Introducing How to Fully Enjoy a Boseong Trip During the Lunar New Year Holiday

Boseong-gun, Jeollanam-do is busy preparing to welcome homebound travelers ahead of the nation’s biggest holiday, Seollal (Lunar New Year).

Village streets are being cleaned, and warm hands of kindness overflow to neighbors in need.

How about taking a break from the tiring daily routine during the Seollal holiday and enjoying a lively new year by traveling around every corner of your hometown with your family?

[Photo by Boseong-gun]

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▲ Enjoying seawater outdoor baths while overlooking the beautiful Yulpo Beach

If you are traveling with a large family including children and parents, we recommend the ‘Yulpo Seawater Green Tea Center.’

Emerging as a nationwide spa destination, the Yulpo Seawater Green Tea Center has been selected as a wellness tourism site by the Korea Tourism Organization and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and was also listed among the ‘7 Unique Spas.’

The center features seawater gushing abundantly from 120 meters underground.

It is a unique bathhouse where you can enjoy health baths using seawater and green tea.

The first floor houses exhibition spaces for local artists, a specialty product store, and a caf?. The second floor has separate baths for men and women, and the third floor is equipped with spa facilities including outdoor open-air baths.

Especially, the outdoor open-air bath on the third floor becomes even more attractive in winter. Soaking your body in the warm seawater while overlooking the wide-open Yulpo Beach melts away the fatigue and stress accumulated during the holidays like snow melting under the sun.

In addition to the hot bath, the open-air bath includes foot baths and infant baths, making it a great place for families to sit around and chat.

There are also various themed saunas such as the yellow clay room and stone therapy room.

The admission fee is 8,000 KRW for adults, 6,000 KRW for children and seniors, and group rates are 7,000 KRW for adults and 5,000 KRW for children.

Use of the third-floor outdoor facilities requires special clothing (rental fee 3,000 KRW), but if you bring your own clothes, you can pay only the admission fee and still use the outdoor facilities.

▲ Daehan Tea Plantation, a must-see in Boseong, praised by CNN for its scenery

When you think of ‘Boseong,’ you cannot miss green tea.

Boseong is the largest tea-producing area in the country and is known as the capital of Korean green tea. The evergreen tea fields captivate the eyes and intoxicate with their fragrance.

The straight cedar forest path offers a refreshing feeling deep in your chest. The tall cedars stretch majestically toward the sky as if growing even taller. Walking along this path, you will be greeted by the green tea field scenery.

The large-scale organic tea plantations around Boseong-eup and Hoecheon-myeon are places where the warm sea breeze from Deukryang Bay meets the cool mountain air at an altitude of 460 meters, causing morning mist to linger for a long time.

[Photo by Boseong-gun]

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The tea fields are especially beautiful in spring and summer, showing off their fresh green vibrancy, but autumn and winter each have their own charm. They offer romance anytime and any time of day throughout the year.

Also, Boseong tea fields were introduced in CNN’s ‘31 Most Amazingly Beautiful Landscapes in the World.’

Following the paths between the tea fields to the tea field observatory and the sea observatory, the higher you climb, the more breathtaking the views become. From the sea observatory, the dazzling scenery of Deukryang Bay beyond the tea fields is spectacular.

As such, the Boseong tea fields, where nature, ecology, and culture harmonize, showcase the characteristics of all four seasons and offer a pure natural flavor without processing, making it a unique and unparalleled tourist destination in Korea.

▲ Recharge with phytoncide-filled fresh air at the Jaeamsan Natural Recreation Forest

If you are tired of the gray city life, take a walking trip (trekking) to the lush Jaeamsan Natural Recreation Forest. It is also perfect for lightening your heavy body after holiday meals.

Jaeamsan Natural Recreation Forest has been selected as a ‘Star of Korean Tourism,’ is a wellness tourism site, and is the only ‘Unique Venue’ in Jeollanam-do, gaining nationwide fame.

In particular, the Jaeamsan Natural Recreation Forest’s barrier-free Deoneum Trail (5.8 km) is a flat deck path suitable for children to walk together and is accessible for wheelchairs and strollers.

It is about a one-hour course that anyone can comfortably walk, and you can fill your accumulated stress with refreshing green energy while enjoying the evergreen cypress forest throughout the seasons.

Jaeamsan Natural Recreation Forest, nicknamed ‘Play Forest,’ has a surprising charm.

It is the eco-adventure facilities that adults reportedly enjoy even more than children.

Using the thrilling ‘adventure facilities’ and the ‘exclusive zipline’ that lets you feel the thrill of nature, you can have an energetic forest experience.

The ‘Bear Sled’ starts at a height of 15 meters and has a total length of 238 meters. Riding the sled down, you can enjoy nature and a view of the lake from a high place, attracting many visitors.

Children aged 4 to 5 can also ride accompanied by their parents, making it a popular choice for family travelers.

▲ Enjoy a retro 70s-80s nostalgic trip on foot, including Obongsan Dulle-gil Trail

If you are traveling with children, head to Deukryang, which stimulates old-fashioned feelings. Along the main road right in front of Deukryang Station, you can enjoy streets filled with nostalgic shops such as stationery stores, electronics shops, caf?s, and clothing stores.

You can play with old arcade games or try making dalgona (Korean sugar candy).

At the caf?, enjoy traditional teas like Ssanghwa-cha and plum tea while reminiscing. At the costume rental shop, you can wear school uniforms or military training uniforms and take photos.

After enjoying the 70s-80s nostalgic street in front of Deukryang Station, take a walk around the Obongsan Dulle-gil Trail.

Boseong-gun completed the ‘Obongsan Ecological Trail Project’ in September 2021.

With a total project cost of 1.7 billion KRW, this project created a total of 5.8 km of ecological cultural trails including Hwangso-georeum-gil (Bull’s Step Path), Kalbawi-gil (Knife Rock Path), Waterfront Walkway, Yongchugol-gil, and Gudeul Stone Wall Path.

‘Hwangso-georeum-gil’ is a path where you can feel the hardships of Boseong residents who used to carry gudeuljang (traditional Korean heated floor stones) on ox carts up and down steep mountain paths from dawn to sunset during the heyday of the gudeuljang business.

You can walk the mountain path shaped like the Korean character ‘지 (Ji)’ where they carried the gudeuljang on ox carts.

‘Kalbawi-gil’ highlights the ‘Kalbawi (Knife Rock),’ the representative symbol of Obongsan.

In summer, you can feel cool breezes, and in winter, warm winds at the wind hole site, and admire stone towers made using gudeuljang, taking special commemorative photos gifted by nature.

Along the hiking trail, there are gudeuljang extraction sites, stone pagodas, and an endless connection of gudeuljang paths creating a magnificent view.

The 232,000㎡ ‘Waterfront Walkway’ is a deck path along the vast Obongsan Haepyeong Lake where you can walk barefoot on the yellow clay path.

Along the trail, you can see various tree species such as wild cherry, sassafras, cedar, cypress, bamboo, mountain bamboo, maple, heuri, and ginger trees.

Wildflowers bloom here and there, allowing you to heal your body and mind comfortably while walking.

Boseong = Park Cheon-seok, Honam Reporting Headquarters, Asia Economy hss79@asiae.co.kr

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