Baekyangsa temple (백양사). Located on Baekyangsan mountain in Jangseong county, one of the most popular local destinations for looking at 단풍. If you were in the same orientation group as me in 2006, you'll remember we visited this spot. Last year they had a festival on November 1st and 2nd, though the page says nothing about this year. Here are some pictures from Naver; this is my favorite one. Buses run to Baekyangsa eleven times a day from the Gwangju Bus Terminal: 6:35, 7:30, 8:40, 10:05, 11:20, 12:45, 14:15, 15:20, 16:50, 18:15, and 19:50.
Daewonsa temple (대원사). Located in Boseong county, this is one place I'd really like to visit. It's especially beautiful in the springtime, though, and has a Tibetan Museum. Some pictures available here from Naver. This is the official site, which says buses go to the temple from Beolgyo-eup three times a day: 8:30, 1:20, and 4:30.
Gangcheonsa temple (강천사). Located in Sunchang county, Jeollabuk-do. Buses make the ninety-minute trip to the temple from Gwangju terminal ten times a day: 8:10, 8:50, 9:50, 10:30, 11:25, 13:30, 14:10, 14:50, 15:30, 16:10. Here are some pictures from Naver.
Mudeungsan (무등산). In Mudeungsan Provincial Park, the largest mountain in Gwangju and one of the largest in Jeollanam-do. There are a number of local buses that go there: one way to do it is take a bus to Jungshimsa, walk up the mountain for thirty minutes until you come to a paved road lined with maple trees, and follow this road to another temple, Wonhyosa. I'd be interested to hear of some other routes from people familiar with the mountain. Some pictures from Naver, and here is a nice gallery from a blog.
Naejangsan (내장산). Located in Naejangsan National Park in Jeollabuk-do, this is one of the most popular, and thus most crowded, spots in the country to see colorful maple leaves. The pictures from Naver look absolutely gorgeous, though, especially this one. Buses run to Naejangsa temple five times a day: 8:15 10:25 12:20 13:40 15:05. The park's official site says to take a bus to Jeong-eup, and then take local buses 171 or 171-1 to Naejang terminal.
Piagol Valley (지리산피아골계곡). Located in Jirisan National Park in Gurye county. Buses run regularly from Gwangju and Suncheon to Gurye, from whence you can take a bus to Yongoksa temple. I visited the area in October, 2007, and it was a much more leisurely hike than I was expecting. I walked a few kilometers to the first rest area, then turned around.
There was a festival scheduled this year, but it was one of many Jeollanam-do ones cancelled because of swine flu.
Samseonggung (삼성국) and Cheonghakdong (청학동). In Hadong county, Gyeongsangnam-do. Hands down the most beautiful and striking place I've ever been in Korea. This post I did last year has some more information, and below are some pictures:
To get there, take a bus or train to Hadong-eup. Then, take one of the five buses a day from the terminal to Cheonghak-dong: 8:30, 11:00, 13:00, 15:30, and 19:00. When you get off the bus, walk up the hill to mosey around Cheonghak-dong, then go all the way back down the hill and over to Samseong-gung. I'd recommend getting one of the earlier buses to Cheonghak-dong, because you'll want to give yourself plenty of time to see both sites.
* Update: Here's some information about peak times for viewing around the country, from this An Acorn in the Dog's Food post.
7 comments:
Oh, wow. I didn't know Korea had four seasons.
Might I also interest you in some of Korea's famous food, kimchi! But watch out you foreigner, it's spicy...!
Have you ever heard of autumn? Let me introduce to you about that. It is one of Korean traditional festival. do you have Fall in your country ?
Oh, come on, what's wrong with recommending a few local attractions, most of which nobody has ever heard of? Just because I do a post on fall, my favorite season, doesn't mean I've drunk the company cider.
I've got to admit, though, I'm not crazy about seeing nature or seasons with a bunch of other people. The crowds that, um, crowd the tourist destinations in April and October are prohibitive, especially since such vibrant displays were a regular occurrence all throughout Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, people might like to do a Korean thing when they're in Korea.
For those who haven't been, I recommend Samseong-gung. I'd like to go to Baekyangsa, but I think I'll just end up going to Mudeungsan.
Interesting to see you mention Samseong-gung, as I was just reading about that the other night after coming across a couple of photos here and here on Flickr. Between those and her blog entries on the area it definitely looks like a site worth visiting!!
Don't worry Brian, I wasn't poking fun at you, just joining in on the comment train...
It was an awesome post though, and you have in fact given my wife and I a place we can visit to see the wonderful colours of autumn, of which practically does not exist back home in Australia.
Word verification: "undiases"
That would have been more appropriate if I was to comment on the underwear thief in your earlier post...hehe
Ryan wrote:
Don't worry Brian, I wasn't poking fun at you, just joining in on the comment train...
I wasn't poking fun at you either, Brian. I was just having fun, self-deprecatingly casting myself as a clueless but enthusiastic reader of Korean blogs. (I shouldn't explain my opaque humor.)
I enjoyed your photos and if I were there, I'd sure as hell be making plans to head down there somewhere. And no, I wouldn't call it drinking the company cider, since, from where I sit, "four seasons" is something I hear foreigners say Koreans say far, far, far more than I've ever heard Koreans say it.
Back in grad school I did an extensive overview of English-teaching textbooks' reading passage content from the 1950s to the 1990s to analyze the construction of national narratives and international narratives.
In a few typical passages, a Korean boy and/or girl describe (e.g., to a pen pal or to students at the new school they immigrated to) the country of Korea, and it innocuously says, among things like Korean being a peninsula, etc., that Korea has four seasons. It never says Korea is the only country that has four seasons, no more than it says Korea's the only country that's a peninsula.
I personally have never heard a native Korean speaker say that Korea is the only country with four seasons, so if any are really saying that, it's faulty wiring.
We went to Baekyangsa last year; it was very beautiful, especially with the striking mountain that towers over it, but the traffic was pretty bad. The bus took about two and a half hours to crawl a few miles, and the bus back was standing room only.
By contrast, though, we went to Daewonsa the next weekend, the foliage was just as good, and it was almost deserted. A beautiful little temple. Definitely going there again this year.
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