Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Korean Arboretum

In early June we had the pleasure of visiting the Korean Arboretum.  Located just a few minutes outside of Seoul, closed on the weekends, and requiring reservations it was unlikely we would have ever been able to visit this natural sanctuary.

Thankfully, we've become good friends with our Korean co-worker Christina.  She invited us to join her and her family (husband and two middle school-aged sons) on a trip to the Arboretum on June 2nd, which we had off of school because of the voting day holiday.

The Arboretum is situated in the Gwangneung forest, which surrounds a mausoleum for a king from the Joseon Dynasty.  The forest has been strictly managed to minimize human disturbance over the past 500 years.  The Arboretum has 15 specilaized plant gardens, a forest museum, a forest zoo, a herbarium and a seed bank.

After taking in all the beauty of this natural sight we headed down the road for a very traditional meal.

We feel so blessed for the opportunity to embrace so much culture and have others share  with us like they do.

1 comment:

Truth said...

Great pics! I found out if I click on them twice they enlarge twice. Even better. What a blessing to have good friends in the Korean community.