Sanghwawon Garden

Sanghwawon turns an entire small island, Jukdo at the end of the Nampo Seawall in Boryeong, into a garden. A roofed corridor runs right round the island, so you can walk the shoreline even in the rain, and tucked inside it are old hanok houses moved here from across Korea and 33 seaside ponds. The garden only opens on Fridays, weekends and public holidays from April to November, so plan your date around that.

An island kept as it was

Jukdo, "bamboo island", was named for the dense bamboo that once covered it, and today the Nampo Seawall links it to the mainland by road. The name Sanghwawon (尙和園) means "garden that reveres harmony". The guiding rule was to keep Jukdo's pine forest and rocky shore intact and fit the buildings and paths in between. Because the whole island is one garden, a single loop along the set visitor route takes you past every main area.

The backbone is the corridor that circles the island. Sources give its length as either 1 km or 2 km; the garden itself says 2 km and describes it as the longest roofed corridor in the world. It links the shore with the hanok village and the guest villas, and here and there steps lead down to seaside terraces where waves break right below your feet.

Relocated hanok and a Goryeo pavilion

The first building you see from the entrance is Uigokdang, a pavilion that once stood at the government office in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, and was moved here in 2004. It served for banquets, was later wrapped in canvas and used as a tea room, and still shows Goryeo-period building methods, so it is thought to date from the late Goryeo era. It is a single-bay building of 48.16 m² with a gabled roof.

The hanok village took more than a decade to assemble from historic houses found around the country. Six buildings were moved here, among them the main and gate wings of the Hong family house in Gochang, the Oh Hong-cheon house in Hongseong, the Lee Dae-cheong house in Cheongyang and the Sang family house in Boryeong, and three more were rebuilt after the Gochang Fortress office, the Naganeupseong magistrate's hall and the Haemieupseong guesthouse. You can compare a scholar-official's home, commoners' houses and official buildings side by side. The thatched guest wing was the servants' quarters of a late-Joseon Sang family house in Yaryong-ri, Jusan-myeon; originally 12 bays long, it was rebuilt here as an 11-bay L-shaped building.

Along the corridor

• Seaside ponds: 33 ponds ring the island, a number long held sacred in Korea. Water from the highest point runs down in streams to fill them, and each pond has its own water plants.
• Sunset Garden: an extra 350 m of corridor built below the original one, right above the sea. A wooden bench 200 m long faces the water, a good spot for sunset over the Yellow Sea.
• Sky Garden: an open deck raised to the height of a three-storey building. Instead of felling the 20–30 m pines, the builders cut holes in the floor so the trunks grow straight through it.
• Seaside reading rooms: four small shelters along the corridor where you can sit and listen to the waves.
• Corridor galleries: paintings by Chwidang Jang Un-bong (1910–1976), known for his plum blossoms, hang at the start of the corridor, and flower paintings by Imjeon Heo Mun, a descendant of the painter Sochi Heo Ryeon, at its end.
• Cave wine café: a dining room in a cave cellar that stays at about 15 °C all year.

Tripto tips

• Opening days: April–November, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays only. The garden closes in winter, and the spring opening date is announced each year in the notices on the official website.
• Hours and tickets: 09:00–18:00 (last entry 17:00); in the cold season 09:00–17:00 (last entry 16:00). Adults KRW 7,000; Boryeong residents, over-65s and preschool children pay KRW 5,000 with ID. Tickets are sold at the gate, no booking needed.
• Time needed: allow 1.5–2 hours for the loop with the hanok village and the Sunset Garden. For the sunset, enter before last admission and save the Sunset Garden for the end.
• Good to know: the route has many steps, so strollers and wheelchairs cannot get round. Pets, food, picnic mats and alcohol are not allowed, and the villa area is for overnight guests only.
• Getting there: from Daecheon Station on the Janghang Line, a taxi takes 15–20 minutes (about KRW 13,000–14,000). Bus 900 from the station with a change to bus 401 to the Jukdo stop is possible, but it runs only two or three times a day.
• Nearby: Muchangpo Beach is about 4 km south and Daecheon Beach about 5 km north in a straight line.