The Grand Park Station on line 4 (exit 2), offers several things to do and see; enough for an entire day if you want. I walked around aimlessly for quite sometime before I could really take in all that there is to do at Seoul's Grand Park Station. I noticed there were at least twenty tourist busses parked in the huge parking lot, but as I got closer to the entrance, I noted that there weren't very many people out to the zoo on a Thursday. This was good!
I noted the several different things to do at Grand Park Station; there's Seoul Land a huge amusement park filled with enough rides for to fill up an entire day, a charmingly small botanical garden, a rose garden which is pretty popular in early spring. Today, I wasn't permitted to enter. There's also the Seoul Museum of Modern Art and The Seoul Zoo.
Everything else would have to wait for another day, I was heading to the zoo. This is Korea's first official zoo which opened officially in 1909.
Is it just me? Or, is there a certain serenity that comes from walking through forests, gardens, aquariums and zoos? I just love taking in the behaviors of animals.
On my most recent trip to the joo (as Koreans would say it), I was lucky to find these two gentle giants at play. The elephant on his way to standing in the picture to the right would basically lay down and roll around with the legs in the air. It did this about three times in the twenty minutes I sat taking them in. The other elephant closest to the fence would come over and grab the others tail or trunk or whatever it could hold onto. It seem as though it was humbling him/herself to the other as if apologizing for some misdeed. Another elephant busied itself taking dust bath (the weather was rather hot that day) and another, (not pictured) was scratching an itch on a tree trunk (perhaps a scratching post).
I just love watching the elephants. They're so collective! On my trip to Taipei back in February, there were only two elephants at the Taipei Zoo, and they stuck together throughout the entire fifteen I spent observing them; where one went the other surely followed.
A bit late and somewhat lost, I stumbled onto the feeding of aggressive male lions. I saw a few documentaries on lions recently and to see it in person, I walked quickly to an uphill area to get a better view. The lion exhibit was separated into two sections; one section had about eight male lions and the other section, two or three males and several females. This is completely different to what I've seen on documentaries of lion prides as these big cats are territorial. I notice that one young lion was missing one-third of its tail and the pink of his flesh was showing; this was a recent injury. A few struggles broke out during feeding time and the growls were something fierce. I often find myself thinking while I watch predators hunting and feeding on prey, thinking, "I'm so glad to be at the top of the food chain".
Just as I was ready to exit the zoo, curiosity got the best of me. "Hmm", I thought. "I wonder what's over there?" and just like that I found the lair of the giraffes. Well, due to the rain, just one giraffe hanging out all by him/herself. I observed it for awhile but, perhaps it was missing the company of the other giraffes because soon after, it graciously disappeared into the shelter built for them.
I exited the zoo, satisfied with having seen my favorite animals and with the 4,000 won I paid for admittance. Worth it!
Things to take note of:
The Seoul Zoo is huge! Fear not! There IS a shuttle service that drops off and pick up visitors at every exhibit/station. I figured this out only after I got lost was offered the map from a clerk at the convenient store who took it out to show me where I was. And two I had already been wandering aimlessly for about an hour.
Check out the "more information" link to get full details on hours, feeding times and other pertinent information that I missed.
While these animals featured include hippos, rhinos, zebras, gorillas, llamas, sloths, black bears, tigers and many, many more (3400 to be exact) at this zoo, unfortunately, everything is in Korean. So, if you're planning your trip to the zoo with hopes of learning about the animals here, be prepared to learn by observation only if, like me, you haven't yet mastered the Korean language.
For more information on the Seoul's Grand Park Zoo go here.
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