Day 116
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Jeju Island, South Korea
Jeju is an island off the southern coast of South Korea. It’s considered one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.
Jeju Island, sometimes called "Hawaii of Korea" because of its natural beauty, cultural heritage, and traditional female divers. The island has white sand beaches, clear waters, a subtropical climate and female divers. It's also home to the tallest mountain in Korea, Hallasan Mountain, which has over 350 volcano-shaped peaks.
As one might expect from a place created by volcanic activity, stones play a major role in Jeju’s history and culture.
One may think that stones and rocks are boring, but not at Jeju Stone Park! It is fascinating to learn about how Jeju is geologically formed and see these amazing sculptures.
Today we went to see Sangumburi Crater and visited the Stone Park.
It’s a really lovely place to walk around, if the weather is right.
Today was another cold, gray, foggy day. We couldn’t see much of the crater. All the pictures came out hazy and gray.
One of Jeju’s defining natural symbols are the red camellia blooms that pop up in winter and maybe early spring. They’re quite elusive!
I managed to snap a few pictures.
The king cherry blossoms are different from the normal, Yoshino cherry blossoms that cover much of the country. While the Yoshino variety is from Japan, the Jeju King variety is very much original to Korea. They are beautiful and they bloom at the moment! We were lucky to see them almost everywhere we went.
It was a short day on Jeju Island but we learned so much, and we enjoyed it.
