I hiked on Gwanaksan yesterday, which is the large mountain next to Seoul National University. This is some fantastic hiking on innumerable trails. There are several peaks to it and it straddles Seoul and Geyonggi Province. I have to go back at least a few more times to really begin to cover the whole area. It takes at least an hour from my apartment to get there, way on the south side of Seoul. The whole park is 19.22 million square meters, and the sign at the front indicates, helpfully, that this translates into 5.82 million pyongs. The interschnitzel reveals that this means 7.420883 square miles. It is big, to say the the least, especially right in the city, though not hard to get far away from Seoul. You hear traffic noise for a short time but soon are in the woods and it is very peaceful. The peaks offer fantastic views.
Here is the impressive front entrance to the park:
The main path is, like many major Korean parks, wide, paved, and crowded with people fully geared out in coloful Korean hiking clothes. This being the middle of a work day, I am sure it is only a small sample of real crowding too. Everybody was very friendly. Many people there were picnicking in the innumerable little spots for it. But it isn't hard to get away from people, there are paths snaking up the hillsides in all directions and so it is easy enough to slip into the woods.
There are some Buddhist temples and other Buddhist sites all over the mountains. here is the first one I came across, embedded into a cliffface. The main temple building sat below an interesting rock formation:
Behind the temple building:
The second highest peak there is 455 meters and it is called Samsungsan. I had, while looking at a map at the bottom of the mountain, ended up meeting a Korean who made it his special project to show me the mountain as fast as possible. We essentially sprinted up the mountain, which was so steep in spots that it meant crawling up rocks on our hands. Nice guy. We moved so fast I couldn't take pictures (breathing was hard enough).
Just below the peak was what my hiking partner called a "happy hole". It stood about 10 feet high off the path, the idea is to pitch a pebble into it a pray for happiness.
Just below the peak is Sammaksa, a temple first built in 677.
The sign at the front of the temple also indicates that the brother of the man who introduced vaccination to Korea also spent time here.
Armed with that important knowledge I explored the temple a bit, beautiful as you would expect.
Away from the temple is a granite path leading around the edge of the mountains a couple of hundred meters.
The path deadends at two major sites: a set of "fertility stones" which have been considered to represent male and female genitals, and are a place people come leave offerings:
and this rock face carveing Buddhas and Boddhisattvas, now covered with a small building filled with light
Here is the impressive front entrance to the park:
The main path is, like many major Korean parks, wide, paved, and crowded with people fully geared out in coloful Korean hiking clothes. This being the middle of a work day, I am sure it is only a small sample of real crowding too. Everybody was very friendly. Many people there were picnicking in the innumerable little spots for it. But it isn't hard to get away from people, there are paths snaking up the hillsides in all directions and so it is easy enough to slip into the woods.
There are some Buddhist temples and other Buddhist sites all over the mountains. here is the first one I came across, embedded into a cliffface. The main temple building sat below an interesting rock formation:
Behind the temple building:
The second highest peak there is 455 meters and it is called Samsungsan. I had, while looking at a map at the bottom of the mountain, ended up meeting a Korean who made it his special project to show me the mountain as fast as possible. We essentially sprinted up the mountain, which was so steep in spots that it meant crawling up rocks on our hands. Nice guy. We moved so fast I couldn't take pictures (breathing was hard enough).
Just below the peak was what my hiking partner called a "happy hole". It stood about 10 feet high off the path, the idea is to pitch a pebble into it a pray for happiness.
Just below the peak is Sammaksa, a temple first built in 677.
The sign at the front of the temple also indicates that the brother of the man who introduced vaccination to Korea also spent time here.
Armed with that important knowledge I explored the temple a bit, beautiful as you would expect.
Away from the temple is a granite path leading around the edge of the mountains a couple of hundred meters.
The path deadends at two major sites: a set of "fertility stones" which have been considered to represent male and female genitals, and are a place people come leave offerings:
and this rock face carveing Buddhas and Boddhisattvas, now covered with a small building filled with light
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