics technology, and an AI bird fortune-telling service that combines ChatGPT technology and AR technology to predict next year’s fortune, reminiscent of the bird fortune-telling enjoyed in the park during the 1970s.

Before the official opening in January next year, the city has been conducting a pilot operation of the contents since October this year, allowing citizens visiting Yongdusan Park to directly experience and enjoy the contents by the end of this year and the New Year 2024.

Park Geun-rok, Director of the Tourism and MICE Bureau of Busan City, said, “We hope you enjoy the various technology-based immersive contents of Yongdusan Media Park,” adding, “The immersive contents containing the history and stories of Yongdusan Park are expected to create synergy with our city’s night tourism specialized city project and lead to the revitalization of the old downtown area.”

Busan City was selected as having the most night tourism spots among metropolitan cities nationwide, with eight locations chosen in the ‘Korea Night Night Gokgok’ top 100 night tourism destinations.

The newly renovated ‘Yongdusan Park’ is one of these eight locations, and through operating contents befitting Korea’s top night tourism city, it is expected to revitalize night tourism in Busan’s old downtown and continuously attract domestic and international tourists.