Jeju, South Korea - Day 19

Last night, we sailed away from Pusan out of the western channel of the Korea Strait which is between Korea and Japan.  We sailed into the Cheju Strait docking this morning in Jeju City.  Jeju (Cheju) is an island located off the southwestern tip of South Korea.  It is touted as a paradise resort and heavily visited by mainland Koreans and Chinese.  It is located approximately 34 degrees north and 127 degrees east.  With a population of over 300,000, it is home to over half of the island residents. 

Since we did not have a tour scheduled, we had a leisurely breakfast and then caught a cab into the town.  Jeju looks like your typical seaside tourist town except for its huge port.  We first walked the aisles of the street market watching the locals preparing their wares for the day.  Because this is a resort town, not much opens before 10:00 a.m., so we felt we had the town to ourselves.

We then walked over to Jejumok Gwana and Gwandeok-jeong. These are the island’s oldest wooden structures built in 1448 during the reign of King Sejong and reconstructed in 1970. They were originally built for military training and other government functions including holding the seat of island power. The complex was quite large and the embellishments to the buildings were very similar to what we saw at the temples in Pusan. It is definitely worth visiting if you are ever in this town.

We grabbed a cab over to Yongyeon, a tight twisting gorge with steep basalt walls leading to the sea. It is said to have been shaped by wrestling dragons during a contest for power.The only thing we found was a suspension bridge leading to a pagoda overlooking an attractive gorge.It provided a pretty photo but otherwise, it was not particularly interesting.

We then walked over the hill to Youngduam, the island’s most touted tourist site.A natural sculpted volcanic rock thrusts its raggedy head out of the ground as if trying to slip out between the land and sea.I climbed down the very long, steep stairway to the ocean to snap a few pictures of the formation and was followed by what seemed to be hundreds of Japanese tourists.The dragon rock was quite impressive as were all the tourists looking at it.

We headed back to town to see if any shops had opened up yet. Alas, most opened at noon which was still a half an hour away and since our ship sailed at 1:30, we headed back to the ship to enjoy the sail away party.

Good night!