Yongdusan Park (용두산 공원)

Yongdusan Park is a park located in Jung-gu, Busan, South Korea. The 120-meter-high Busan Tower is located here.

Yongdusan Mountain (49m) in downtown Busan is one of Busan’s three famous mountains. It was originally called Songhyeonsan Mountain, which means a mountain with a view of the sea through the dense pine tree forest. Later, the name was changed to Yongdusan Mountain, yongdu means “dragon’s head” and “san” means “mountain”. The name is an allusion to the similarity of the mountain park, which is said to resemble a dragon’s head, and is suppose to have protected the area against foreign invaders overseas.

The park was called Unam Park at the time of the Liberal Party’s ruling but was renamed to Yongdusan Park after the April 19 Revolution in 1960. The park offers a beautiful view of Busan Port and the surrounding scenery. In particular, the night view from Busan tower is magnificent. 

The mountain held shrines for the mountain gods built by the Japanese before the 8.15 Liberation. Now the mountain is home to a variety of monuments, including Cheokhwabi Monument, Chunghontap Pagoda, 4.19 Revolution Monument, a statue of Admiral Yi Sun-shin, and Busan Tower.

During the Korea War, refugees built houses on the sides of the mountain all the way to the summit but these neighborhoods were burned down twice, leaving the mountain bare. Since then, fierce efforts of planting trees have led to transforming the burnt mountain to a beautiful park. The park occupies an area of 69,000 square meters. It has 70 different species of trees growing in it

Sources:
https://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=264539 http://tong.visitkorea.or.kr/cms/resource/28/1157728_image2_1.jpg
http://tong.visitkorea.or.kr/cms/resource/13/1572313_image2_1.jpg
http://tong.visitkorea.or.kr/cms/resource/26/1877626_image2_1.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Busan_tower_dragon_085.jpg/2560px-Busan_tower_dragon_085.jpg