여미지식물원 Yeomiji Botanical Garden

Usually I'm not up for the more touristy attractions here on Jeju, but I had a friend in town who thought that it might be interesting to check out the greenhouses at the Yeomiji Botanical Garden.


Admission price is rather steep at around 7,000 won per person, but that's what you get for being in the heart of the tourist center of Jeju.

The gardens are split up into several different sections, each with their own theme and unique flora.

The first on your right when you enter is the Tropical Fruit Garden, which has some 40 kinds of fruit.


Saw some avocado that I really wanted to take home with me. They're rather expensive at E-mart and other grocery stores here.

Next up is the Jungle Garden, which tries its best to give that dense canopy feeling you have with real jungles.


The dinosaur models hidden amongst the plant life is supposed to accentuate the "jurassic" period jungle theme I guess.


Koreans love their dinosaurs; can't blame them, Jurassic Park is one of my favourite films and to this day still has the best dinosaur special effects I've ever seen.

The third garden greenhouse is the Cactus and Succulent Garden, which I thought was the best garden there; it's probably even better than the one at Ilchulland.


Lots of interesting cacti here, which I guess are more amusing to me than most. I've always been fascinated with the prickly little things, probably because they just seem so foreign to the kind of natural surroundings I'm used to.

Next up is the Aquatic Plant Garden which leads directly into the Flower Garden. It has some cool looking flowers, including some venus fly traps which sadly, I was unable to locate .


There were some really large and interesting lilly pads which reminded me of a pokemon figure my student gave me:


Here's another thing Koreans love, especially the children. Pokemon is as popular here as it was when it was originally released in North America back in 1998; those were the days.


The final section of the Yeomiji Gardens is probably the least impressive, just some simple flower arrangements with a few unique plants and statues to decorate it.


There is also an elevator you can take up a few stories to get a view of the Jungmun area, but there are definitely more impressive places to get a view of the area that don't require you to pay admission.

In all, not really worth the cash, I'd recommend skipping it and just walk along the outdoor paths to the bridge and along the valley to the waterfalls below.