Chiaksan

Chiaksan National Park was declared in 1984 in Gangwon province, next to the city of Wonju, in eastern South Korea, and covers some 182 km². It is a less well-known and less frequented park than Seoraksan or Bukhansan, which has given it a reputation as a quiet alternative for mountain walking.

Its name combines the Korean words for pheasant and steep mountain, and comes from a widely told legend: a traveller saved some pheasant chicks from a snake, and later, when the snake seized him, the pheasants sacrificed themselves by striking a temple bell with their bodies to free him. The temple of Guryongsa, at the park's main entrance, is associated with that story.

The relief is one of long ridges and incised valleys, with the summit of Birobong rising above 1,280 metres. The forests are dense, of deciduous broadleaves and conifers, with cold-water streams and several waterfalls. The well-preserved forest cover supports a community of temperate forest mammals and birds, and the park is a good example of the kind of Korean middle mountain that has recovered its vegetation after the mass deforestation of the mid-twentieth century.