Holiday Journal

• Start
•  
• Sesimjeong
•  
• Beopjusa
•  
• Camping Park
•  
• Hwayang Valley’s
•  
• Jungwon University
•  
• Hoban Nangmangil
•  
• Finish

Goesan Songnisan Hwayang Valley's HhwayangGugok Where the Taste for the Arts Remains 화양구곡

Around Hwayang Valley in the north of Songnisan Mountain, Uam Song Si-yeong(尤庵 宋時烈), a great scholar in the middle of Joseon Dynasty who used to hide in here in grief after the death of the King Hyojong, named 9 places admiring Muigugok(武夷九曲)in China, and this is called HwayangGugok. Gugok(9 sceneries) includes Gyeongcheonbyeok, Unyeongdam, Eupgungam, Geumsadam, Cheomseongdae, Neungundae, Waryongam, Haksodae and Pacheon, which all have the magnificent views of strange rocks and bizarre stones.

If you want to take a look around all of those places starting from Hwayangdong Tour Support Center, you're going to have to walk along slightly uphill then come back the same way which is around 9km distance, and if you don't take a break it would take 2 and a half hours. However, if you want to take a break for taking pictures and probably eating an ice-cream at the supermarket around Geumsadam, it would take about 3 and a half hours. So today, we're starting from Hwayangdong Tour Support Center and getting to Gyeongcheonbyeok, Unyeongdam, Eupgungam and Geumsadam as well as Amseojae(巖棲齋) on the rock of Geumsadam.

Walk up around 100m from Tour Support Center, then you'll see the first gok, Gyeongcheonbyeok(擎天壁). The strange rock is standing so sharp and high that it almost looks like it's supporting the sky and that's how it was named.

'Hwayangdongmun(華陽洞門)' engraved on the big rock on the left of Gyeongcheonbyeok is written by Song Si-yeol.

The strange rocks and bizarre stones have been eroded over a long time and the clean water created an amazing view. I could spend all day in the water with a tube on me.

If you are thinking about taking a car around Gugoks, you gotta give up already. Cars are strictly forbidden by the Songnisan National Park Hwayang branch office except for the people who work in restaurants or pensions inside the park, so you are going to have to park your car at parking lot near the entrance then walk inside.

Do you have any idea what Green Point is? If you pick up a trashin the National Park, you get 2 points for 1g and you can save upto 2,000 points a day so if you pick up the trash on your trip inside the National Park and take it to the management office at the exit, you could buy various tickets to used in National and Public park facilities or exchange them with mountain-climbing equipment such as climbing sticks, gloves, water bottles or buff.

You won't have to make an ID or something, you just pick the trash up, take it to the office on site, save up the point using simple personal information, print the coupon out from National Park website below and use it. Refer to Green Point section at the website below for detailed information.

National Park website : http://www.knps.or.kr

I'm not sure if it's me hating places crowded with people or everyone else avoiding me wherever I go, strangely enough, I always travel in off-season. Paved path through the forest looks amazing, doesn't it?

A zelkova tree that looked like at least a few hundred years old was growing along the river so beautifully. It was a hot summer day with a strong sunlight but I was enjoying the shadows of the trees.

There's a wooden deck established where you couldn't walkso you won't have to worry about wearing a little uncomfortable shoes on this course. Even when your boyfriend or girlfriend wore high shoes(or heels), be generous and forgive them.

In the grassland that's high as an adult, there was a nest. Small birds were living together in this grassland.

Now, I will cross the river through this bridge and keep walking. So if I cross here, I'll see Unyeongdam first.

This is the second gok, Unyeongdam(雲影潭), which is 400m up from the first gok, Gyeongcheonbyeok. This is where the clean water flows from the valley and its name means that 'clouds are reflected in clean water'. If the weather was a little bit better, I could've had better pictures of the clouds reflected on water surface.

Red and green leaves were bloomed on both sides of the road. The wall behind is HwayangSeowon.

HwayangSeowon was built for sacrificial rites for Uam Song Si-yeol, the head of the Old Doctrine, in 1695(21st year of the King Sukjong). I was told it's the most powerful and noble among Seowons in Korea but isn't there a saying the powerchanges and time is indifferent? If anyone's interested, you could get in there and take a peek. It's free anyway.

Seems like green and red leaves are competing their beauty. I prefer fresh green leaves blooming as the spring begins.

In front of HwayangSeowon, the third gok, Eupgungam(泣弓巖), is located. Behind this rock that looks like somebody cut it straight with a sharp knife, there's a sad story that Uam Song Si-yeol was crying with his face laid down every early morning here since he had found out the 17th King of Joseon and his disciple, Hyojong, died at the age of 41 after he had failed the expedition to conquer the north(北伐), and Song Si-yeol's body when he was crying looked like a shape of bow(弓). Since then, the rock was called Eupgungam.

Where the broad and flat rock is located is called Geumsadam(金沙潭), the fourth gok. It's named after Geumssaragi(gold dust) because the sand inside the clean water looks like gold dust, and this is in the middle point of Hwayanggugok and very popular in summer.

