Legoland Korea finally opens despite opposition

Legoland Korea Resort finally opened its gates on Thursday, May 5, after a decade. The new amusement park is located on Jungdo Island in Chuncheon, Gangwon, and it was reported that 10,000 people visited the place on its opening day which coincides with the country’s Children’s Day.

Legoland Korea held an opening ceremony that started at 10 a.m., then visitors were welcomed by a grand parade featuring different Lego figures. As per Korea Joongang Daily, the massive amusement park sits on 280,000 square meters of land or around 30 million square feet, and divided into a total of seven clusters designed with different themes.

There are around 40 attractions in the park and lots of adventure rides. It was mentioned that South Korea is the second Legoland in the world to have the Lego Factory Adventure Ride. There are only 10 of these theme parks around the world so being the only other one that has the said attraction is a big advantage.

The Legoland Korea’s Lego Factory Adventure Ride sits on Brick Street which is one of the seven clusters. Visitors can take a tour around the Lego factory replica by riding a cart.

There is also the Miniland, where famous Korean landmarks, including Busan’s Haeundae beach and the Gyeongbok Palace, were recreated using stacked Lego bricks. As this is a Miniland, the historical places were recreated in miniature size.

The other attractions to visit at Legoland Korea are the race track at Driving School, Coast Guard Academy for some speed boat experience, Fire Academy, and Dragon roller coaster in the Lego Castle. There are a number of kid-friendly attractions as well.

Then again, people must note that Legoland Korea only allows a certain number of visitors per day and it is requiring reservations too. It was said that all of the tickets for the opening day were sold out including those that were reserved for Friday. Tickets at Legoland Korea are priced at ₩50,000 for adults and ₩40,000 for children under 13.

Meanwhile, civic groups are against the launching of the Legoland Korea Resort and they were also present during the opening to show their protest. The Korea Times reported that the amusement park and its British operator called, Merlin Entertainments, faced opposition prior to the opening day.

Chuncheon residents, politicians, and artists also threatened to take all the measures they can get to prevent the opening of Legoland as they claimed the theme park is illegal unless it is a facility for preserving the ancient artifacts that were found in 2014 on the Legoland site.