Semiwon Garden — Attraction in Gyeonggi

Semiwon Garden was lovely. We went at the end of September, this is not the best season. Lotus blossoms are out at the end of July and August. There were lots of massive leaves and seed pods. The views were still incredible and worth the entrance fee (5,000₩).

Besides the Lotus ponds, there are other aquatic plants to view such as lily pads and reeds. A hanok style building is in the park. As you walk around the peninsula, you will find a floating bridge that will take you to the islet beside the garden. Make sure you keep your ticket to get back across. On the island, you can view the two rivers merging as one. In addition, they have a greenhouse that houses several types of water lillies.

Outside there is a Lotus Museum, which we didn't go to because of time. The building was beautifully designed. There's also a place that sells Lotus bread/cookies. There are 3 different types. I didn't realize how popular they were and waited to buy after we got out. They were sold out when we went in. Thankfully they had 9 left of their original so I grabbed those up and bought some Lotus tea...

This privately owned park by the Han-river is best known for the lotus filled ponds, but all I was able to see when I visited were ponds full of dead and rotting remainders of lotus. I cannot understand why the park does not clean the ponds, or even notify visitors what to expect inside the park before selling tickets. There are food booths right outside the ticket booth selling fried hotdogs and coffee for $3~$4 each. Vendors are trying to impress people as if it is a must-try food of this town, but it is nothing but misleading selling gimmicks. The so-called "lotus-hotdog" does not have anything to do with lotus nor this neighborhood not to mentionany bit of history, and it is the same old oily junk with double coated flour layers fried in over-used unknown oil that has already turned black. The vendors make the hotdog with barehands that take money from people and give out change. The only thing impressive is the line of people at the hot-dog booth. If there were any conveniencestore here, it would be...

We visited this garden in September when the weather was still hot and humid. The garden is beautiful with lots of planned sections with interesting traditional architecture. It was relaxing to stroll around checking out different plants and a few resting areas with shade and photo opportunities. My favorite area was the fountain made with the traditional Korean Jangdokdae (where they typically store condiments / food in the cold weather such as Kimchi, fermented red pepper paste and fermented bean paste for months). This garden/museum, features lotus flowers, but because of the time we were there, we didn’t get to see them. But it was still worth visiting and...