Photos by @junmichaelpark @seoulphotographer for @theeconomist / In October, I set out for Seoraksan mountain in the Gangwon Province together with Lena Schipper, the Economist’s Seoul Bureau Chief. We profiled South Korea’s hiking culture, which, as Lena writes in her piece, “reflects its social pressures and offers a reprieve from them.”
Hiking clubs have sprung up to provide logistics services and transport busy Koreans from major cities to the foot of mountains by bus. The hikers take often very steep and the most direct routes to reach the top and immediately climb back down. In our case, the bus left Seoul at 7AM sharp and came back at 11PM on the same day.
This assignment was one of my favorites this year. It was physically demanding, but also wonderfully refreshing and rejuvenating to be in nature, especially in the times of Covid. And I love hiking!
At the time, autumn foliage was peaking and we were awestruck at every turn of our route by Seoraksan’s breathtaking beauty. I hope to go back in the near future. The story ran in the Economist’s special Christmas issue.
(Text editing by Dr. M.)