Browsing the archives for the hiking category
To be honest the Korean urban lifestyle doesn’t really do much for me. Sure, I sometimes miss the art and culture, the night clubs and the convenience. But after living in London, Berlin and Barcelona, there’s really not anything new that I get out of big cities in Korea. All it takes is a walk [...]
This post is coming a little too late for the summer, but I’m posting it anyhow for those who might be interested in doing some camping this fall or are already kicking around ideas for their next vacation. For years I’ve heard that there there’s a campground at the Mt. Tohamsan at the Recreational Forest [...]
The 19th century was a dark time for Korea (and sadly just a prelude to the horrors to come in the 20th century to come). Korea was still a feudal agrarian society and the nobility of the Joseon Dynasty had become bloated and corrupt, exacting heavy taxes and conscripting forced labor from the peasantry. Foreign [...]
Hidden away above a small farming valley just south of Mt. Namsan, the Standing Buddha (마애불얍성) of Mt. Maseoksan (마석산) is the epitome of “off the beaten path.” In fact, for a long time the only reference to it I could find was a mark at the bottom of the regional map published by the [...]
Taking advantage of a break in the cold weather, the other weekend I piled into the car with some friends and took off to explore the mountains south of Gyeongju (not to mention my wife was putting the finishing touches on her Master’s thesis and needed me out of the house). I’d managed to score [...]
Seems like it’s been ages since I’ve posted any book reviews here on the blog. But last month I scored a passel of books from Seoul Selection Online Bookshop for a bit of light reading over winter vacation. Not to get to promotional here (and no, I’m not getting paid for this), but if you’re [...]
Yup, you read that right. About 17 km west of Gyeongju on the north face of Mt. Obongsan (오봉산) is a little valley that goes by the name of Yeogeungok (여근곡). This literally means “Jade Gate” Valley which, you might not have known, is actually a euphemism for female genitalia. Just why the ancient Koreans [...]
Bomun Resort G20 Summit This weekend is going to be a bit crazy around Gyeongju. There’s a lot of stuff going on, and some of it sounds pretty cool (and some of it not really). For starters, we’ve all heard about the G20 kicking off in Seoul, but you might not know that there’s [...]
Gyeongju’s Mt. Namsan (남산), or literally “South Mountain”, may not be among the tallest or most beautiful mountains in Korea, but to me it’s one of the most magical. It might look gentle from the side, but up close Namsan’s got enough steep valleys, twisting peaks and craggy boulders to give any hiker a run [...]
Not to become a broken record or anything, but most tourists just bounce down to Gyeongju for a long weekend, hit up the big tourist sites, and head home Sunday night. It’s a shame really. You can barely even scratch the surface of what Gyeonju has to offer in 2 days. To finally prove what [...]
