Yongma Land, the closed Seoul funfair whose carousel still turns for music videos

Halfway up Yongmasan (용마산), behind a gate that looks shut even when it is open, a carousel that stopped carrying children in 2011 still turns for anyone willing to pay for the electricity. Yongma Land (용마랜드) is the reason a certain kind of Korean music video keeps arriving at the same picture: peeling paint, a ferris wheel going nowhere, one horse lit from the inside.

What is actually there

The park is small, smaller than any wide-angle frame suggests. The ferris wheel stands rusted in place and does not run, the bumper cars have gone soft with moss, and the carousel is the only ride the owner will still switch on, and only when someone asks and pays. Everything else is scenery, which is precisely what the crews come for.

Getting in, and what it costs

The nearest subway is Sagajeong (사가정) on Line 7; from there it is roughly twenty minutes uphill through the residential blocks of Junghwa-dong (중화동), or a taxi ride that costs less than the entrance. Admission is cash at the gate, and having the carousel lit and moving costs more than simply getting in. Hours are informal rather than posted, and the place closes outright when a shoot books it, so confirm the day before instead of arriving on faith.

Whether it earns the trip

If you came to Seoul to make photographs, this is one hour that repays the ride out: late afternoon light comes in low across the ridge and the old paint reads warm rather than grim. If you came for a day out, it is not one — there is no café, no loop to walk, nothing to do once the pictures are made. Wear the shoes you would wear on a hillside, and go on a weekday morning, when the gate may be yours alone.

용마랜드는 놀이공원이라기보다, 아직 불이 들어오는 촬영장에 가깝다.