By Lee Hyo-sik
Besides an extensive network of bicycle paths, the four-river restoration work has created multiple trails for trekking across the country, providing leisure seekers with a new opportunity to experience unique landscapes and ecological systems in each municipality.
There are several popular riverside trekking courses.
For example, a path created along the Dong River in Gangwon Province gives travelers a chance to see firsthand the unspoiled nature and eco-system in the upper Han River system.
Several trekking trails along the Nakdong River near Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, allow trekkers to feel how and why Confucianism flourished in the area.
“More people walk for exercise and health benefits. It has also become an essential part of traveling. Rivers, the cradle of human civilization, have a special history and culture. The best way to learn about them is to walk along them and see what they are like,” said an official at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The official said the riverside trekking paths are growing in popularity, adding the four-river restoration project has and will create more so that more travelers can exercise while learning about each river’s unique ecosystem and history.
“We will build “Culture-Ecosystem Trekking Paths” along the four rivers to secure environment-friendly tourism infrastructure and provide a boost to the regional economies. We think this will encourage more local vacationers to spend money and time here, rather than go to foreign countries,” he said.
Compared to Japan, the United States, Britain and other advanced countries, Korea lags behind in developing and promoting waterside tourism, the official said. “The government will make more efforts to improve existing riverside trekking roads and create new ones across the country.”