The city of Suwon in Gyeonggi Province has established the Hwanggujicheon Ecological Water Resource Center Sports Park atop an underground sewage treatment plant, which has become a healing retreat in West Suwon just one month after its opening.
The main facilities, including a soccer field, baseball field, fitness equipment, children's playground, and lawn plaza, which held its completion ceremony on the 7th of last month, are attracting increasing numbers of family visitors seeking leisure, thanks to the full bloom of spring and positive word of mouth.
Not only on weekends but also on weekdays, families walking their pets, children playing with friends, and amateur sports club members can often be seen. When the vast lawn and the trees along the walking paths turn green, it is expected to firmly establish itself as a 'local outing spot right in front of your home.'
The users are residents from nearby areas such as Homaesil-dong and Geumgok-dong. The residential areas and the park are well connected along the riverside walking paths of Hwanggujicheon and Homaesilcheon, offering excellent accessibility.
The artificial turf soccer field, built to international standards, is already popular among club members, with weekend bookings fully reserved this month. It is equipped with lighting towers, allowing for night games as well.
Sports park at the Hwanggujicheon Ecological Water Resource Center, built above the underground sewage treatment plant of Hanggujicheon in Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province. Provided by Suwon City
The artificial turf baseball field, with a central fence distance of 106 meters, is rented out to clubs on weekends and used as a training ground for local independent baseball teams and high school baseball clubs on weekdays. The '2025 U-12 Student Baseball Tournament' was also held here in late last month.
With the open lawn plaza at its center, the children's playgrounds, fitness facilities, outdoor performance stage, and cherry blossom tree walking trail scattered around make it an ideal place for harmonious outings.
In particular, the children's playground featuring a large combined play structure also functions as a water play area, expected to attract even more children during the summer season.
The Suwon Hwanggujicheon Ecological Water Resource Center Sports Park is a convenience facility created on 77,705㎡ (23,000 pyeong) above ground by undergrounding a daily 45,000-ton capacity domestic sewage treatment plant.
It is regarded as a representative case where Suwon City addressed residents' aversion to undesirable facilities by prominently featuring preferred amenities and successfully gained local support.
A Suwon City official said, "It is so clean and odorless that many people do not even realize there is a sewage treatment plant here," adding, "It will serve as a good model for the planned relocation project of Suwon City's resource recovery facility, which will be pursued based on underground construction in the future."
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