Ulsan to share its eco-city transformation story with the world

The blueprint for the 2028 Ulsan International Garden Expo has been unveiled. The six-month event is scheduled to run from April 22 to Oct. 22, 2028, across the Taehwa River National Garden and the Samsan-Yeocheon landfill site.

At its core, the expo aims to share with the world how Ulsan transformed from a smog-choked industrial city into an eco-city — a journey that included restoring the Taehwa River from what was once called a "river of death" into a thriving ecological waterway where salmon have returned. The event will also work to spread a culture of citizen-led gardening beyond the expo itself.

The organizing committee held a public briefing Thursday in the first-floor lobby of Ulsan City Hall, outlining the expo's progress and unveiling its key projects.

The committee said it will share three experiences with the world: the restoration of the Taehwa River into an ecological waterway, the transformation of the Samsan-Yeocheon landfill into an international garden that has received approval from the International Association of Horticultural Producers (AIPH), and the city's journey to becoming a "recovering city" in line with the UN's Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030).

The expo's central theme is "Next Garden," envisioning a sustainable garden that citizens themselves conceive, practice and restore — a departure from conventional garden expos that simply showcase flowers and plants.

The official slogan, "A Million Hands, One Garden," reflects the idea that all 1.1 million Ulsan residents will become gardeners and build the expo together. Built around that vision, the committee has put forward three core propositions: a Future Garden (a garden for thinking), an Art Garden (a garden for imagining) and a Life Garden (a garden for recovering).

The committee also laid out four strategic pillars: a "process exhibition" showing how a landfill is reborn as a living forest; "citizen creation," in which residents participate directly from the planning stage through planting and maintenance; "global connection," which links Ulsan's ecological restoration experience with the AIPH and other bodies to advance it as an international agenda; and a "100-year legacy" that leaves behind professional gardeners and ecological and cultural assets after the expo ends.

The expo will also feature an "AI transformation (AX) garden test site" that applies the industrial city's technological strengths to horticulture, demonstrating next-generation garden management through intelligent irrigation, growth sensors and maintenance robots deployed in actual gardens. A "living landfill laboratory" will monitor in real time the soil remediation and biodiversity restoration under way at the Samsan-Yeocheon site.

Additional programs include an international exhibition combining plants and digital technology; an Ulsan Citizen Gardener School to train professional garden managers; an international academic conference on restoring contaminated idle sites; a Healing Garden Trail tracing Ulsan's 30-year ecological restoration history from the Taehwa River National Garden to the landfill site; a Taehwa River Night Garden connecting the Sipni Bamboo Forest and the river's surface with light; and a Working Hands Garden created jointly by industrial workers and landscape architects.

"We will prepare the expo so that it becomes a turning point — one that shares with the world the miracle of ecological restoration achieved by Ulsan, the industrial capital, and builds assets for the next 100 years," said Yu Sa-won, standing vice chairman of the organizing committee.