Bukhansan National Park

On my 1st 2 days in Korea, I was fascinated by the rugged mountains soaring over Seoul.  On the 3rd day, I finally got up in them!  I mentioned previously how Taipei and Seoul had so many things in common geographically that I kept mixing them up.  One of the major commonalities is that they both of mountainous national parks on their northsides.  Quite the coincidence.

You’ll remember my day of calla lilies and fumaroles in Yangmingshan National Park in the northern part of Taipei.  On Day 9, I went hiking in Bukhansan National Park in the northern part of Seoul.  (The shan in Yangmingshan and the san in Bukhansan both mean “mountain”.  I could be wrong, but I bet that’s another sign of Chinese influence.)  It was easy to take the bus around Yangmingshan.  Bukhansan was a little less civilized.  I would be traveling on foot to see the sights.

I took 1 quick subway ride, then a much longer subway ride north to get where I was starting off.  From the station, I took the route I had memorized to get to the national park office.  When I told the woman there the hike I was planning on, I swear she gave me a funny look because I was notably out of shape.  But she also gave me a trail map and a free kerchief that I ended up using as a headband.  During the hike, I was surprised by what a job it really did of keeping the sweat from running down my face.

Mangwolsa Temple

I was happy to see brightly colored lanterns lining the trail heading upward because I knew it meant I was getting close to Mangwolsa Temple.

Mangwolsa Temple is a Buddhist temple built onto the side of the mountain.  How they got the building materials up there and then did the actually construction, I’ll never know.

One weird thing about Mangwolsa Temple:  There were not a lot of people there, and the people that were there were going about their business and pretty much ignored me.  It made me feel a little uncomfortable, like I was intruding.

Podae Ridge

After resting at Mangwolsa Temple for a while, it was time to keep climbing again.  Over a 1/2 hour after leaving the temple, I made it to the top of Podae Ridge.  It was a fairly steep climb, and it was thrilling to reach the top.

Hoeryongsa Temple

After taking some pictures from Podae Ridge, I had to walk along the ridge for a while before reaching the point where I’d start descending.  The hike had been taking me much longer than I had planned, so I found myself rushing a bit on the way down.  This led to me wiping out once or twice.  That’s how it goes.  As I approached Hoeryongsa Temple, the trail became a road.  My fun but strenuous hike was nearing its end.

After my long hike, I got back on the subway just 1 station north of where I had gotten off.  But it felt much further.  Because my hike took so long, I took the rest of the day off from sightseeing.  But it was okay because world events had seriously impacted my plans for Day 11.  So what I had planned on doing later in the day on Day 9 I did instead later in the day on Day 11.  It all worked out.

[Factual information is primarily gathered from Wikipedia, so you know it must be true.]