The light festival
Millions of bulbs from December.
날개 at Korean Wikipedia — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Clément Chevallier — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Clément Chevallier — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Akun Pribadi — CC BY 4.0
A mountain botanical garden in Gapyeong, named after Korea's old nickname, «the land of the morning calm». It was created by a university professor and his wife on barren, stony land, which they worked by hand for years, at one point selling their house in a financial squeeze and living in a small cottage on site. It opened to the public in 1996. The garden covers 330,000 square metres in a valley among the mountains, with more than twenty smaller gardens linked by paths and about five thousand plant species. Among them are a garden shaped like the Korean peninsula, a hanok garden with a traditional house, herb and wildflower gardens, and a pine walk that climbs to a deck over the whole valley. Its colours change with the seasons: spring flowers, deep green in summer, then autumn colour. In winter, from December to mid-March, it holds its light festival, when millions of coloured bulbs cover the trees and paths from sunset into the evening; this is what the garden is best known for. Allow two hours and wear comfortable shoes, as the paths climb and fall. It combines easily with Nami Island in one day from Seoul.
Millions of bulbs from December.
Korea's map in flowers.
A view over the whole garden.
Sang-myeon, Gapyeong, about 55 km north-east of Seoul; Gapyeong tour bus or taxi from Cheongpyeong Station
From December to about mid-March, from sunset to 21:00, and to 23:00 on Saturdays, per visitor guides.