Korean Job Discussion Forums

[redhed]

Hi,

We have about 5 days off work for the childrens day festivies and are excited about the weather and want to head to the Northeast and do some camping.....will probably take KTX from Seoul to Chucheon to visit a friend, but then are looking for some more rural areas to pitch our tent...preferably along a river or water and with as little people traffic as possible. Have been looking into Seoraksan. We don't typically like to pay to camp. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing, good ideas welcomed. I have been told that camping is pretty much stay where you can once you get off private property.....also I was told that being on the beach at night is a 'no, no' as they are watching for a Northern invasion force.......any truth to this?? Thanks in advance.

[Robot_Teacher]

Yes, the river shores in Gangwondo are free public use. Between many ranges of mountains are shallow rocky streams and rivers that often circle around towns in the valleys. No real laws on camping, fishing, and BBQ, except to be careful not start a forest fire during dry times like how it was recently. It's been raining since early yesterday morning so it's all wet right now. You can camp, fish, and have camp fires on rocky sandy shores as you like as I did this past weekend. I went back to my apartment nearby at 9PM Saturday night since it got cold. While Koreans usually just leave their trash behind since there's no laws on that either, please pick up after yourselves. It's still really chilly up here though. brrrr. I had to wear my coat today.

Last weekend was very pretty weather, but chilly at night. It might be warmer in 10 days from now though. I can't give you really detailed instructions any more than just look at a detailed map of Korea, pick a town with a river running around it, and get on a bus. The English speaking Koreans on the 1330 line can tell you how to bus around Korea. Enjoy your camping trip.

[thrylos]

Good luck getting here (Chuncheon) by KTX-- you'll need to wait a couple of more years.... There's a normal (slow) train fron Cheongyangri that takes about 2 hours. Buses from Kangnam/Dong Seoul take about 90-100 mins under normal traffic, more during rush hour.

You can find nice places to camp pretty much undisturbed, but you need some kind of transport out of town. Best place to go by public transportation is to take the number 1 bus out of town and get off at the Palbongsan enterance (about 30-40 mins away). Not exactly quiet, but w/facilities and a camping area, a river, mountain trails, etc.

Good luck.

[redhed]

Sorry, I thought KTX referred to all the rail system outside of the intercity Metro's.....I take it it's a high speed reference or something. At any rate, my friend told me that it would be much nicer (if slower) to take the train than the bus. Also, thanks for the heads up on the local bus route......how do you think hitching would work if we wanted to just follow our topo map? Does anyone have much experience with leaving camp set up during the day and hiking about and having it untouched when they return. I know there is always some risk but just curious as to other folks experiences. Thanks, and I'm always up to hear more ideas if anybody has some to share.