Woobang Tower Land!

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Yesterday I went with the 5th grade on a field trip or "work day." No work required. We loaded up 9 buses (just the 5th grade) and took a 1 hour ride down to Daegu to go to Woobang Tower Land!

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It is a moderately sized amusement park on the side of a mountain in central Daegu. something akin to Disney Land crossed with a carnival, with a few roller coasters, a water log ride, spinning rides, bumper cars, a ghost house, etc.

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...and an "Aladin" fun house! :)

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The rides are mostly targeted toward children of various ages, and toward the entrance to the park, there are periodic character shows. The characters are very strange. Unlike Disney, where the characters are from beloved children's movies, Woobang Towerland offers a random assortment of creatures in swanky outfits- cats, bearmonkeys, etc. I can't seem to pick up on a trend or reason, but it's just odd enough to make you smile and nod.

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As a result, the merchandise is also very different. Instead of Mickey mouse hats or princess scepters, Woobang Tower Land offers children a very broad array of items for purchase: a scream mask, a devil scepter, a headband with happy stars on springs like antennae, and my personal favorite- a 3 foot yellow pole topped with a swirl of plastic yellow poo with a smiling face. Who could resist! I loved watching kids running around hitting each other with it. Amazing.

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It is named for Woobang Tower, a 230 meter tower which sits right next to the park, just a bit further up the mountain. It can be reached by cable car at the entrance of the park.

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The tower offers a "sky jump," meaning you can walk out on a platform from the observation deck and bungee jump down. You can see the platform sticking out there.

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Also in the tower is an Aquarium on the bottom level, an American restaurant on the top (...so the sign said), and an observation deck one level below the restaurant, where the sky jump takes place.

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Daegu, by the way, is huge. I took this from the observation deck of Woobang Tower (which had windows the whole way around), and the city looked like this from every angle.

Massive. It really puts into perspective why people keep referring to Andong as a "small city," even though it looks big to me and has the population equivalent to Grand Rapids, MI. Daegu is also only the third largest city in South Korea, after Seoul and Busan.

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One of the best perks about the whole trip, is that I am now the proud holder of a 1 year pass and unlimited ride sticker!