Gwacheon is home to the amusement park, Seoul Land as well as Seoul's largest zoo and a beautiful botanical garden, especially ideal for the spring, summer, and fall seasons. Also found in Gwacheon is a horse race track that's open to Koreans and foreigners alike. However, only foreigners are allowed to gamble there.
Finally, HandS Korea selected the National Museum of Contemporary Art because of an advertisement recently viewed regarding a special temporary exhibit.
To get to Gwacheon, you can take the subway to Seoul Grand Park station on line 4 (light blue). Take exit 2 and walk in the direction opposite of you as you reach the final stairs. If you walk about 50 meters, you'll see a bus stop that indicates it is the shuttle to Seoul Land and the zoo. This is also the shuttle to the National Museum of Contemporary Art. You'll be expected to pay 1,000 KRW for the ticket, but don't worry, you'll get it back if you save your ticket for the ride back. This also serves as your ticket for entry into the museum itself.
As you take the bus (exit at the first stop), follow the loads of people and look for a small path going up a relatively steep hill. This will lead you to the sculpture garden that preceeds the museum itself. There's some quite interesting sculptures hanging out on the lawn, but remember : This is a modern art museum :D.
As you make your way up the hill, you'll arrive at the entrance of the museum. Walk through the doors and to the left and right, you'll see some special exhibits that do cost extra to see. If you continue straight to the desk and show your ticket, you'll be able to see the current temporary exhibit at the particular time of your visit that mimicks the Gugenheim in NYC with its spiral ramp.
Continuing up the spiral ramp and see the interesting installations on the walls and venture into the side rooms that contain the museum's permanent exhibits. Each side room is organized according to period and contains Korean contemporary art from th 1950s to the present. There's also a room especially designed to please for kids.
The museum's set up was quite interesting and made for a fun adventure, but it seemed that this particular museum wasn't so original. This fact is a bit disappointing because of the nature of its contents. However, the sculpture gardens were pretty pleasant and my favorite part of the entire museum was the children's room!
