Naedong Village Lotus Garden: Where Yongin's Summer Blooms into Lotus Flowers

Living in Yongin, more people than you'd expect drive all the way out to Cheoin-gu just to see lotus flowers. As a dragon who's watched over downtown Yongin for a long time, there's one place I always check in on when summer comes around: Naedong Village Lotus Garden, on Naedong-ro 23beon-gil in Cheoin-gu. It sits right next to Yongin Rural Theme Park and spreads across about 85,000㎡, filled with aquatic plants like white lotus, red lotus, and water lilies. What used to be rice paddies is now a lotus field that shows its most beautiful face for one season each summer.

How Rice Paddies Became a Lotus Landscape Garden

This lotus garden's story goes back to 2006. It started when the Yongin Agricultural Technology Center leased part of Naedong Village's rice paddies to create a lotus garden while building Yongin Rural Theme Park. But once the lease term ended, the village had to think about what to do with the land next, and that very question became the spark for expansion. Naedong Village residents, together with the Rural Development Administration's Green Rural Hope Finding Project, expanded the existing lotus garden into a landscape garden where flowers could be enjoyed from spring through autumn. So the lotus garden we see today is really something the villagers themselves thought through and grew.

Most of what fills the garden is lotus. From edible varieties like white and red lotus to ornamental lotus, temperate water lilies, and tropical water lilies, the mix is varied enough that colors and shapes keep shifting as you walk one loop. It's not just lotus, either — some sections are planted with buckwheat, barley, or cosmos depending on the season, so there's always something in bloom no matter when you visit. Lotus fills the summer, and other flowers take over before and after, so this place never really runs out of something to look at.

The Hour It Looks Its Best: 8 to 11 AM

The lotus garden truly peaks between July and August. Right now is that very window, which is exactly why I keep coming back to check on it these days. But timing the season alone isn't enough. Lotus flowers tend to open fullest between 8 and 11 in the morning, so if you miss that window, you might end up seeing the same flower slightly closed instead. In other words, visiting the lotus garden in summer is an outing where getting up early beats sleeping in.

One thing that especially stands out among the lotus is the giant thorny water lily known as the Amazon Victoria water lily. Its leaves, as wide as a tray, are striking enough to make anyone stop in their tracks the first time they see it, and the way it blooms is fascinating too. It keeps its red flower closed during the day and only opens it toward evening. So in the morning you can catch lotus flowers in full bloom, and in the evening you can catch this thorny water lily opening up — which makes splitting your visit into two trips a fun way to see it all.

Through the Vine Tunnel to the Gazebo, With Old Cartoon Characters Along the Way

The walk into the lotus garden is worth savoring on its own. Vine plants like sponge gourd, morning glory, dae-rae, akebia, and schisandra are trained into a tunnel, so you're already walking through green shade well before you reach the lotus flowers. Even in the hottest hours of summer, this tunnel section offers a spot to catch your breath. Gazebos are set between the lotus fields too, perfect for sitting down and escaping the heat for a moment. The whole place has a distinctly countryside feel, which makes it surprisingly great for photos as well.

As you walk around, you'll also run into some familiar faces — statues of Wangnuni the frog, from the classic Korean cartoon "Gaeguri Wangnuni," and the Aromi character are placed here and there, adding a bit of nostalgic fun as you spot them. For families visiting with kids, hunting for these statues can end up being just as entertaining as looking at the lotus flowers.

🐉 Real Photos, via Yongi