Hiking Around Anyang

If you look up at the skyline from about anywhere near where we live, or within most of Korea, you can see little green mountains.  Ok, ok, if the air isn't smoggy or if the "yellow dust" from China isn't around, then you can see them, which means you can see them about once a week.  But still, they're there.  Believe me.

In any case, one popular weekend activity for Koreans, especially those over 40 for some reason, is to follow the various trails up and down these mountains.  It's easy to spot the Koreans on their way to/from the mountains as they are usually decked out in matching North Face gear and carrying backpacks weighed down with enough food for a small banquet.  We don't have matching North Face gear or the desire to carry more than a pocketfull of food, but we still went anyway to two of the closest mountains to us: Surisan and Moraksan. ("san" means mountain in Korean)

It's suffice to say that hiking in Korea doesn't really offer a chance to "get close to nature" or see anything that spectacular, but it is a nice, refreshing way to get away from the city and breathe some fresh air, even if you can sometimes hear the highway traffic noise.

Here are some recent pictures of our short hiking excursions around Anyang, the city where we live. (well, we live in Pyeongchon, but that's the name of the neighborhood)