2 Day Trip To Soraksan

Sokcho is a small town in north-eastern Korea which is famous for its beautiful beaches, lush green valleys, waterfalls, Buddhist temples and shrines. It is also the gateway to one of Korea's most beautiful national parks, Mount Soraksan National Park.

Soraksan range as from the bus.
soraksan is a nature's wonder and its assigned as unique biological reserve zone of rare life's habitat in Korea on Aug.12, 1982 by UNESCO.
Soraksan is most beautiful in fall.
so this autumn we decided to see the beauty of Soraksan with our own eyes.

we reached Sokcho on 7th afternoon by bus . It took around four and half hours from Suwon intercity bus terminal till Sokcho bus terminal . On the way we could see the huge granite mountain ranges . The fall colour of the leaves was not that visible since it was very foggy . The bus was moving through a very narrow two way road through the mountainous terrain and descended to western coastal plains.

As the bus descended more and more we could get the view of whole city .

we got down the bus and took another one to reach our condominium.

Excited Kunjal on her way to the condo. The Ilsung Sorak condo where we stayed.
the condo was in a very beautiful natural location
Settling down inside the room

Next day morning we reached the Sokcho city early in the morning .

Sokcho city.

Sokcho is a small town where people depended on fishing and tourism. the city was very quiet compared to Seoul.
we first went to the expo park which held Gangwon International Tourism Expo in 1999 . In front of the expo tower.

The expo park surrounding the Cheongchoho lake is very beautiful.
Taking a walk

It also has an expo tower from where one can get idea of the whole city. One can rent bikes to go around the park and also take a boat ride to the lake and the east sea nearby.
On the boat.

The city from the bridge.

We could see the fisher men's village at the sea shore. This place is also famous among tourists as its also the location of famous Korean drama Gaeul Dongwha


The Abai(father) village
There is also a small village called Abai village where north Koreans settled after Korean war.

Our next destination was the Sokcho sea beach.
The entrance of Sokcho beach.
At the beach.

the beach had a deserted look as it was autumn.it was warm as it was mid day.
Kunjal played with sand .

Kunjal playing with sand.

very near to the Sokcho beach is the sunrise park . sunrise festival is held here every year on the new year.

Inside sunrise park

the park is full of many beautiful sculptures and gardens.

since the park faces the east sea its really refreshing to sit there and watch the endless sea.

After having lunch we started our journey for Soraksan national park.

The lunch (roasted fishes with stone pot rice).

As we reached nearer we could see the crowd . the roads got jammed and we could see countless hikers of all ages walking along the road . there were many old people (over 70) too.

The beauty of Soraksan can be enjoyed as one go higher and higher There are many paths leading to the peak called Taechongbong 1,708m.At the entrance there are many shops selling all kinds of souvenirs and tourist items but yes with huge price tag. there is a huge Buddha idol at the foot hill. Every nuke and corner was filled with dense forest with coloured foliage. it was really amazing. we went to a Buddha temple .
The Buddha statue at Soraksan .
There is also a cable car which takes you to certain height from where one can start hiking for the peak.
On the trails of Sorak mountain.

our baby and her stroller limited our hiking . so we decided to call it a day and go back to the condominium.

The next day we went to visit the teddy bear farm very near to our condo. As we entered not only Kunjal we too were overjoyed. Teddies of all possible sizes and costumes are displayed here under one roof

.


The teddy family and us

The living room of Teddy's house.

Attending Teddy's birthday.

We checked out of the condo and went to Sokcho terminal to catch the bus back home. We had half hour to look around the area nearby terminal. The park near by was the one surrounding reclamation monument. The monument was erected to console the sorrows to North koreans and also the desires of reunification

The monument of reclamation.

Our bus started from the Sokcho terminal around 2 pm thus bringing an end to our wonderful two days tour of Sokcho city and Soraksan. We wish to visit the place again sometime.