100 Famous Sights at Aiins World

If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll know that Angela and I have become almost inseparable travel buddies over the last couple of months. Pretty much every weekend we go on some sort of adventure together, and we're already talking about travelling extensively through Asia and beyond once our time in Korea is finished. Words can't express the excitement we feel for seeing the world together. As much as we enjoy our time here in Korea, the two of us are itching for November to come round so we can head off to China, Thailand, India, Vietnam, and who knows where else.

In the meantime, to sate our appetite for travelling, last weekend we enjoyed a "sneak preview" of our round-the-world trip by visiting Aiins World in Bucheon City. This small amusement park contains 100 of the world's most famous buildings all in 1/25 their original size. "Mini-parks" of this sort can sometimes feel a little cheap and gimmicky, but we found Aiins World an awesome way to spend a couple of hours, partly because of the variety and inventiveness of the models, but also because of the interesting backdrops into which they were placed. It was surreal seeing famous sights such as the Sacré Coeur standing in the shadows of a nearby fairground, Mount Fuji towering over Korean picnickers, or the Pyramids of Giza backdropped by the grey, concrete overpasses of Bucheon City.

The entrance to the park. It was our first warm day of the year, almost t-shirt weather, which felt heavenly after enduring three months of brutal Korean winter! Since our visit it's gone back to being chilly again, though nowhere near as cold as it was in December and January.

We ate breakfast at a little cafe overlooking a miniature Eiffel Tower.

Me, back at home in London.

A young child wanders outside Westminster Abbey. 

Doesn't it almost look like Angela's really in Paris?

Notre Dame lined with bonsai trees. 

Versailles.

The Vatican City and the World Trade Centre.

Entering the Colosseum.

Milan Cathedral, the Sagrada Familia, Neuschwanstein Castle, and...a fairground.

Some Russian tourists take photos of miniature Moscow. 

Something tells me I won't be fooling anyone into thinking I went to Egypt with this photo.

The medina of Fez, Morocco. 

Mount Fuji, surrounded by Korean apartment blocks. 

Chichen Itza.

The Colossus of Rhodes overlooking not the Aegean Sea but Sydney Harbour.

Can you guess what this is supposed to be? 

...Atlantis! This made Angela jump when it came out of the water.

Admiring two French-made monuments.

New York's skyline complete with King Kong.

The Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The park also had miniature versions of some local Korean monuments, such as Gyeongbokgung Palace.

Leaving the park in the early afternoon.

If you're interested in visiting Aiins World, I recommend getting the metro to a station in Bucheon (the closest, I think, is Samsan Gymnasium, on Line 7) and then showing a taxi driver the park's name in Hangeul: 아인스윌드.