Stop and sit in the maple forest at night, the leaves are red with frost and the flowers bloom in February - One-day maple viewing trip to Naejang Mountain

In 2016, I renewed my visa to South Korea for five years, but due to various reasons I have never been there once. At the end of September, I booked a flight to go to South Korea with my friends to see the red leaves. Because I only spent a few days in Seoul during my previous visits, and I didn’t go to other cities because of the short time. So this time I want to see other places to enjoy maple leaves. I don’t know why I saw Naijang Mountain.

Since the two friends only had three days, they had to choose a place where they could go back and forth in one day. But Naejangsan Mountain is actually quite far from Seoul. At first, I checked the one-day tour on Fliggy. The price was acceptable, about 350 RMB, but I needed to set off to Neizang Mountain at the designated location after 6 o'clock, which felt like it was too early. I searched everywhere on the Internet and accidentally found the Jeollabuk-do official tourism bureau's shuttle bus service for foreigners. There is a shuttle bus to and from Naejangsan Mountain every weekend on the fifth and sixth days, and the price is very cheap, only 10 US dollars. This 10 US dollars includes the fare to and from Seoul to Naejangsan Mountain (the total journey is about 2,300 kilometers, and it takes eight or nine hours on the road there and back), as well as the entrance fee to Naejangsan Mountain (3,000 won, about less than 3 US dollars). I feel like I can't bear the price at this price, so I feel like it's a promotional activity they do to promote local tourism. There is also a Chinese-speaking girl accompanying the car, who will tell you some relevant matters in the car. The departure time from Seoul is 8 a.m. and the return time to Seoul is a little after 9 p.m. The only drawback is that the stay at Neizang Mountain is only about 4 hours, but it seems that you can choose a one-way trip (the price is the same), you just need to tell the tour guide in advance. Then he lived in Jingyi or Shanwai.

Booking address: http://www.jbshuttle.com/cn/index.html

Because there is only one bus every day for three days on weekends, you need to book in advance. To make a reservation, you need to register first, log in and check the location. If there is a seat, make a reservation. However, payment is a little more troublesome, and you need a Paypal account to pay. My payment was pretty smooth, I just had to find my Paypal account password for a long time.

This time we went to Naejang Mountain. I personally felt that we were quite tight on time, so if you have time, I still recommend staying one night outside the mountain or in Jeongeup, so that you can have enough time to appreciate the beautiful autumn colors of Naejang Mountain. Because we were too short on time, we were not able to visit most of the places in Naijang Mountain. Another thing is that we arrived a week late, and it was already past the time when the red leaves are at their peak. This year, Neizang Mountain is full of red at 10.30. When we went, it was 11.10, which was more than a week late. Despite this, I still think it is so beautiful, so I want to go to Du Mu’s poem "Stop and sit in the maple forest at night, the frost leaves are as red as the February flowers." Even if it is only four short hours, I want to try my best to capture it with my eyes and camera. Live in this beautiful late autumn color.

There is a Neizang Temple in Neizang Mountain. The temple looks like a nunnery, and there is a place for free tea breaks inside. You can sit on the ground and drink tea with Koreans and enjoy the maples.

When we were sitting in the tea room drinking tea, there were two Korean uncles sitting next to us (one of them might be an uncle, haha). When we chatted with them, they knew some English and probably some Chinese characters. Then he kept chatting with us using the translator on his mobile phone, asking us where we were from, how many days we would stay in Korea, how many times we had been to Korea, and finally wished us a happy trip in Korea. In fact, I think they must know a little bit of Chinese, at least they must know Chinese characters. They look a bit like teachers, because they once asked us if we were international students or teachers (international students 😂, they really look down on my age, haha) and then they followed. When the translation software read the pronunciation of Chinese, I felt that it was definitely not the pronunciation of someone who didn’t speak Chinese at all, so I was wondering if I could understand if we said a few words about them next to them. I said they used a translator to translate. You have to have a lot of fun, haha, keep speaking Korean to that app, and then translate it into Chinese and learn to speak it to us.

The tea is delicious, with a slight fragrance. It should taste like black tea when you drink it. Warm the stomach. It’s perfect for drinking in the cooler autumn. The tea is free. You can just go to the place where the tea is poured and get it and bring it with you. Of course, you have to carry it back when you leave.

Not long after sitting in the tea room, I felt that before I had enough sighs, it was almost time for the bus to return. And we didn’t have enough time to walk back, so we could only take the scenic bus back (1,000 won, about 6 yuan, the management is very good, there will be many people at once, and everyone is relatively orderly, and we can get there soon) When we were queuing up to get on the bus, a Korean lady standing behind us made sure to give us a bag of her chestnuts, which she seemed to have cooked at home. She asked us if we were Chinese and we said yes. She said my daughter is Chinese and you are like my daughter. We have always wondered why she said her daughter was Chinese, but she didn't speak Chinese. Later we thought maybe it was because the daughter she mentioned was probably her daughter-in-law, haha. The chestnuts my aunt gave me were delicious. I ate some when I was very hungry in the car.

Let’s keep these last few pictures to describe the beauty of autumn. Looking at these photos, I can recall how hard it was to sit through my butt for eight or nine hours in a car, but the hardest part may be the Korean uncle who drove the car. Working diligently from morning till night. If I go to Naejang Mountain next time, I think I will choose to stay in a hot spring hotel outside the mountain for one night, take a leisurely stroll in the mountain, and take a bath in the hot spring. It will be so pleasant~

Tips: The maple leaves on the road before entering Naijang Mountain are also very beautiful. When we passed by, the maple leaves were very red and beautiful. We thought it would be the same when we entered the mountain. Unexpectedly, many leaves in the mountain had already fallen. So if you have enough time, you can go shopping around. In addition, there are many snacks outside Naejang Mountain, including one called fried ginseng. I had a bad appetite that day, so I didn’t try it. If anyone tries it, tell me if it tastes good, haha!