Oedo Botania

Character

Oedo began with failed tangerine farming and pig raising. The garden visitors see today came later, built over decades on an exposed island repeatedly tested by wind and typhoons. Its immaculate paths and formal terraces record decades of persistence, replanting and gradual design

The island still carries traces of those earlier experiments. The area now called Stairway to Heaven grew from thousands of tangerine trees and cypress windbreaks planted against harsh sea winds. As the agricultural plan gave way to a botanical one, those practical plantings became part of a designed landscape filled with subtropical species, clipped shrubs and Mediterranean-looking architecture

The experience

A ferry arrival makes the garden feel deliberately separate from Geoje. Visitors land at a compact pier and climb immediately into a steep, highly managed landscape. The route moves through cactus planting, the formal Venus Garden, sculpture, terraces and viewpoints, repeatedly opening back toward the sea and nearby islands

The steep island keeps formal gardens, sculpture, old windbreaks and denser planting close together. Venus Garden uses axial paths and statuary; Lee House presents a Mediterranean face from below while its plan borrows the organization of a Korean anchae and sarangchae. Old cypress windbreaks still survive among the showpiece planting

History

Lee Chang-ho and Choi Ho-sook acquired Oedo in 1973 and first tried to make the island productive through citrus farming and pig raising. Those efforts failed during the mid-1970s. In 1976 they began developing a tourist farm, starting a much longer process of shaping the steep island through planting, paths, buildings and landing infrastructure

By the 1990s, the private planting project was becoming a public garden. Oedo was incorporated into the Hallyeohaesang National Park framework as a cultural facility, received further development approvals in the early 1990s, and opened to the public as Oedo Natural Farm in April 1995. It was registered as a landscaped botanical garden in 2001 and adopted the Oedo Botania name in 2005

Storms remained part of the garden’s history. Typhoon damage forced replanting and redesign, while windbreaks planted for the old citrus farm continued to influence later garden form. Public recognition grew quickly: the final episode of the television drama Winter Sonata was filmed here in 2002, and the operator recorded its twenty-millionth visitor in 2017

Before you go

The island is reached only by excursion ferry from Geoje, so choose the departure port before planning the rest of the day. The operator lists several gateways including Jangseungpo, Jisepo, Wahyeon, Gujora, Dojangpo, Haegeumgang and Dadae. Ferry schedules and sea conditions determine the actual visit window; the garden’s own seasonal opening hours and admission fee are separate from the boat ticket