Jecheon travel info

Jecheon sits in a mountain valley at the north end of North Chungcheong, where it meets Gangwon and Gyeongbuk. Ten minutes by car from the centre is Uirimji, a reservoir said to date back to the Samhan era. A long line of old willows runs along its bank, and in autumn the leaves drift onto the path.

Farther south the lake changes. Cheongpungho, formed by the Chungju Dam, curls around the hills, with a cable car climbing above it. Cross the 222 m Oksunbong suspension bridge and the water is right under your feet. Woraksan National Park rises behind it like a folding screen. This is a place for one day on the lake and one in the mountains rather than a city to tick off.

The food is plain and good. Beside Jecheon Station, a restaurant in a 1941 building serves rice with dried radish greens, and the market lanes simmer red-sauce fish cake. The area was known for medicinal herbs, so bibimbap made with herbal gochujang is a local signature. It is just over an hour from Cheongnyangni on the KTX-Eum, so a day trip works, but the lake and the mountain deserve a night.

From Seoul (KTX)

From Wonju, Chungju, Andong and other cities (BUS)