Aiins World: See the World in Miniature
10 Jul
Aiins World, in Bucheon, South Korea, is a magical land of miniature monuments. A visit here will bring you up close to the most famous buildings in the world – if they were tiny.
Much like Hongdae’s Trick Eye Museum, this is a place that plays into the Korean national pastime of taking pictures of yourself in front of stuff.
There are even helpful marks on the concrete that show you where you should stand as the photographer, and as the person being photographed.
Some of the monuments look better or more realistic than others. The backgrounds are not great, so the taller tower-like ones turn out better in pictures.
The Leaning Tower looked good, but the trees around it were too tall.
The Petronas Towers look awesome. They could almost, but not quite, pass for the real thing.
The Eiffel Tower was definitely one of the best done. You could probably fool people with pictures of the fake one, and they might believe you that it’s real.
I really appreciated the attention to detail on the buildings.
Except in the case of the Washington Monument. You’d think, with all those other pretty realistic looking buildings, they could get the color of the Washington Monument right. But clearly they did not.
It’s unclear whether the Colossus of Rhodes was done in a lifelike manner, since it hasn’t stood since 1200.
And Atlantis, well… they had it sinking into the sea which is at least funny.
I enjoyed the sensation of walking through the siq to see the Treasury at Petra.
Teotihuacan looked pretty nice, too.
Seeing the Twin Towers sobered up our mood a bit.
But then seeing the ‘Mongol invaders’ behind the great wall (the flags moved, and there were sound effects) lightened the mood again.
I liked that the recreation of a Korean sea battle was happening right next to Manhattan (this also had motion and sound effects).
Overall, Aiins World is cheesy and silly but a fun thing to do with friends. You’ll want at least one other person with you to take pictures, and don’t forget your camera.
Details:
- Location: 529-2 Sang-dong, Wonmi-gu, Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Our taxi from Bupyeong Station cost just 5,000 Won, so I recommend a taxi from Songnae, Bupyeong, or Bucheon, whichever is most convenient for you.
- Price: 10,000 Won.
- Hours: 10 AM to 7 PM (March and April), 8 PM (May through November), or 6 PM (December to February).
- Other Info: There are also some rides on the grounds which require a separate ticket.
Have you ever been to a place like this?
I’ve been in Korea for three years. WHY HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF OR BEEN TO THIS MAGICAL LOOKING PLACE?!?!?
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Hehe. There’s more of them! I saw ads for at least two on Jeju. I dunno if there are any down your way – I hope so!
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Jeff told me about this over GChat/Voice a week or so ago, so I am extra excited to see these pictures! What an utterly whimsical place. It’s kind of like the architecture LEGO sets, but a whole park all set up for fun! It’s stuff like this that occasionally makes me re-think my non-travelly ways. So awesome!
Yes, it was amazing! And there are more in Korea…
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