What does the Garden of Morning Calm look like in the afternoon?

Here’s how we described the Garden of Morning Calm upon seeing it: “This is a place our mothers would love.” We loved it too, of course, but in seeing all the flora, we also felt somewhat nostalgic for home. This pair of city-dwellers appreciated, once again, our moms’ green thumbs and other varied and under-appreciated talents.

We arrived there at around 3:30 PM via the Gapyeong tour bus from Petite France. Already the skies were darkening, foreboding rain. It would have been nice to take pictures of flowers in dappled sunlight, but you take what you get. In any case, the varicolored trees and fabulous flowerbeds brightened up the otherwise dreary afternoon.

You can choose to follow the usual winding footpath, or get lost in the many branching paths you can take.

Autumn seemed to be a perfect time to go there, as you can see: while the flowers are carefully cultivated, in late October, the trees were creating a show of their own.

We also loved that there were fewer people there — it’s the last stop of the Gapyeong tour bus, and quite far from Petite France (about a 45-minute ride). It was quiet, especially when we found ourselves straying from the usual course. We would have stayed for longer if it hadn’t started drizzling and getting bitterly cold.

Entrance to the Garden of Morning Calm for adults is ₩8000 on weekdays, ₩9000 on weekends. It is accessible via the Gapyeong tour bus. From the Garden of Morning Calm, one can take the Gapyeong tour bus again to Cheongpyeong train station, where one can take a regular train or ITX back to Seoul.