Gyeongui Line Forest Park & Yeonnam-dong

Character

Trains still pass beneath Gyeongui Line Forest Park in Yeonnam-dong. Above them, the former track bed carries lawns, walking paths and a shallow water channel supplied with water collected from the underground rail system. The same corridor now serves fast metropolitan movement below and slow neighborhood movement at street level

The surface plan also reconnects blocks that railway infrastructure had separated. Frequent entrances meet side streets on both sides, and the path changes direction to draw movement across the corridor. Where homes sit close to the greenway, planting and low walls provide a small buffer between public circulation and residential frontage

That new permeability helped reshape Yeonnam’s commercial life. Cafés, restaurants, studios and small shops clustered around the steady pedestrian flow, producing the social landscape commonly called “Yeontral Park.” Academic work later measured stronger business activity, changing building uses and greater pressure on residential functions

The experience

Most visitors only need the roughly one-kilometre Yeonnam section. Hongik University Station anchors the busier southern side and Gajwa serves the northern end. The greenway gives the neighborhood a clear line of orientation, while short streets open away from it every few minutes

The park stays physically modest: lawns, trees, benches, railway traces and the narrow water channel occupy a strip once dominated by tracks. Its strongest spatial quality comes from the constant contact with the surrounding blocks. Homes, ground-floor businesses and small lanes remain immediately beside the public landscape

The channel reveals how closely the new park still depends on the old transport corridor. Water collected through the underground railway infrastructure is brought to the surface and reused in the landscaped stream. What looks like a simple park feature is therefore mechanically connected to the rail system running below

History

The Gyeongui railway was built in the early twentieth century to connect Seoul northwest toward Gaeseong and beyond. Construction of the Yongsan–Gaeseong section began in 1904 and service started in 1906. War and national division later broke the longer route, leaving the Seoul–Munsan section operating south of the border

A new phase began when metropolitan rail projects moved this part of the line underground. Surface railway land through Mapo and Yongsan became available for public use, and Seoul developed the released corridor in stages as Gyeongui Line Forest Park. The Yeonnam section opened in 2015; the wider 6.3-kilometre greenway was completed in 2016

Planning for Yeonnam treated reconnection as a design task. Documentation describes repeated links across the former railway barrier, zigzag circulation between streets and the reuse of underground rail water in the surface channel. The old alignment remained intact while its street-level function shifted from rail separation to public circulation

Commercial effects followed the opening. A 2019 Landscape and Urban Planning study found positive effects on nearby business activity, with results varying by local context. A later longitudinal study documented growth in cafés and tourist accommodation, rising land values and increasing commercial pressure. These changes describe what happened around the new connector after the physical conversion

Before you go

Use Hongik University Station for the lively southern end or Gajwa for the quieter northern side, then treat the park as an orientation line through Yeonnam’s side streets. The full Gyeongui Line Forest Park continues well beyond this neighborhood section. Seoul Parks currently asks visitors to refrain from drinking and noisy behavior, reflecting how closely the greenway sits beside residential buildings