Olympic Park (Lone Tree)

Olympic Park was built for the 1988 Seoul Olympics on the grounds of Mongchontoseong, an earthen fortress from the early Baekje kingdom, and today it is a huge free park mixing history, sculpture and concert halls. Its most famous resident is the Lone Tree, an oriental arborvitae about ten meters tall standing alone on a wide grassy hill. According to the park, it stayed solitary because the houses and trees around it were cleared in the mid-1980s and only this good-looking tree was kept. The empty hill and big sky make an almost minimalist frame. Nearby runs the Mongchontoseong walking trail along the old earthen walls, and elsewhere you will find the World Peace Gate, more than 200 outdoor sculptures from artists around the world, the Lake 88 pond and seasonal flower fields. KSPO Dome, one of Seoul's main K-pop concert venues, sits in the park too. The site is large, so plan the area you want rather than trying to see everything; the full nine-spot route takes about three hours.