Like Spirited Garden, Hallim Park is one South Korean’s passion project: that of Mr. Song Bong-gyu, who in 1971 created this recreational park after recognizing that tourism would be in Jeju Island’s future. He purchased barren land, and improved the soil conditions on this patch of land by importing thousands of truckloads of nutrient-rich soil. Over the years, he expanded the park by opening new areas, including discovering a cave tunnel system buried in the sand in 1981, the subtropical botanical garden in 1986, the bonsai garden in 1997, and the water garden in 2002.
This is a large park that offers distinctive areas, including the aforementioned cave system – Ssangryong Cave – which, while not anything like Manjanggul Lava Tube that we’d visited 2 days back, is still quite interesting and unusual in its inclusion in the park. We had just over an hour to spend in Hallim Park, and that was really not sufficient to cover all sections. To fully explore the garden, you’d need at least 2 hours.
Continued in the next post!