Seoul Forest Garden Hunters: How to Join the AR Treasure Hunt at the Seoul Garden Show

Seoul Forest Garden Hunters is a mobile treasure-hunting program connected to the 2026 Seoul Garden Show, officially held as the 2026 Seoul International Garden Show. The experience began on May 6, 2026, and runs through October 27, 2026, across the Seoul Forest and Seongsu-dong area, giving visitors a more active way to explore the gardens beyond simply viewing them.¹

The program is useful for visitors who want a structured activity inside the wider garden festival. It is described as an AR and GPS-based participatory treasure hunt, and the official program page says anyone can join by scanning the guide QR code inside Seoul Forest and participating on mobile.¹²

What Seoul Forest Garden Hunters Offers

Garden Hunters is designed as a smart, mobile-based treasure hunt. The activity guides participants to look for garden-themed treasures around Seoul Forest, with the broader festival material also describing it as a way to receive Seoul Garden Show goods after completing the experience.³

The program fits the stated direction of the 2026 Seoul International Garden Show, which Seoul described as expanding the event from a “garden to see” into a “garden to enjoy.”⁴ That point matters for visitors because Garden Hunters is not just a side notice on the program list: it is one of the hands-on ways the festival turns Seoul Forest and the surrounding Seongsu area into a walkable activity zone.

The wider garden show opened on May 1, 2026, and runs until October 27, 2026, across a 90,000-square-meter area connecting Seoul Forest and Seongsu. Festival guides and news reports list 167 gardens across the event, including invited gardens, international competition gardens, company and institution donation gardens, citizen and student participation gardens, and pop-up gardens.³⁴

For visitors, that scale is the reason a mobile treasure-hunt format may be practical. Instead of treating the site as one large exhibition to wander through without a goal, Garden Hunters gives participants a simple task-based route: scan, join on mobile, and search within the Seoul Forest and Seongsu-dong area.

How to Join and What to Know Before Going

The official participation method is straightforward: scan the Garden Hunters guide QR code inside Seoul Forest, then use a mobile device to take part. The official page says the program supports Korean and English, which makes it more accessible for international visitors than a Korean-only activity.¹

The participation fee is 5,000 won. During the opening-week free period from May 6 to May 12, 2026, the program is free for the first 1,000 participants each day.¹ A separate report also described the same opening-week benefit, noting that the experience would become paid afterward.⁵

Because the free offer is capped by daily order of arrival, visitors hoping to use it should plan to start earlier in the day. The sources do not provide a reservation system, a fixed operating hour, or a refund policy for Garden Hunters, so the confirmed action step is to find the QR guide on site and begin from there.

Garden Hunters is also part of a busy festival environment. Yonhap News reported that the 2026 Seoul International Garden Show surpassed 1 million cumulative visitors on its sixth day, with Seoul City figures showing 1.03 million visitors as of 7 a.m. on May 7, 2026.² That does not mean every area will always be crowded, but it does suggest that visitors should allow enough time for movement around Seoul Forest and Seongsu.

Planning Garden Hunters with the Wider Seoul Garden Show

Garden Hunters can be paired with the broader garden exhibition rather than treated as a standalone stop. The 2026 event is running for 180 days, and the garden areas include a wide range of display types, from formal show gardens to citizen and student participation gardens.³⁴

Visitors who prefer guided interpretation have other options nearby. Reports describe QR-based explanations in nine languages for the 167 gardens, while other festival coverage mentions garden docent tours and smart guide tours in nine languages.⁵⁶ Garden Hunters is more game-like than those interpretation tools, so the best choice depends on whether the visitor wants information, movement, or a more interactive route.

There are also related cultural programs around Seoul Forest during the season. The Seoul Garden Festival is scheduled from May 16 to June 7, 2026, at the Seoul Forest outdoor stage, adding music and performance elements to the wider festival area.⁶ That schedule is separate from Garden Hunters, but it may affect how visitors plan a combined trip.

One Seoul City official, Kim Young-hwan, director of the city’s Garden City Bureau, said the city would operate the festival safely and comfortably through autumn while completing “Garden City Seoul.”² For a visitor, the practical takeaway is simpler: Garden Hunters is available across the long festival period, while the free opening-week window is much shorter.

작성자 소개

Patrick Choi

Administrator

모든 글 보기