Nature tour to find Bucheon’s green heart | Travel Course | K-Travel Mate

Bucheon Botanical Garden is located within Bucheon Natural Ecology Park and spans two basement and two aboveground floors, offering a paradise of rare plants. The garden is designed as a glass greenhouse shaped like a peach blossom, symbolizing Bucheon City, and consists of five themed halls: Fun Plant Hall, Aquatic Plant Hall, Subtropical Plant Hall, Succulent Plant Hall, and Native Plant Hall, along with two plant experience centers. Blending with the surrounding forest, it provides citizens with a living natural learning space and diverse cultural rest areas. In addition to Bucheon Botanical Garden, the Natural Ecology Park houses the Natural Ecology Museum, Agricultural Relics Exhibition Hall, Bucheon Mureungdowon Arboretum, and Strong Child Experience Center, making it enjoyable to explore and experience according to age. It is conveniently accessible near Kkachiwool Station on Seoul Metropolitan Subway Line 7.

Seokwangsa Temple is a direct temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism located on Bowunsan in Wonmi-gu, Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Advocating ‘Right Buddhism, Practiced Buddhism,’ it has engaged in various activities as a missionary temple within the city despite its brief history. Founded in 1976 by the late Supreme Patriarch Gosan through a tent Buddhist service, Seokwangsa grew into a representative urban missionary temple in the metropolitan area with 15,000 registered households in about 20 years. Its significance lies not only in size but also in diverse attempts to closely connect with the local community, including daycare centers, kindergartens, senior citizen banquets, cultural events, and publishing. It published the Seokwangsa-bo, effectively pioneering modern Buddhist document missionary work, and through children’s missionary activities centered on kindergartens and daycare centers, establishment and operation of a consumer cooperative, publication of Bucheon Citizen Newspaper, and establishment and operation of Bucheon Foreign Workers’ House, it achieved new milestones in Buddhist community and social democratization movements. Especially in the 1980s, Seokwangsa was known as a frequent gathering place for democratization and labor activists, becoming a sacred site of democratization in Bucheon. The temple’s iljumun gate, main hall, octagonal nine-story pagoda, and bell pavilion signal it as a temple, but its atmosphere differs from typical temples. It includes a consumer cooperative, Beautiful Store, free clinic, Lumbini swimming pool, daycare center, kindergarten, Wangsanggeukrakjeon (funeral hall), and Anrakjeongto (columbarium). Trucks loaded with goods for the cooperative and Beautiful Store come and go, while groups of children chatter at the daycare below. At the funeral hall and register office, mourners in black funeral attire sometimes pace with somber expressions.

Bucheon Central Park, located in Jung-dong, Wonmi-gu, Bucheon-si, is Bucheon’s first neighborhood park. It adjoins the city hall and features a large pond and fountain in the center, providing excellent surrounding scenery. The park includes commemorative plaques for Byeon Yeong-ro and Hwang Myeong (Bokdong). It also houses the Bucheon City Symbol Tower and a gateball field, offering opportunities for sports and leisure, and it is characterized by many old trees, making it a notable arboretum park. The uniquely shaped Bucheon City Symbol Tower stands in the very center, surrounded by a plaza space where temporary stages are set up for each performance. On the west side of the park is a peach memorial garden planted with peach trees donated from Okayama City, Japan, known as a famous peach-producing area. While the theme of the western side is trees and grass, the eastern side’s theme is water. Various strange waterways, a rural stream with stepping stones, a large fountain, and an artificial island floating in the center of the artificial pond all guide visitors into a world of water. Every summer, a free outdoor water play area opens annually.

Sangdong Lake Park is the largest park in Bucheon-si. Centered around an artificial lake, there is a 2.5km walking trail along the perimeter where visitors can enjoy light exercise alongside refreshing water streams. It is the only place in Bucheon-si with an X-Game park, offering exciting recreational activities. Visitors can enjoy beautiful seasonal flower displays, and the main facilities include a fountain, plaza, wildflower yard, garden vegetable patch, ecological rice paddy, and a traditional agricultural culture center. The park is also equipped with sports facilities such as a badminton court, X-Game park, gateball court, and basketball court.