Haneul Park

Haneul Park, also known as Sky Park, is the most popular of the five parks situated within the World Cup Park complex in Seoul. Its origins are remarkably humble and industrial; from 1978 to 1993, the site served as the Nanjido landfill, where the city's waste was piled into two massive mountains reaching nearly 100 meters in height. This area was once a beautiful island known for its flowers, but rapid urbanization turned it into an environmental scar that required a radical solution. To prepare for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the Seoul Metropolitan Government embarked on an ambitious ecological restoration project to transform the landfill into a sustainable green space. Engineers installed specialized liners and extraction systems to manage the methane gas and leachate produced by the decaying waste underneath. This process successfully stabilized the land, allowing for the introduction of soil and diverse plant life, effectively burying the city's trash under a layer of vibrant nature. Today, Haneul Park stands as a triumphant symbol of urban environmentalism and rebirth. Located at the highest point of the park system, it features vast fields of silver grass and sunflowers, as well as five large wind turbines that generate electricity for the park's facilities. It serves as a living classroom for sustainability, proving that even the most damaged landscapes can be reclaimed and returned to the public as a place of beauty and reflection.