Yongma Land: the amusement park that closed but never stopped filming

Yongma Land (용마랜드, Yongma Land) closed as an amusement park more than a decade ago and then quietly declined to disappear. The Ferris wheel still leans against the sky over Jungnang-gu, the bumper cars sit where their last drivers left them, and the front gate still swings open most days for anyone patient enough to phone the caretaker and climb the hill.

A park that stopped but stayed

The fairground sits on a slope in the Mangu-dong (망우동) and Junggok-dong (중곡동) fringe of eastern Seoul, tucked behind low apartment blocks below Yongmasan (용마산), the ridge that gives the place its name. It stopped selling ride tickets around 2011, and by every ordinary logic it should have been flattened for redevelopment. Instead the owner left the machines standing. The rust arrived on schedule; the demolition never did.

What filled the vacuum was a second career as a film set. Music-video crews, album photographers, fashion labels and, above all, couples booking pre-wedding and graduation shoots discovered that a decaying park photographs better than a working one. K-pop production units have shot here for years, and on a busy weekend you may share the lot with two or three separate crews, each roping off a different corner while a stylist steadies a reflector against the wind.

The carousel, on request

The centrepiece is a peeling carousel, hoejeon-mokma (회전목마, spinning wooden horses), its mounts faded to chalk white and dried-salmon pink. For most of the day it stands dark and motionless, and that is the honest version many photographers actually want: flaking paint, weeds pushing up through the platform boards, a canopy going grey at the seams.

Pay the caretaker a little more, though, and he walks over, throws a switch, and the whole canopy of bulbs comes on at once in the middle of an otherwise dead park. Some visitors pay again to have the horses turn. That single gesture — colour where you expected rust, motion where you expected silence — is why the place fills so many frames. Come at dusk and the lit carousel reads almost cinematic against the darkening ridge. Come at flat midday and you get texture instead of glow, which asks less of you and still holds up.

What it costs to get in

Entry is a modest cash fee, generally around 5,000 won per person, paid to the caretaker at the gate rather than at any booth. Switching on the carousel lights costs extra, commonly in the 10,000-won range, and turning the ride adds more on top; commercial shoots with a full crew are negotiated separately and run considerably higher. Bring cash in small notes — there is no card reader, no ticket window, and no change guaranteed. Confirm the current figures when you call, because they drift and depend on who is minding the gate that day.

The entrance itself is easy to miss: an unmarked metal gate up a quiet residential slope, with hand-written phone numbers taped to it. Hours are loose and tied entirely to the caretaker's presence, so the park can be shut with no notice on a weekday. Calling ahead is not a courtesy here, it is the only way to be sure the gate will open.

Getting there and getting it right

The practical approach is Sagajeong Station (사가정역) on Subway Line 7, which puts you closest to the base of the hill; Junggok Station (중곡역) on Line 5 also works, with a longer walk. From either, it is an uphill grind of roughly fifteen to twenty minutes through a residential grid, or a short local bus ride toward the Yongmasan trailheads followed by a final climb on foot. There is no dedicated car park, and the last stretch is narrow, so a taxi from the station is the low-effort option if your legs are done.

The mistake to avoid is arriving on faith. Turning up unannounced is how visitors end up standing at a padlocked gate with a phone number they should have dialled an hour earlier. Ring first, agree the fee and whether you want the lights, and go on an overcast afternoon if you can — soft grey light suits the peeling paint far better than hard noon sun, and the crews that book the golden hour will not be competing with you for the carousel.

불을 켠 회전목마 한 대가, 멈춰 선 놀이공원 전체를 다시 살려 놓는다.