The Han River Parks: Where Seoul Spends Its Summer Evenings

The Han is a kilometre wide through the middle of Seoul, and both banks are continuous public park — a long strip of grass, sports pitches, cycle paths, swimming pools in summer and convenience stores, running from the eastern city limit to the western one.

It is entirely free and never closes. In the daytime it is joggers, cyclists and people doing exercise classes; from about seven in the evening in the warm months it fills with groups on mats, and stays that way until eleven.

The cultural detail worth knowing is the food. Convenience stores in the parks sell ramyeon you cook at machines on site, and the delivery apps deliver to designated points in the parks — you order fried chicken to a grass reference and someone brings it. The standard order is chicken and beer, chimaek, and it costs ₩25,000 to ₩35,000 for two.

Mats are sold everywhere for a few thousand won, and in summer stalls rent them along with tents.

Banpo Bridge carries a 'moonlight rainbow fountain' — a line of nozzles along both sides that pushes water out over the river, lit in colours after dark. It runs on a seasonal schedule during the warm months, several times a day, with the evening shows the ones worth seeing.

The schedule changes year to year and the fountain is suspended in cold weather and in drought conditions, so check before making a trip specifically for it.

Watch from the park below on the southern bank, where the shows are announced and the crowd gathers, or from a river cruise passing beneath. The floating islands moored nearby — a set of artificial islands with venues on them — are lit at the same time.

It is free, it is genuinely well done, and it is the one piece of municipal spectacle in Seoul that consistently justifies the trip.

The riverside cycle paths are the best-built in the country and run for tens of kilometres along both banks, connecting to routes that continue far outside the city.

Ttareungi, the Seoul public bike scheme, has docking stations throughout the parks and hires from around ₩1,000 an hour through its app, which works in English. Private hire shops in the parks rent conventional and tandem bikes for a few thousand won an hour without an app.

A good first ride: Mangwon to Yeouido on the northern bank, about forty minutes at an easy pace, with the towers rising on the far side and bridges overhead. Add Banpo and you are at an hour and a half.

The paths are separated from traffic, flat, and busy at weekends with cyclists moving considerably faster than you. Stay right, and be aware that the northern and southern paths are only connected at certain bridges.

May, June, September and October are the months that work, when the evenings are warm and the humidity has not arrived or has left. July and August are hot and wet, and the riverside outdoor pools open then for exactly that reason.

Early April brings cherry blossom to the Yeouido embankment, and with it one of the largest crowds of the Seoul year. Early October brings the fireworks festival, which puts hundreds of thousands of people on both banks.

Winter empties the parks entirely, which has its own appeal: the paths stay open and lit, the river sometimes ices at the edges, and you will have the view of the skyline to yourself.

Whatever the season, the parks are at their best after dark. The city on both banks lights up, the bridges are lit, and — unlike almost every other capital — the riverside is completely safe to walk at any hour.