Going up a little more, I saw a small temple. It's the house called Amseojae(巖棲齋) that Uam Song Si-yeol built on the giant rock in 1666 to study and foster the young generation. I was told that there used to be a bridge a long time ago but now there isn't, so you can't cross the river. But who am I? I will definitely get there from up there.

So when I walked about 100m up, I could see a small path that I can cross. I stepped on the stones to cross the river.

I'm really curious about the house built on an enormous rock. Nobody bothers to get there but I can't stand it when I am curious!

I started to puff since it was a very hot day and crossing the irregular sized rocks was kinda hard. Now we're almost there.

Now that I think about it, I have to go back where I came and it made me exhausted already.

Anyway, the door was half open so I guess it's allowed to get in there. Rock steps look really beautiful. I would really buy it if I could. I think this house has the most beautiful view in the world.

Oh, no…don't tell me…I thought the door was half open when I saw it from across the river and it wasn't, it was just a slightly long key that locks the door which made it look like the door was half open. My gosh…don't do this to me!!! I came all the way to see this so basically I'm screwed.

Climbing over the walls is not the spirit of classical scholar so I just peeked at the house over the walls. This is the place where Song Si-yeol built the house on the rock called Amseojae(巖棲齋) after he retired from politics in order to teach children and brush up on his study. While I was catching my breath, quietly I tried to imagine Song Si-yeol living here at the time.

lol This is the picture my wife took with her cell phone. This is me outside the wall because I couldn't climb over the walls as a classical scholar(?). I weigh over 80kg but look how small I am on that big rock.

So I couldn't finish all 9 goks because I have so many places to show you yet but if you have enough time, I suggest you to take a look all of them. However, every place would look similar to this, a big rock on the riverside, so I think it would be a good idea to visit until fourth gok, Geumsadam.

Address of the starting point : (화양동Tour Support Center) 12, Hwayangdong-gil, Cheongjeong-myeon, Goesan-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do (충청북도 괴산군 청천면 화양동길 12)
Telephone : 043-542-5268~9

Must eat restaurant in Goesan, Halmaecheonggukjang, where the old country woman cooks by herself 할매청국장

After eating toasts at the camping site in the morning and finishing the long-lasting Hwayang Valley tracking, I had to eat something heavy so I searched for a place and found Halmaecheonggukjang.

Halmaecheonggukjang is 20 minutes away from the downtown by car close to Ssanggok Valley entrance. Just as the name tells us, it's run by an old country woman who makes Cheonggukjang and soft tofu everyday using Korean beans she grew herself, and it has constant customers probably because they also miss their grandmothers' cooking as kids like I do.

This is the menu in the restaurant. The most famous one is Cheonggukjang and I could see Olgaengeeguk(snail soup) which is a special food in Goesan. So we ordered one Cheonggukjang and one soft tofu that she makes everyday.

It's not glamorous but every dish tasted great and looked neat on the table. It really looked like a table that my maternal grandmother used to prepare when I visited her house. I didn't even try her food when there was no sausage or fried eggs but now I miss it after a few decades.

Every dish was fresh and properly salted. Especially, randomly made pumpkin pancake was great and I don't know what the name is but I must say, it tastes exactly same as the one my grandma made.

This is what this restaurant is famous for. It's a bit much for one person.

Inside the jjigae, there's nothing special but welsh onions, tofu and beans of fast-fermented bean paste. First, Cheonggukjang did not smell that horrible, I had a sip and I liked it that it was plain, flavory and thick.

When you eat Cheonggukjang, you gotta mix it with rice. It's not salty so you could put it enough(abundantly). It was around 2 p.m. on a weekday with few customers at the restaurant and the rice was properly cooked that seemed to be just cooked such that rice tasted amazing with just soy sauce. In a restaurant that serves yellowish old rice, no matter how delicious dishes are, the whole meal is ruined because of rice but this restaurant serves perfect rice as well as common dishes and jjigae cooked by experienced old woman.

I tried soft tofu next. Probably because she made this by herself, this rarely looks like jelly-type soft tofu that we normally see on the dinner table which is bought in the market and this looks like a cumulus that smoothly spreads.

The soup was salted with seafood, nothing else, then she put soft tofu and a little bit of welsh onions that made it taste neat, soft and delicious. So when I was eating I noticed something strange. I kept eating Cheonggukjang then I realized 'yeah, right, there's soft tofu as well' then I started to eat soft tofu one or two times then forgot there was Cheonggukjang. I never got tired of plain and neat taste of each dish getting addicted to each one that it made me forget that there's another dish on the table.

My wife always buys ingredients that went through verified process of distribution but she had to buy 1kg of Cheonggukjang because she loved the taste of it. The lady who's working inside the kitchen is the Halmae(old woman) in Halmaecheonggukjang. You could see her picture as big as the gate on the entrance wall. lol

Rice, common dishes and main dishes in Halmaecheonggukjang do not look special nor glamorous but rather normal and simple. Yet she exert herself to the utmost to make every dish with her skills she has learned over a long period of time. If you already had a heavy and oily meal in the trip, why don't you try healthy meal at Halmaecheonggukjang once?

Address : 503-9, Taeseong-ri, Chilseong-myeon, Goesan-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do (충청북도 괴산군 칠성면 태성리 503-9)
Telephone : )043-832-6152
Operating Hours :08:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.