Seoul, the place where it’s good to walk. The more people interested in being healthy, the more people go to find a course that is good to walk. Because of those interests, there are many books published about information on Seoul’s beautiful walkways such as ‘Korea’s walkways which are good to stroll,’ ‘Seoul, the good place for a girl to walk’. I will introduce the way which is famous and fresh among them. Why don’t you go to the way which is good to walk using a break time before a winter is gone? I’m going to introduce Seoul the place where it’s good to walk - the Seoul Castle walk – Changuimun, the hill of poet Dong Joo Yun.   

The way to get there is to ride bus no. 1020 for about 10-15 min. from the school bus stop and get off at the hill of poet Dong Joo Yun. Traffic that you can ride bus in front of school only once then take off there is likely to get there. The place where climbers and visitors can have a break is famous because it’s not higher or harder to walk than any other walkways, and has a variety of nice scenery and places to look around. On the way climbing, if you can see beautiful scenery and houses gathering instead of looking at apartments, then your mind will feel fresh and warm. After climbing, there is a big tiger statue made of stone to enjoy. There is the saying: ‘Strong country of tiger culture, the tiger returns to Mt. Inwang’ under the tiger statue. 

As you climb, you can see scenery like a photograph over the fence on the left, and then encounter a big stone; but you will be surprised to find that the stone is made by many people putting stones one on top of the other. It’s a project called: ‘Remember the public’. What is “Remember the Public”? It is a sculpture called Rolling Stone on Mt. Inwang. There are words on the metal support surrounded with small stones like: ‘If you put a stone on the pile, your wish comes true,’ or ‘You will be happy’; so one by one people started piling up stones until now it has become a big stone.

Passing by the stone, there is the way poet Dong Joo Yun climbed on your right then you can see a sign ‘the hill of poet Dong Joo Yun’ carved deep on a stone. After climbing more, there is a huge tree with the major work of poet ‘Seo Si’ beside the tree. Even though you just climb a bit higher, you can see beautiful scenery. There is a rest area that looks like a stage. Let’s take look at this in detail. Each fence and tree has his poem and ‘the hill of poet Dong Joo Yun’ written on them. There are writings from his poems such as: Counting Star Night, Prologue, Self-portrait, The Cross, and The Way. As you read them one by one, you will soon realize that you have already gone completely around there. I think if you counted three characters like ‘Dong Joo Yun’ it would make an interesting game. Let’s play tag with those characters.

After looking around the hill, if you go down the same the way you went up, you might see something that you couldn’t see before. This is a Gu Sik Choi statue standing with his hands on his waist. He was the deputy assistant commissioner when the Sin Jo party attacked The Blue House on Jan. 21, 1968. Passing by his statue, there are stone steps leading somewhere. The way is ‘Changuimun’ among a course of castle paths. When you go up the steps one by one to look around the Seoul Castle walk, there is a beautiful way with lots of trees. As you walk looking at the snow that is not yet melted, you can see the gate of Changuimun more and more. Changuimun, which is a big and nice gate, can be reached by walking the stone stairs for 10 minutes. Why don’t you spend time climbing Changuimun to take pictures and see the scenery?

In Seoul Castle there are 4 small gates in fundamental points between 4 big gates and Changuimun is the north small gate. The meaning is to show the right thing. Changuimun is one of the small gates of Seoul’s 4 gates. At that time, the place was connected with the way going to North Korea and Yang Ju. Changuimun is called ‘Jahamoon’ from the valley’s name. It was built in 1396 and Yang Sun Choi insisted that Changuimun and Sukjungmun look like long arms of Gyeongbokgung if we were to open the way; a vein of round was damaged so the way was closed. Changuimun is the gate which is the most well maintained among the 4 small gates. Jahanmoon, and the hill of Jahamoon are pronounced in school as Changuimun. When you go up along the steps of Changuimun, you can see a beautiful castle path. There is a Changuimun information desk. After showing your identification and letter for mountain hiking, get a pass card then go into the mountain park. In this mountain area, some places are not available to take pictures including Bakamaru and Sukjungmun and soldiers are there to make this known to climbers. After taking this walk, when you return the pass card, you can take pictures everywhere.

If you want to see the entire castle trail of Mt. Bugak, you walk from Changuimun to the stone horse place. Walking time is about 2 - 2 ½ hours. You may take pictures in certain places. If you’re someone who can’t walk for a long time, I recommend you to walk until Bankanmaru. Even though climbing the steep slope is hard, you can see scenery that is so great. When you climb, you must hang the pass card around your neck. Remember you’re going to 342M, so don’t think this will be easy. However, on your way up you can see Seoul over the castle. You will have the time to think about many things as you look down on Seoul.