Chollipo Arboretum

Character

After buying his first Chollipo plot in 1962, Min Byung-gal faced salt wind, blowing sand and limited fresh water. The first works were a pine grove to break the wind and a pond to hold water for plants. The arboretum began as a problem of survival before it became a collection

That difficult site encouraged unusually close observation. The surviving Min Byung-gal archive records planting locations, weather, plant collection and propagation, and exchanges with overseas institutions. Daily notes included details as small as the first snowfall. In 2026, 56 records from the arboretum’s formative period were registered as National Registered Cultural Heritage

The living collection is now exceptionally deep in several plant groups. Chollipo reports 16,985 taxa as of December 2025, including 926 magnolia taxa, 1,096 camellias and 566 hollies. These are long-running concentrated collections built across decades, with different genera reaching their flowering peaks at different times of year

The experience

The public Chollipo is mainly Miller Garden. Paths move through planted woodland, ponds and older houses close to the West Sea, with labels turning individual trees and shrubs into the basic units of the visit. The arboretum’s management philosophy keeps artificial shaping to a minimum, so mature specimens often read as trees with their own growth histories instead of clipped garden objects

Season changes which collection becomes easiest to read. Magnolias dominate much of the spring interest; camellias, hollies, maples, hibiscus and hydrangeas take over other parts of the year. The coastal setting remains constant behind them, and the original freshwater pond still sits inside a landscape that was once difficult ground for imported plants

The institution is much larger than the public garden. Chollipo divides its 589,429 square metres into seven areas for different collections and environmental conditions; only Miller Garden is routinely open to general visitors. The result is a public walk through the visible front of a working botanical collection

History

Min Byung-gal, born Carl Ferris Miller in Pennsylvania in 1921, first came to Korea with the U.S. Navy in 1945 and later settled permanently, working at the Bank of Korea and in finance. He bought roughly 9,000 square metres at Chollipo in 1962. Intensive arboretum planting began in 1970, creating Korea’s first private arboretum

International exchange became central to expanding the collection. Seeds, plants and correspondence moved between Chollipo and institutions abroad, while Miller’s records tracked what arrived, where it was planted and how it performed. He naturalized as a Korean citizen in 1979 and continued developing the arboretum until his death in 2002

The institution remained primarily a research and conservation site for decades. In 2000, the International Dendrology Society recognized Chollipo as an arboretum of distinguished merit. General public access followed in 2009, after the nearby coast had also been hit hard economically by the 2007 Hebei Spirit oil spill

In July 2026, Korea Heritage Service registered seven groups comprising 56 Chollipo creation records as National Registered Cultural Heritage. The protected material covers 1962–1989 and includes the original land-purchase document, work diaries, plant collection and management logs and international correspondence

Before you go

The normal public circuit represents only a fraction of the institution: Miller Garden covers about 65,623 square metres inside a 589,429-square-metre arboretum. Chollipo estimates around 90 minutes for the public garden, so the public circuit is a concentrated view of the collection; six research areas remain outside the normal visit