Sajik Park takes its name from the sajikdan that once stood here — a state altar where, since the Three Kingdoms period (roughly the 1st century BCE to 7th century CE), officials prayed to the gods of soil and grain for the nation's peace and a good harvest. That kind of pre-modern state ritual was formally abolished in the Gabo Reforms of 1894, and the sajikdan lost its function. The real blow came under Japanese colonial rule. In 1924, Japan turned the site into a park to mark the wedding of the Japanese crown prince, erasing every trace of the old altar in the process. The original pine trees were cut down and replaced with cherry trees, and the site — modeled after the already-existing Gwangju Park nearby — was dubbed the "New Park." A Joseon-era ritual ground was converted, wholesale, into a Japanese-style cherry blossom park.
The site's troubles didn't end there. In the late 1960s, a zoo was built here, tearing up the park's older layout once again; it wasn't restored to something like its current form until 1993. The following year, in 1994, the Gwangju Expatriates' Association revived the sajik ritual for the first time in a hundred years — a ceremony the state had erased and the colonial government had paved over, brought back to life by people who had left Gwangju and returned. Today, an octagonal pavilion that once stood here has been replaced by a three-story, 34.7-meter observation tower built in 2015. Climb to the fourth-floor deck and you can see all of Yangnim-dong and, on a clear day, Mudeungsan Mountain in the distance. It's especially good at sunset, which makes it a natural place to end a day of sightseeing.