Mudeungsan National Park

 

As of March 4th, 2013, after years of effort by local citizens and government officials, Mudeungsan has been appointed as Korea’s 21st national park. This move adds a fourth national park to Jeollanamdo and recognizes Gwangju’s “peerless mountain” as a natural treasure for the whole country.

In a recent discussion on Gwangju’s MBC network, Shin Gwangjo, a spokesperson for the city, commented on the homegrown efforts to make Gwangju’s mountain “a mountain for Korea.”

“Mudeungsan is Gwangju’s true mountain, and even though it is beautiful and comfortable like a mother’s bosom, it has only been recognized as a representative mountain in the Honam region and has not received the status of a famous mountain for all of Korea.”

In 1972, Mudeungsan became one of the country’s 25 provincial parks, and the only one in the Gwangju area. For the people of Jeollanamdo, this move was symbolic and the mountain proudly became the representative park for the province.

During the 1980s, local citizen organizations petitioned to elevate the status of the park to the national level. During the 1990s and 2000s, provincial park management worked to preserve the park’s nature and to remove the intrusions by development. Major renovations included the moving of an Air Force facility, the removal of a Korea Telecom tower and most recently, housing and restaurant relocations near the Wonhyo and Jeungshim temples.

From late 2010 to the end of 2012, citizen groups, along with the city, provincial and national governments held a series of meetings, debates and conferences to decide upon Mudeungsan’s eligibility as a national park. Finally, on December 31, 2012, the Ministry of the Environment and the National Parks Commission approved the park’s candidacy with ascension to the status of national park, to take effect in the spring of 2013.

Shin added, “As Mudeungsan becomes a national park, we should congratulate the citizens of our region and look forward to the changes of the future.”

Within Gwangju’s City Hall resides the Department of Parks and Green Spaces, the division in charge of overseeing Mudeungsan’s transition. Lee Suwon, one such official, is humble and soft-spoken.

Lee explains: “In the last election, Mayor Kang Untae pledged to receive proposals from the citizen’s organization, The Mudeungsan Protection Committee, concerning a 10-year old movement called ‘Love Mudeungsan.’ Afterwards, the Mudeungsan Park Management office and the Department of Parks and Green Spaces formally started the process.

One of the main conditions of a national park is preservatoin. Efforts need to be made to ensure that the ecosystem can flourish and that human intrusions are kept to a minimum. “A natural park preserves nature’s ecology and cultural scenery and manages the continued use, designation, and preservation of green spaces,” Lee adds.

Private property and military property are two thorny issues related to the process. Technically, in a national park, the land is public land managed by the government. This proves to be problematic when dealing with existing landowners, such as homes and businesses, and often when dealing with large land owners such as the military. Lee insists, “Instead of development, the preservation of the natural ecology through actions such as the removal of the military base on the mountain’s summit, the maintenance of rock formations and the renewal of the natural environment near Jeungshin’s temple have been put into effect.”

Another important change is the turnover of park management to the national government. Park rangers have expressed concern over losing control over day-to-day operations, and many regular visitors worry about entrance fees like those collected at other national properties. Regulations and funding will come from Seoul but Lee is confident that there will not be any entrance fees charged and that administration will be shared with the current structure in Gwangju. “Following the promotion to national park, the national budget will invest in management, the installation of hiking facilities and the ecological restoration in Mudeungsan.”

With this new budget and impetus from the nation, Lee reveals an ambitious investment strategy. “Over the next five years, the national government plans to invest 9.72 billion won in the area building 16 parking lots, 28 hiking centers, five campsites, three youth training centers, six rest areas and one museum.”

The city has high hopes with the new national park, especially in terms of economic benefits to the province. Mudeungsan now has higher “brand” value and should attract more tourists from other regions who bring in more money for local businesses. Along with the opening of the Asia Culture Complex next year, Gwangju could experience a tourist boom. Further aspirations include procedures for Mudeungsan to become a UNESCO World Geological Park.

Lee is proud and looks forward to a bright future for his mountain. “It has splendid scenery, with standing stone pillars severed as if cut by a knife. Among all of the 1,000-meter or taller mountains in the world, none but Gwangju’s Mudeungsan has these majestic standing stone columns.”

Riding the 1187 bus, 1,187 meters is the height of the summit, measured from downtown Gwangju to Wonhyo temple. On a Sunday in February, passengers are confronted by a near road block of a traffic jam trying to reach the park entrance. There are lines of tour buses from other cities, mostly in Gyeongsang and Gyeonggi provinces, parked along the road for two kilometers leading up to the temple. The bus driver negotiating the congestion grumbles, “It’s too busy today.” From the temple, following the four kilometer trail to the summit, there is an uninterrupted line of hikers dressed in Technicolor gear ascending the slope in subzero temperatures with more than 10 centimeters of snow on the ground. The owner of a nearby restaurant that sells free-range chicken, and which has been in the family for more than 30 years, looks down the road at the disembarking buses.

She admits, “More people are visiting the mountains, but they are not coming here. They join a package tour and leave without eating.”

Korea’s list of national parks includes many superlative natural treasures. And now Mudeungsan has been added to the list.

Nevertheless, for Gwangju citizens who have lived in the folds, shadows, sunshine, rain and valleys of Mudeungsan, their mountain will always be incomparable.

 

The image for this article is from Wikimedia and used under the  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.