(Yonhap Feature) Amid trekking boom, old mountain roads revived as walking course in Korea

By Kim Hyun
GANGNEUNG, South Korea, July 12 (Yonhap) -- After the sunrise, the Daegwallyeong
ridge becomes like a lush green carpet where the scent of pine trees drifts in
vaporous swirls. The sounds of birds chirping fills the misty air. White
windmills turn slowly against a blue sky.
A short walk into the tranquil scene leads to a narrow, meandering route where
thousands walk every weekend to escape from the hectic routines of daily life.
The path along the 832-meter-high Daegwallyeong ridge is one of the 11 walking
courses that are together called Baugil, meaning "road of rock," which is now
emerging as a beloved trekking attraction along the east coast. Baugil, which
opened in March in and around this coastal town of Gangneung, Gangwon Province,
is the latest major addition to walking courses across the country where more and
more people travel on foot, craving the natural pace of walking away from the
realm of speed and technology.
"What characterizes Baugil is an abundance of pine trees," said Lee Soon-won, a
novelist and native of Gangneung, who developed Baugil into walking courses with
alpinist Lee Ki-ho. A canopy of pine and oak makes up more than 70 percent of the
160-kilometer Baugil routes.
"Pine trees have a vitalizing force that gives us good energy. And the forest
that grows pine, oak and all kinds of trees also sends mysterious energy to us,"
he said.
Since August of last year, the pair walked Baugil every weekend exploring old
roads that used to connect one village to another and making signposts -- simple
glyphs in blue paint stamped on a roadside rock, or red and white cloth tied on a
tree.
Before the age of highways and railroads, the Daegwallyeong ridge was a traffic
hub on which aristocrats and their servants, merchants and brides traveled on
foot on their way to Seoul from the east coast. Its tranquil scene inspired poets
and painters. It is where Sinsaimdang (1504-1551), a talented poet and mother of
famous Confucian scholar Yi I, chanted an emotional poem about her lonesome
mother en route to her husband's house north of Seoul. Beloved folk painter Kim
Hong-do (1745-1806) halted his journey here to paint the landscape. The treasured
scenery song of the eastern provinces by Jeong Cheol (1536-1593) was also woven
here.
Lee, who named the old routes Baugil after the local dialect, wrote many
prize-winning novels, including "Eunbiryeong" and "If You Go to Jeongdongjin,"
based on his hometown Gangneung and the Taebaek Mountains, the eastern spine of
the Korean Peninsula. Retracing the roads he walked as a child, Lee set up 11
routes so far, mostly flat and downhill and each 10 to 20 kilometers long, a
distance he believes is just enough for a day's walk.
"The small roads that used to connect one village to another, where people walked
on foot, have all become obsolete because new roads were paved for the car," Lee
said. "Our job was not to build a new one but to rediscover the forgotten roads."
Observers say walking became a huge tourism trend in Korea as an antidote to its
hard-working culture. Koreans work the longest hours among the member nations of
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): 2,074 hours per
year or 46.6 hours a week. The yearly figure far outnumbers other hard-working
countries like the United States that averages 1,776 hours and Japan 1,733 hours.

Another trekking course, "Olle," a series of coastal walking paths that opened in
2007 on the southern island of Jeju, is now the epitome of new tourism. The Jeju
Olle drew 250,000 people last year and even more are expected this year.
The walking boom also translated into the market. According to data from ABC
Mart, a Japan-based company that has stores across South Korea, sales of walking
shoes here have steadily grown this year by 74 percent in June compared to the
same month last year. Walking shoes also made up 5.2 percent of its entire sales,
up from 3.7 percent last year.
Unlike the famous Christian pilgrims' route to Santiago, Spain, the Korean trail
courses do not have religious meanings attached to them, but they are a vivid
modern-day testimony of how individuals crave an alternate lifestyle in a world
of velocity and technology, observers say.
"Such a hectic lifestyle has been the driving force of 'Dynamic Korea,' but
inside, individuals suffer," said Suh Myung-sook, a former editor-in-chief of
Sisa Journal and online news site Ohmynews, who developed the Olle courses.
"Seoul and its surrounding region are more densely populated than any other
capital in developed nations, and the cycle of life runs very fast. In such an
environment, it's impossible not to accumulate fatigue," Suh said. "As a way to
counteract this, people come to walk, to look back on themselves -- am I walking
the right path in life, is this the only way to live, or is there another way --
and find consolation from nature."
On a recent Saturday, mothers walked with children, the elderly came on a group
trip and members of various Internet communities streamed in droves to the
16.2-km route weaving through the Daegwallyeong ridge. Some expected a healing
effect from the pine forest, others came to walk with loved ones. Some were lone
visitors walking in silence.
"I can see the woods and the landscape and think a variety of ideas in a clean
state of mind," said Cho Kwang-rae, 69, who came on a group trip from Seoul.
"When I saw the advertisement (of the tour agency), I thought, 'this is the one'
and immediately called to join."
hkim@yna.co.kr
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