May, Mountains and Sea

Korea is 70 percent mountains, and it’s surrounded by seas.  This May we visited both. For our first trip out of the Seoul area, we traveled about 4 hours to Seoraksan National Park (mountains) and the nearby city of Sokcho (sea), on the east coast of Korea.

The mountains and the sea are less than 30 minutes apart.  We stayed closer to the mountains, in a little town of mainly small hotels within walking distance of the park entrance.  It reminded me of a ski town, and we are thinking of returning in the winter, or perhaps fall. Since this is Korea—where they love neon—the bridge from the town to the park was lit at night.  They also love hearts.

Seoraksan mountain is the third highest in Korea. The entrance to the park is lined with festive outdoor restaurants. 

The park is home to several Buddhist temples, and a large Buddha.

We hiked up one of the other peaks in the park, Ulsanbawi. One of the cool things about the park was how accessible it was.  The first third of the hike was on a concrete path completely usable by a wheelchair.  The rest could only be hiked, but was also very friendly to casual hikers such as us, with steps and bridges over hard parts.  First destination was Heundeulbawi, where there has been a Buddhist retreat or temple since the 7th century.

The final part of the climb was very steep, up over 800 steps, and Teresa found that the Heundeulbawi was a very fine place to relax, so I went on to Ulsanbawi myself.

On the way back down we visited another, larger Buddhist temple and then took the bus down to Sokcho for the evening.

 

 

 

 

We spent less time at the sea than in the mountains—neither of us are big beach people—but we did enjoy dipping our toes in the East Sea, which lies between Korea and Japan (and which, by the way, Japan names “The Sea of Japan”).  For dinner, Teresa kindly indulged Robert’s search for raw fish, for which Sokcho is famous.  After some searching, we ended up at the most popular fish restaurant in Sokcho.

Since there was little that was appealing to Teresa at the fish restaurant, we made a final stop for fried chicken, which Koreans do amazingly well. We had our first taste of Korean fried chicken in Northern Virginia, and enjoyed getting some at the very same chain that opened last summer in Falls Church.

This trip was in early May.  We have returned to mountains—local ones—with the arrival of Rachel following the end of her first year of college.  Rachel loves to hike, so we have been checking out the local mountains, of which there are many.  In particular, we’ve hiked two mountains in Incheon Grand Park.  This park is great. Completely in the middle of the large city of Incheon, it has lots of hiking trails, a zoo, an arboretum (which we have not yet visited) and other amenities.  Very well used by locals, who are rightly proud of the park, it combines the pleasures of nature with urban convenience and energy. 

We have climbed two mountains in the park, over two weeks.  The first week we climbed Sang-asan mountain, and the second week Gwanmosan mountain.  Really, there’s a redundancy in these names, since the Korean “san” means “mountain,” but I include the latter for those of us whose Korean is not as fresh as it once was.

The first week climb, up to Sang-asan mountain:

The second week climb, up to Gwanmosan mountain. This mountain is very close to the first and just a bit taller (I think).  But the climb to the top is up many steps.  Like most Korean mountains, its sides are very steep.  We were rewarded at the top with a nice pavilion, and a great view:

But not all our days are walks in the park.  In addition to my day job, and Teresa’s writing of her book, Rachel and I are taking together a twice-a-week evening Korean class, and Rachel is volunteer teaching English at a local hagwon, or private school, where Korean children go for education in addition to what they receive at their regular schools.

We hope you are all beginning a summer full of seas, mountains, parks and learning!