Busan Citizens' Park (Busan)

 park, closed / former military

Busan Citizens' Park was created when the former US Army Camp Hialeah closed in 2006. The site, occupying 540,000m²/133-acres, was redeveloped as Busan Citizens Park with 5 themes of Memory, Culture, Pleasure, Nature and Participation, and 29 separate attractions, opening in May of 2014.

Several of the Park's buildings are refurbished military base buildings, including several of the Quonset huts. The park has over one million trees including 97 different species (46 species of forest trees and 43 species of bushes). The park’s facilities include an information center, a park history center, a 490-meter-long stretch along the Bujeoncheon Stream, a 450-meter-long stretch along the Jeonpocheon Stream, four fountains (a 25-meter-high waterfall fountain in the middle of the pond), six squares, nine play areas, parking lots, cafes, convenience stores, 42 smart crime prevention CCTVs, 50 general CCTVs, and restrooms. Busan Citizens Park is alcohol-free and smoke-free to provide a pleasant environment.

There is a time when Busan Citizens Park was Camp Hialeah. Once was a racecourse, but after the Korean War, it became the official US army base. When agents from a US naval vessel Prescott landed in the port after Japan lost the war, this race track reminded one of them of a racetrack near his hometown ‘Hialeah’, Florida. The camp was, therefore, said to be called Hialeah from the hometown of the first commander stationed here, or ‘Base Hialeah.’ - the official name is ‘Camp Hialeah.’

www.citizenpark.or.kr/ [Korean]

english.busan.go.kr/02_government/09_01_1.jsp