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Start
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Hwangmae Mountain
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Theme Park
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Gagopa Sikdang
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Jeongyang Wetland
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Punggyong
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Sonkalguksu
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Sorigil
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Seongbo Museum
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Haeinsa Temple
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Gobau Sikdang
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Finish
Hapcheon-gun is a city that has everything, beautiful mountains, wetlands, and rivers. This city is located on a back marsh of Acheoncheon, a branch of Huang River, with beautiful sceneries, and it has a great ecological preservation value as a habitat of various plants and birds. As the red clay roads and wooden decks have been built, there’s no better place to take a walk while observing ecology of wetlands. This place cleanses our mind with the creespy sound of reed and the sound of flapping birds. Shall we take a look?
Jeongyang Wetland Eco Park is very easily accessible as it has a toilet and a parking lot near the entrance. It’s also on the roadside so you can find it easily. As soon as I got out of the car, I was screaming WOW. Ducks and migratory birds were playing on the water and the wide wetland was so beautiful.
There was a 3.2km trail around the wetland. You cannot be bored on this road because it has wooden deck trail on wetlands, precast paver trail along the riverside, and soil trail along the edge of swampy terrain.
You might be surprised to see migratory birds from time to time while you take a walk. They move in flocks to sleep around the sunset and when they do, they would make beautiful scenery over the red sky. I also took some photos but I am ashamed to show you because they are blurry.
I’ll walk along the pretty and swinding wooden deck trail over wetlands. You’ll see different kinds of lily such as prickly water lilies, water lilies and nymphoides indica Kuntze and various water plants like water-hyacinth and frogbit around the trail.
And you can see big fields of reeds on the way as well. Between the fields of reeds, there are thousands of migratory birds including swans, Anas poecilorhyncha and wild gees so that it’s also currently known as a sanctuary for migratory birds.
On the Salix gilgiana trees between swamps, there were small birdhouses for small birds. There must be small birds living inside that right? I guess so because they can easily find food here.
Who put sausage on a woodstick? ^^* Actually, it’s not a sausage but a water plant called cattail. Yellow flowers bloom in bunches on the top of stems around July and the things hung on stems like reddish brown sausages are fruits. It was named (Budeul) because the leaves are so soft(Budeul).
At the end of the wooden deck, you’ll see stepping stones crossing the stream. Shall we walk along the quiet trail now?
Across the stream, one guy was fishing and the leaves were still red on the mountain. I feel like something special’s going to happen if I cross the bridge here.
I was right. As I was passing by the fisherman, he just picked up something. Wow! Isn’t this bass? He seemed so happy that he posed for the camera with that fish in his hands. Amazing. They say bass is not delicious but some say it’s okay than they expected and new restaurannts specializing in cooking bass are opening as well. I wonder how it tastes as well.
There’s a small trail under the big trees on the riverside next to the small river. If you walk along here more, you’ll see dirt road next to the parking lot where our tour started today. It’s connected in a circle so either way, you’ll get to the same point.
On both sides, there are habitats of salix gilgiana trees with fallen leaves that let us know it’s late autumn. It’s quite different from dense summer.
Now the sun is setting. Tall reeds on the sides of the trail told me to go home now. It is kinda lucky to live in Korea where there are four distinct seasons. In a country wth one or two seasons, they would be seeing monotonous season but we could different scenaries in spring/summer/autumn/winter.
In one corner of the river, I saw a bunch of asters. They’re still here in November. Well, it’s good to see them this late since it’s a warm south city.
Jeongyang Wetland was bigger than 100ha once but as the water was reduced and Huanggang river bed rose, it’s merely 40ha big now. Currently it’s been expanded and dredged by Hapcheon-gun so it looks nice. Thankfully, tourists like me could enjoy a pleasant walk.
As I stepped on fallen leaves on sides of the path, they were rustling. So we walked on sides of the road instead of the middle.
I don’t know if you can find another eco park with no admission fee or parking fee in another city. As it’s 3.2km distance with no uphill or downhill to take a look around the wetland, it takes an hour so if you need some place to take a walk after dinner, I strongly suggest you to go Jeongyang Wetland Eco Park.
Address : 730, Daeya-ro, Daeyang-myeon, Hapcheon-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do (경상남도 합천군 대양면 대야로 730)
Telephone : 055-930-3133
