Endangered Plant Exhibition Glasshouse, Chollipo Arboretum (천리포수목원 멸종위기식물전시온실)

The founder of Chollipo Arboretum, the naturalised American Min Byeong-gal (Carl Ferris Miller), bought land at Chollipo in 1962 and became Korean in 1979; the public-interest foundation that runs the site was set up on 5 August 1996. Closed to the public for decades, the arboretum opened in part on 21 June 2009, with Miller Garden. It covers nearly 59 hectares (57.9 according to the Korean Wikipedia), of which about 6.6 are open to visitors, according to the reception map recorded by a blog in 2022.

The greenhouse project appears in spring 2013. In April the foundation moved plants ahead of works for a glass greenhouse to conserve rare and threatened plants; in July an article announced a 285 m² plant exhibition pavilion for forest education, funded by green funds (녹색자금) and expected for December 2013. In 2014 a threatened tree, the 초령목, imported from Japan in 2004 and grown in a cultivation greenhouse, was moved into the “Miller Garden endangered plant exhibition greenhouse”, where it flowered in February 2020. The texts read do not explicitly link the 2013 pavilion to this greenhouse, but their dates and functions match. In 2025 a pop-up playground was set up in front of the “glass greenhouse” for Biodiversity Day.

The 2013 article describes a 285 m² building made of glass but designed around the theme of a tree garden in the forest: a silhouette that suggests a tree, so as not to clash with the landscape. It rests on the slope of the ground; the side wall that meets the soil is treated as a retaining wall to capture as much ground heat as possible, and photovoltaic panels power the roof opening, the lighting and the motorised curtains to cut electricity use. Four exhibition themes are planned: subtropical plants, aquatic plants, evergreen broadleaves and rare plants.

A 2019 blog describes a greenhouse run on geothermal and solar power, where it is warmer than outside even with the door wide open. The texts read report no temperature measurement and not the exact shape of the building.

In 2023 the press listed 39 taxa from the IUCN Red List there, among them camellias and the Wollemi pine, which the 2019 blog ranks among the most threatened plants in the greenhouse. An August 2022 blog, quoting the labels, notes a big-cone pine from Mexico (Pinus maximartinezii), a variegated New Zealand pittosporum (Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Saundersii', arrived in 1974 from a British nursery), a bottlebrush tree (병솔나무) and pitcher plants. The 초령목, imported in 2004, flowered under the glass in February 2020.

The whole arboretum holds more than 16,000 taxa (16,347 in December 2017 according to the Korean Wikipedia, 16,800 according to the Korea Times in 2026), with major collections of magnolias, camellias, hollies, hibiscus and maples. Designated by the Ministry of Environment as an ex situ conservation institution, it also displays potted threatened wild plants such as the 노랑붓꽃 and the 각시수련, and has created replacement habitats for the 매화마름 and the 가시연꽃, according to its 2025 press release.

The greenhouse lies in Miller Garden, the paid part of the arboretum. According to a 2022 blog, it is reached by passing behind the founder's memorial hall and the holly house, along a boardwalk that runs by the toilets; in front of it stretches the miscanthus garden (억새원), with a photo spot, and the route continues through the Woodland. The 2019 blog allows a little over two hours for the visit; in 2022 guided tours were paid and by reservation.

The magnolia festival takes place in April, and Biodiversity Day (22 May) brought exhibitions of threatened plants into the garden in 2023 and 2025. The sunset path (노을길), free of steps, runs along the sea, and the beaches of Chollipo and Baengnipo are close.