Another place to visit in Chungjeongnam-do is the Gaehwa Art Park and Boryeong Beach. Both are close to one another and make a great day trip from Seoul.
Throughout the park, you will also see some random animals. Such as donkeys and sheep. They are just walking around. Its still pretty random, but they are super sweet.
Boryeong is a city that most people know, for its Mud Festival. However, I ended up going there off-season, and found it equally fun and entertaining. There was no mud festival, but there were a lot of things to enjoy in the city. We began our tour of the city at the Gaehwa art park. It is a large, quirky park with some very random attraction.
For one, it has some nicely done up ponds with boating for children. The other thing is it has black stone statues all over the place. The founder of this park was Lim Hang-youl who was a quarrying business owner, and he wanted sculptors from all over the world. His dream is kind of true, and since then, a number of international artists have been invited, from sculptors and painters to artists to come to the park every year and produce works. In fact, even a Pakistani artist, Abdul Jabber Gull has exhibited his work there, and spent one month in Boryeong, where he carved out his sculpture from the black granite stone of the Boryeong Mountains.
Besides the international art, there is also a herbarium housed in the park. It is better known as "Herb Land" and consists of a large greenhouse, with a wide array of fruit trees, aquatic plants, and some fish and insects floating inside. Its not an aquarium, or a place where information will be widely available but makes for a pleasant walk.
A walking trail enveloping park, stretching over 2.5km, is flanked by endless monuments displaying famous Chinese poems. The park, in addition, offers various programs through which to make herbal soap, wooden crafts, or ceramics, ride a banana boat, or go rowing.
Then, we headed over to the Daecheon Beach. It has a nicely developed water front and I liked the beach more than the one in Busan. Needless to say, the view was beautiful. Would highly recommend a weekend here.
