Hyochang Park used to be called Hyochang-won back in King Jeongjo’s time. It was where King Jeongjo’s oldest son Prince Munhyo, King Jeongjo’s wife Ui of the Seong clan, and King Jeongjo’s concubine Sugeui of the Park clan were buried. During Japanese colonization, Hyochang-won was turned into a park in 1924, opened in 1940, and after Prince Munhyo’s grave was moved to Seosamreung in Goyang-si in October 1944, it was officially named Hyochang Park. Now in the park, there are remains of Lee Bong-Chang, Yoon Bong-gil, and Baek Jeong-gi, who were presidents of the Provisional Government of Republic of Korea. An Jung-geun’s temporary burial mound is located alongside the three, awaiting for his remains. Kim Gu, also an independence activist, was also buried in 1949. Memorial ceremony is held yearly on April 13th, the day the provisional government was established.

The park is very dynamic in terms of levels. Most of the remains and memorials are on higher level, whereas most of the resting or exercising area are on lower levels. There are 170 different kinds of plants and trees in Hyochang Park, so as you can see in the slideshow, in autumn, you can see leaves changing colors, and in spring, many different types of flowers would bloom. Aside from color, the positioning of certain types of grass and trees together was very interesting in terms of texture.

Honestly, I hadn’t planned to go see Hyochang Park yesterday. I was walking out from Sukmyeong Womans University with a friend, and it seemed like a nice park, so we walked in. I wanted to talk about the landscape aspects of the park only since this is a design blog, but the historical side of it – which I found out later – was so strong, and hence it’s informed in the beginning.

Area : 171,294sqm