Ulsanbawi Rock in Seoraksan Mountain

Ulsanbawi Rock is a massive granite rock mass rising like a folding screen, made up of six peaks, with five jar-shaped hollows at its summit that make for a magnificent close view. Besides its visual splendour, it has long been called Cheonhusan ("Mountain of Heaven's Roar"), meaning "a place where a great wind roars," so that it can be appreciated by ear as well as by eye. Ulsanbawi Rock has scenic value in its own right, but its distant view is equally outstanding, particularly the grand, superb impression it gives when seen from the old Misiryeong Pass road. Many Joseon-period literary figures, including Ju Se-bung, Choe Yeon and Heo Jeok, celebrated the grandeur and magnificent scenery of Ulsanbawi Rock in verse. At its foot stand Gyejoam Hermitage and Sinheungsa Temple, both steeped in the history of Korean Buddhism, adding further cultural significance; numerous old poems and writings about the rock survive, along with several true-view landscape paintings by Kim Hong-do, giving it art-historical value as a scenic site. Ulsanbawi Rock is a striking crag shaped by the distinctive weathering of granite, one of the awe-inspiring natural landscapes that many people can appreciate. Viewed from the East Sea coast around Sokcho, its characteristically rugged silhouette appears all the more majestic against the surrounding mountains, so that Ulsanbawi Rock combines its own scenic value with that of being an outstanding viewpoint. Seoraksan Mountain has the highest-altitude granite terrain found anywhere in the southern Korean peninsula, and Ulsanbawi Rock in particular clearly displays the landforms of weathering along joints and of residual rock masses. At Gyejoam Hermitage and Heundeulbawi (Rocking) Rock below Ulsanbawi Rock, beautiful micro-landforms produced by granular weathering, such as tafoni and tors, also appear.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Location not stated, Gangwon

Designation

Scenic Site · 명승