Korea: hiking in Songnisan National park, Beopjusa temple, Italian wine in Daejeon ( Day 23)

Thursday, 3 June 2015

This morning we left our hotel, the Good Morning residence Hue in Daejeon, to go for a hike in Mt Songnisan National park, which is about 1,5 hrs drive away from Daejeon.

entrance of the park

Mt. Songnisan National Park is comprised of Mt. Songnisan and the valleys of Hwayang, Seonyu, and Ssanggok. Situated in the middle of the Sobaeksanmaek Mountains. The sharp granite peaks of Mt. Songnisan and the deep valleys of sedimentary rocks are great. 

One of Korea's largest temples, Beopjusa, can also be found on Mt. Songnisan. Uisang indicates a sitting Buddha statue and Maaeyeoraeuisang describes the Buddha sitting on a lotus flower. The years have damaged the figure quite a bit, but it still maintains its original beauty. 

inside the temple

the enormous buddha statue

Visitors to the temple will witness the Cheongdongmireukbul, which is the largest Buddha statue in the world. To me it looked rather 'plastic fantastic' but I guess that's not sounding very devote. I personally loved the scenery with the bright coloured lantern. Couldn't stop making photos

Devote: the guy bottom right of the collage walked with us over the temple complex explaining how many times one had to bow for specific buddhas.

telecommunication pole (no Wifi for us though) 

We did a lovely hike into the forest, climbing the mountain: some pics

 

isolated monastry, which we passed during our hike; 

monks have to wash their clothes too 

 

enjoying a beer after the hike with the locals

After a shower, back in the hotel, we went to an 'Italian' restaurant, which looked very modern and posh, where we had pizza (more a sort of focaccia with toppings) and ordered a bottle of red Italian Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, which we cooled coz it was too warm.

Tomorrow we will return to Seoul. The end of our trip is coming near.