The Cheollipo Arboretum is among Asia's top botanical institutions, with a collection of more than 13,000 species from over 60 countries, laid out with diligent care across 64 hectares of lush coastal property. Only a fraction of it is open to the public, but even that is spectacular – particularly in spring when the magnolias bloom.
Oddly enough, the arboretum was founded and built by a man without formal training in that field: American Carl Ferris Miller was a banker in Seoul when he bought his first plot of farmland in Cheollipo in the 1970s, intending it as a weekend retreat. He continued to add it it until he died in 2002 at the age of 81. He also relocated several Korean hanok (traditional wooden homes) to the arboretum in order to preserve them. You can stay in one; rooms start at ₩100,000 per night.
Cheollipo Arboretum is a 20-minute walk from Mallipo bus terminal.
