A million lights in Gapyeong's Garden of Morning Calm.

From the garden's official site.

From December through February the Garden of Morning Calm ( 아침고요구목원) in Gyeonggi-do's Gapyeong county is all light up because of the Lighting Festival (오색별빛정원전).



The lights will be on through February from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm each night. The garden is accessible by buses to Changpyeong, then local buses to the garden, which the website says runs 12 times a day, including: 12:40, 13:20, 14:20, 15:30, 16:00, 16:30, 17:40, and 18:30, with an extra one at 19:40 (the pop-up says the last bus back is 20:00).

Unfortunately I've found no information this year in English, but can refer you too a write-up last year from Korea.net for some basics:

From early December until the end of February next year, the Morning Calm Garden, situated on Mt. Chung Nyeong (879m) will have its trees and valleys adorned with over one million colorful lightbulbs as part of the Lighting Festival.

Hometown GardenThe arboretum, which consists of 13 outdoor gardens with roads, pavilions and valleys, are ready to delight the public with lights that have temporarily replaced flowers and petals.

Among them, five gardens, which make up half the total space of the arboretum – the Bonsai, Hometown, Sunken and Moonlight Gardens -- will be highlighted throughout the winter under the theme of “Love, Dream and Light.”

The Bonsai Garden, with its pine, papaya and aromatic trees will have a myriad of colorful lights streaming down the valley. The Hometown Garden and the Drooping Tree Garden will have the lights dancing over its hills and ponds. The Moonlight Garden, with its small church building, will gleam with white and blue stars and angels at night. The garden is surrounded by some 100 types of white-colored flowers such as lilies throughout the warmer months.

The Sunken Garden, which is the highlight of the Light Festival, opens up to a world of glittery fairy tales, with statues of Snow White and the seven dwarfs, Cinderella, the pumpkin coach, the Mermaid Princess and Pinocchio.

Moonlight GardenThe garden is made in the shape of the Korean Peninsula, and has roads lined with flowers symbolizing the reunification of the country. With some 100 kinds of woody plants including thuja, yew trees, pine trees and willows, and 1,100 flowers that bloom in turns every season, the Sunken Garden stands out among other gardens.

I wrote about this last year, too, and got some comments regarding traffic. From ROK Drop:

The valley the garden sits in is actually quite scenic but it is a nightmare trying to get there because of the traffic that gets backed up on the winding road into the valley. Then once there the place is overfilled with people and really not enjoyable.

I have only been there a couple of times on the weekend. I am willing to bet if you go on a weekday it will probably be more enjoyable due to smaller crowds.

And from samedi:

I asked my coworkers about this and they told me that it was hell trying to get there on a weekend or national holiday. (Say, Christmas) What should have been a one hour drive from Uijeongbu to Gapyeong-gun turned into a three-hour trip for our academy director's wife a couple years ago. I bet that was fun.

The bus terminal in Uijeongbu also offers direct buses to Gapyeong, which may be useful for anyone who lives in northern Gyeonggi-do and doesn't want to head south into Seoul only to take a bus that's heading back north.

So proceed with caution, I guess, but as a man who likes his lights I think it might be worth braving the traffic for.



From last year (1, 2)

The garden looks beautiful all year round, especially in autumn, thanks to Roboseyo's excellent gallery last month. And for people who don't want to leave the comfort of Jeollanam-do *cough* this winter, remember there's the Boseong Tea Plantation Light Festival through January 31st.