No admission for the Namhansanseong Public Park is bringing back visitors
Gyeonggi government’s support on full admission increases visitors by 22.6%

More and more Gyeonggi residents are visiting the Namhansanseong Public Park.
According to a statistics collected by the Namhansanseong administration office, average daily visitors that visited the park from Jan. 1 to 3 added up to 2,238 visitors which was a 412 increase from the 1,826 visitors that visited the park during the same period in the previous year.
This is an increase of 22.6% of average daily visitors. Vehicles parked at the Namhansanseong parking lot has also increased by 11.2% from 671 to 746 vehicles.
The remarkable increase is because of the Namhansanseong Public Park is now open to the public free of charge starting Jan. 1, 2007.

The increment of the annual budget given to the park, from KRW 334 million 651 million, has made the park to be free for anyone to enjoy. Admissions before was KRW 1,000 for adults and KRW 300 for children, and the admission was used for mountain path maintenance, rebuilding resting places and other facility management expenses.

Many residents and civil groups have requested the annulment of admissions because collecting fees has been causing inconveniences of nearby roads stagnation, decreasing number of tourists, resident discomforts and many other difficulties.
The provincial government has considered the profit between the admission fees and maintenance expenses and then decided the financial scale and informed the decision to the Gwangju government last Dec. 8. This event was also announced through the metropolitan papers on Dec. 13, through a residential fair on Dec. 15 and also a participant meeting on Dec. 22.
Also with the annulment of the admission fee, the Namhansanseong Public Park will have rest rooms repaired, parking lots expanded and other facilities reformed with a KRW 4 billion budget until 2009 for a more improved resting place for residents.
Junior official of the Forest & Greenland Dept., Gyeonggi government, Lee, Gye-wang commented, “Opening the park for free has loosen the traffic stagnation of the road (local road #342) that crosses the Namhansanseong park from the east entrance to the south entrance. In advance to choosing Namhansanseong as one of the ‘Gwangju 8 Sights’ last year and now the temporary palace is undergoing restoration and it won’t be late till the Namhansanseong will become a representative attraction of Gyeonggi-do.