Everland unveils plum blossom trail

Everland will open the plum blossom trail Friday that will be the first of its kind in Seoul and its surrounding area. / Courtesy of Everland

By Kang Seung-woo

Everland, the nation's largest theme park, has been dubbed the "first amusement park" for many things.

The theme park located in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, introduced a rose festival in 1985, a tulip festival in 1992, "Caribbean Bay" water park in 1996 and the wooden roller coaster T-Express in 2008 - all firsts in the history of the nation's amusement park industry.

And now Everland has one more to add to its list of firsts as it has come up with the plum blossom trail that is the first of its kind in Seoul and its surrounding area. It is a part of its move to introduce the concept of "eco-park" also for the first time in Korea.

"The plum blossom trail is scheduled to be open on March 29 through May 6," Jeong Byung-suk, executive vice president at Samsung C&T Resort Business Division, said in a press conference, Tuesday. The resort division operates Everland.

"The trail spans over 33,000 square meters and there are 700 plum trees from 11 different types collected from all over the country," he said, adding that it is an easy walk of 1 kilometer suitable for any age.

The opening of the trail carries extra weight as it is the final piece of Everland's puzzle for its spring flower festival lineup that already has tulips, cherry blossoms and roses.

Everland's plum blossom trail shows off 700 trees of 11 different kinds. / Courtesy of Everland

According to Everland, the trail is not just a place to see the flowers.

When visitors take the narrow path zigzagging up the hill through blossoms, they will be first welcomed by 30 different bonsai trees, followed by bamboo groves, 10,000 pine, cherry and willow trees, 240,000 flowers - including muscari, daffodilsand canola flowers ― and a full moon-shaped rest area.

The top of the hill, 210 meters above the sea level, commands an unbroken yet unheard-of view of Everland.

Everland launched the project to build the plum blossom trail in 2016.

So far, growing plum blossoms in Seoul and its surrounding areas has been a tall order given that they are vulnerable to cold weather.

However, taking advantage of its wealth of know-how on plants adopted from "Jayeon Nongwon" (the former name of Everland that means farmland) it has sourced plum trees from all over the country.

Plus, it put together a taskforce of plant specialists and benchmarked places famous for plum trees in Japan and China.

"All employees concentrated their efforts on unveiling the first plum blossom-themed garden in the capital area," another Everland official said.

"We hope many people will visit the garden and enjoy fragrant blossoms this spring."

To celebrate its opening, Everland will also run a weekday docent program, through which plant specialists will introduce the trail and tell various stories about plants from March 29 to April 19.

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