Taebaeksan

Taebaeksan National Park was declared on 22 August 2016 as the twenty-second national park in South Korea, and its territory extends from the city of Taebaek and the county of Yeongwol, in Gangwon, to the county of Bonghwa, in North Gyeongsang. Before that date it was a provincial park. Its main summit, Janggunbong, reaches 1,567 metres, accompanied by Busoebong and Munsubong, both above 1,500.

It is the spiritual mountain of Korea par excellence, regarded as the mother of all the mountains of the southern half of the peninsula. On its summit stands Cheonjedan, a group of stone shamanic altars in use since Silla times, where ceremonies are held at New Year and during the Taebaek festival in October, and nearby there is a shrine dedicated to Dangun, the mythical founder of Korea. Along with Gyeryongsan, it has for centuries been one of the two great centres of Korean shamanism. The river Nakdong, which gives life to the Yeongnam plain, and tributaries of the Han also rise on its slopes, and at Geomnyongso springs one of the sources of the latter.

In natural terms the yew wood (Taxus cuspidata) surrounding the Janggunbong peak stands out: centuries-old, twisted trees that in winter are coated in hard frost and make up the park's most widely reproduced image. There is also the largest wildflower habitat in the country, between the Geumdaebong and Daedeoksan peaks, and in the Baekcheon valley survives the world's most southerly population of the lenok, a cold-water salmonid. The slopes are gentle and little broken by cliffs, which makes the ascent accessible at any age, and at the Danggol entrance a snow festival is held and a coal museum operates that recalls the district's mining past.