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Start
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Sogongwon
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Seorak Mountain
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Sinhungsa
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Heundeulbawi
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Ulsanbawi
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Sunrise Park
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Naksansa-1
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Naksansa-2
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Naksansa-3
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Baked Fish
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Jungang Market
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Tourist Hotel
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Gaetbae(ferry) Quay
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Abai Village
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Sindasin Restaurant
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Lighthouse Observatory
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ports
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Beach
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Cheongchoho Lake
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Finish
Finally, our destination, Heundeulbawi, showed up in my eyes. This is one of 8 exotic sceneries on Mt. Seorak because it moves exactly same amount whether one person pushes it or a bunch of people push it.
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Palgi (八奇; eight exotic sceneries) |
Content |
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Cheonhujidong(天吼地動) |
When it heavily rains in summer, it thunders, the sky flashes and roars like it's tearing apart, and the land shakes like it is breaking. |
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Geoamdongseok(巨岩動石) |
A big rock can be moved by one man. (Heundeulbawi) |
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Jeonseokdonghyeol(轉石洞穴) |
A rock and another rock meets and forms one natural cave like Gyejogul (繼組窟). |
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Baekduguhyeol |
Guhyeol(毆穴) located on the way from Naeseorak Oegapyeong to Baekdamsa is a hole that occupies 100 mals(app. 1803l) of beans. It's known as trace of crane in old times. |
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Sujikjeolli(垂直絶理) |
Pointed rock peaks in the valley of Cheonbuldong are all cracked vertically and differently shaped. |
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Yudatangpok(有多湯瀑) |
Where there is a fall, there is likely to be a pond or puddle and Seorak Mountain has relatively many baths(湯) since it has so many rocks. 12 Seonnyeotang(12 fairies bath) is one example. |
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Geumgangyuhyeol (金剛有穴) |
A big hole on a stony mountain like Geumganggul(Cave) of Mireukbong (Peak; known as Janggunbong) is mysterious and bizarre. |
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Donggyejiseol (冬季遲雪) |
It snows heavy in late winter on Mt. Seorak. It snows heavily from November and March that it becomes a snow mountain and the flowers bloomed in winter snow makes up a wonderful sight. |
Heundeulbawi is approximately 35 ton weigh and scientifically it falls if 80 people push it at the same time but it's known that it is almost impossible to fall by humans.
Another secret in this Heundeulbawi that is moved by one person is that four sides of the rock are not round at all. It looks long like this if you look at it from the sides.
As it represents Seorak Mountain, the area is always full of people taking pictures. It's no exaggeration to say that the rock hasn't fallen yet because nobody got a chance to push it.
So around this mysterious Heundeulbawi and other rocks around it, there are Chinese letters written like spells. Probably they were written by our ancestors since 1,000 years ago.
Over the stone pillar behind the rock, there's a long signboard under the big rock with Chinese letters on it. 'SintongJeilNahanSeokgul'.
NX300 | f/6.3 | iso 100 | 2014:11:15 14:02:35 | Flash did not fire. | 16mm
I don't know if it's a natural or artificial cave but an enormously big rock laid over the cave.
Deep inside the cave, a devout stone statue of Buddha was enshrined that makes it different from regular temples but the more mysterious thing was that the ceiling of cave was made of rock.
The way to Ulsanbawi standing among dense buildings of Gyejoam. From here, it only takes 30 minutes to get to Ulsanbawi where you can see blue east sea, Daecheongbong peak and Geumgang Mountain in North Korea. Actually, the part I've shown you so far is merely 1/5 of the whole rock. It's 4km big in circumference that looks like a fence so you'll get the most magnificent and beautiful view from the opposite side, on Misiryeong Hill.
Ulsanbawi has a famous story behind it. When the God was making Geumgang Mountain, he told all the handsome rocks in Korea to gather in one place on Geumgang Mountain and one big rock in Ulsan, Gyeongsangdo, started right off but it was too big and heavy to get there in time and when it finally did, he heard that 12,000 peaks were already made on Geumgang Mountain and it pluned itself down on Seorak Mountain with tears on its face.
That's how it's named Ulsanbawi, as far as we know. Some say it's Ulsan because it looks like Ultari(a fence), some say it's called Ulsan or Cheonhu Mountain that refers to the sound of roaring sky and crying mountain when it thunders.
Although Ulsanbawi is a very attractive, which ranks first or second beautiful place among others on Mt. Seorak, climbing this mountain was not the only destination for us…plus after I saw my wife sweating and climbing with a 4kg bag, I couldn't say we should go higher. So we decided to go to Ulsanbawi next time and went down~!!
When we went down the stairs while avoiding people who were climbing up…we saw a cute kid who was talking to dad on dad's back so happy. And to see that kid and dad were caring each other, it was more beautiful than any view on Mt. Seorak. This might be us a few decades ago.
On our way down, we didn't have time to see the view since we were busy with talking about our visit to Mt. Seorak as a kid with our parents. So I had a strong sense of déjà vu on some paths and suddenly I realized our trip to Mt. Seorak became so sensitive.
Probably everyone has similar memories. But walking on this fine day in autumn and sharing our pasts would be very rare and valuable trip even for us. And next time we come here, we might bring up this moment from our memories as well.
A family that I unexpectedly bumped into made us remember our childhood and when we came round, we were almost got to Sogongwon full of maple trees.
We might've missed the views on the mountain Seorak on our way down but we headed to the exit among people with a smile on our face that only we know about.
Address : Seorak-dong, Sokcho-si, Gangwon-do
Telephone : 033-636-7702
