Flower Gift Korea Summary of the Garden of Morning Calm
The Garden of Morning Calm is a large garden located in Gapyeong, Gyeongi-do, South Korea. It is open year round and features different flowers and plants depending on the season/month. It’s a great place for dates, family outings, and solo getaways. You can walk around the beautiful area and look at the various flowers and plants growing. If you go during the winter, they have a light festival setup.
According to their brochure the garden is 330,000 squared meters big and attracts 1,000,000 tourists a year. There are 5000 kinds of plants in the garden and 300 of those plants are native to Baekdu Mountain. And the garden is the oldest private garden in Korea. There are a few places you can buy souvenirs, a flower shop, a coffee house, a tea house, some small shops and a Korean restaurant in the garden. Also, there are various smaller gardens and walkways where different types of flowers are growing.
Here is what the place looks like. You can click on the image if you want to download the pdf file of the map, which is also available on their homepage:
You can also download the map or find more information at www.morningcalm.co.kr
Here is a brief description of what you can expect year round:
December – February: Winter Light Festival
If you go during this period, you won’t see much flowers, but you will see a lot of beautiful light designs.
March: Wild Flowers of the Morning Calm
Since March is a time where a lot of flowers start to bloom again, you can see some flowers in their early forms. Honestly, there doesn’t seem to be anything special at this time. But, it’s still nice to go there with some company.
April – May: Spring Festival
By April, a lot of new flowers will have bloomed. So, this is a great time to visit this Garden. You can see daffodils, tulips, cherry blossoms and royal azaleas.
June: Iris Festival
June is dedicated to the Iris flower. There are various exhibitions and setups of the Iris flower.
July is dedicated to the Hydrangea flower. There are various exhibitions and setups of the Hydrangea flower.
August: Rose of Sharon Festival
The Roses of Sharon flower is Korea’s national flower. August is dedicated to this flower.
September: Wild Chrysanthemums
At this time, wild chrysanthemums will start to bloom.
October – November: Chrysanthemum Festival and Fall Festival
The Chrysanthemums should be in full bloom by now and more displays of Chrysanthemums should be present.
So, this is just a little bit of information from Flower Gift Korea of what you can expect when you visit the Garden of Morning Calm during these times. However, depending on the weather/climate, the dates may overlap.
Here is the address of the Garden and Directions:
English Address: 432 Sumokwon-ro, Sang0myeon, Gapyeong,gun, Gyeonggi-do, which is 40km northeast of Seoul, South Korea.
Korean Address: 경기도 가평군 상면 수목원로 432 (경기도 가평군 상면 행현리 산255)
Basically, you need to get to Cheongpyeong Bus Terminal (청평터미널) in Gapyeong and take bus 31-7 from there. Then you need to get off at The Garden of Morning Calm (아침고요수목원), which should be 19 bus stops from when you get on. But, getting to this bus terminal isn’t so easy. The bus terminal is about a 1km walk from the closest subway station, which is Cheongpyeong Station (청평역)
Here are directions from Gangnam Station:
If you follow these directions, it should take you about 2 hours and 30 minutes to get there from Gangnam Station. And it should cost you a total of 2,550 won.
- Get to Gangnam subway station and head towards Seolleung Station (선릉역), which is on line 2/yellow line.
- From Seolleung Station (선릉역), head towards Gangnam-Gu Office Station (강남구청역), which is on the yellow line/line 7.
- From Gangnam-Gu Office Station (강남구청역), head towards Sangbong station (상봉역), which is on line 7/the Kyungchun (경춘) line.
- From Sangbong station (상봉역), head towards Cheongpyeong Station (청평역), which is on the Kyungchun (켱춘) line,
- At Cheongpyeong Station (청평역) you must go out exit 1 and walk to the Cheongpyeong Bus Terminal (청평터미널) as shown in the image below.
- At Cheongpyeong Bus Terminal (청평터미널) you must board bus 31-7 and then get off after 19 stops, which will be The Garden of Morning Calm (아침고요수목원).
According to Naver maps, the bus ride alone from the bus terminal is close to 40 minutes. You can choose to take a taxi from the subway station, but it will cost extra money.
Also, you can take the bus back from the garden, but make sure you check what time the bus runs until. The last time I checked, the first bus from Cheongpyeong Bus Terminal (청평터미널) leaves at 9:20am and the last bus leaves at 7:40pm, while the first bus from the garden leaves at 9:50am and the last bus leaves at 8:00pm.
Here is a shot of the bus schedule found on their Korean brochure:
Entrance Fee:
To be considered a group, you need to go with a group of at least 30 people. Then you will receive a discount. Youth are middle school and high school students, whereas children are 36 month olds – elementary school students. And seniors (65 years or older) and disabled people can get some kind of discount, and I think it’s the price range on the fair right.
There are a bunch of things you can do at the garden as shown in the map above. It’s just a great place to visit with company, it’s also a great place to spend some time alone and clear your head. You can take selfies and pictures of the beautiful scenery. Here’s a photo of Tony and Brandy from Flower Gift Korea taking some selfies and pictures of the scenery:
You can visit the different types of gardens available. Some garden displays and walkways are outdoors, while some are indoors.
There are various flowers all around the garden. There are also various trees and places to sit. And of course, a lot of great places and settings for taking photos.
Though it was a great place to visit, it’s more of a place to go and find peace. If you want to see a lot of different types of flowers, it’s probably better to go to Goyang and visit the flower festival there. For more information on the Goyang Spring Flower Festival read our post.