Jeju’s Saryeoni Forest: Sacred trail of healing and tragedy

Visitors walk along a trail with cedar trees in Saryeoni Forest in Jeju Island, Sept. 28. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

JEJU ISLAND — On Jeju Island, travelers look up to Mount Halla, Korea’s tallest peak, rising at the island’s center, or down to waves breaking against the black volcanic rocks of the shore. Between mountain and sea lies a quieter, lesser-known world — the mid-mountain forests, where Jeju reveals a soulful beauty.

Within this forested band, Saryeoni Forest stands out as the island’s most beloved woodland trail.

Its name, said to mean “sacred forest” in the local dialect, carries a mysterious aura that envelops visitors the moment they step beneath the hushed canopy.

Along its moss-lined paths, time seems to slow. Voices fade to whispers, and only the rhythmic crunch of footsteps on gravel and the calls of birds lead visitors into an otherworldly pause.

As serene as Saryeoni appears today, the forest carries echoes of one of Jeju’s most tragic chapters. The wooded slopes and shaded ravines conceal scars of the Jeju Uprising, also known as the April 3rd Incident, a brutal period of suppression between 1947 and 1954, when tens of thousands of Jeju residents lost their lives.

Cedar trees cover Saryeoni Forest in Jeju Island, Sept. 28. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Between mountain and sea

Situated at 500 to 600 meters above sea level, Saryeoni sits firmly in Jeju’s mid-mountain area — the “in between” zone that bridges Mount Halla’s volcanic summit and the crystalline waters surrounding the island. It is part of Jeju’s UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve, a living ecological storehouse teeming with 245 species of wild plants and animals.

The trail is best known for its towering stand of cedar and cypress, planted in the 1960s, though older broadleaf trees such as hornbeam, oak and dogwood still thrive, a reminder of the forest that existed before government reforestation campaigns.

Wildflowers and ferns paint the understory, while birds like the elegant fairy pitta and goshawks cut through the dappled sunlight. The forest floor is also home to Arisaema amurense, known locally as "cheonnamseong," a striking yet highly poisonous plant once used as a key ingredient in royal death potions in ancient Korea. Larger animals like badgers and roe deer share the woods with salamanders and snakes.

Cheonnamseong (Arisaema amurense), a toxic plant, grows wild in Saryeoni Forest on Jeju Island, Sept. 28. Visitors are advised to keep a safe distance and not touch the plant. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Walking into Saryeoni is a multi-sensory experience. The air is thick with the fragrance of cedar trees, and the soil and leaves release a fresh scent, amplified after a light rain. In summer, even as the island swelters along the coast, a cool breeze moves gently across the shaded trail.

The soundscape, too, is part of the healing: the melody of wind threading through branches, the occasional tapping of a woodpecker and the distant caw of crows.

A cedar tree towering over 20 meters stands in Saryeoni Forest in Jeju Island, Sept. 28. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Sacred trail

The full Saryeoni path stretches about 15 kilometers, with the midpoint called “Walden Three-way Junction,” after American nature writer Henry David Thoreau’s famed retreat.

For most visitors, the walk takes three hours at a leisurely pace. Some choose to turn back midway rather than continue all the way through to Namjo-ro, where public transport options are limited.

Along the way, benches invite reflection under shafts of golden light breaking through cedar arches. The ground, paved in red volcanic gravel known as “songi,” crunches softly underfoot, producing a soothing rhythm.

In 2020, Saryeoni added a rare feature: a 1.3-kilometer barrier-free section of trail.

A family walks along a barrier-free trail in Saryeoni Forest in Jeju Island, Sept. 28. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

Constructed with a minimal incline, wide paths and accessible rest areas, the barrier-free segment allows wheelchair and other mobility aid users, children, pregnant women and older visitors to enter the forest without difficulty.

It is now celebrated as one of Jeju’s representative nature trails, as well as a home for concerts and healing events, usually with seats reserved for guests with disabilities — a quiet but powerful gesture of inclusion.

Forest of memory

Beneath the forest’s stillness lies a painful story unfamiliar to most tourists. For decades, the mid-mountain zone was both a hiding place for villagers fleeing military suppression and a battlefield of political turmoil.

The April 3 Incident, an armed uprising on Jeju that began in March 1947 and continued until 1954, claimed an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 lives — nearly 11 percent of the island’s population.

While conflicts between leftist guerrillas and government forces were central to the tragedy, the majority of victims were civilians, including women, children and the elderly. Entire villages were razed as part of a scorched-earth campaign to root out anyone the government labeled as dissidents.

Tombstones for missing people from the Jeju April 3 Incident stand in Jeju 4·3 Peace Park near Saryeoni Forest in Jeju Island, Sept. 29. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

On Oct. 17, 1948, while the island was under martial law, the army declared that anyone found more than five kilometers inland would be presumed rebels and shot on sight. This marked the beginning of what survivors call the “time of burning villages,” when many mid-mountain communities, including those surrounding present-day Saryeoni Forest, were annihilated.

Inside Saryeoni Forest, a small path branches off into a site called “Yi Deok-gu Sanjeon.” In June 1949, the last commander of the armed resistance, Yi Deok-gu, was killed here. Remnants of encampments that once housed both fleeing villagers and guerrilla fighters still lie scattered through the area. The site stands as a poignant marker that the forest’s soothing silence is built on memories of suffering.

Living with paradox

The paradox of Jeju’s landscape is that beauty and tragedy are often bound together. The island’s most cherished destinations, intrinsically linked to honeymoon romance and healing retreats, were also killing grounds during the April 3 Uprising.

Jeju International Airport, the starting point for millions of visitors today, was once a mass execution site and bodies of unknown victims still remain unearthed under the runway. Seongsan Ilchulbong, a dramatic volcanic tuff cone located on the eastern coast of Jeju, was a place of public shootings.

Saryeoni Forest fits into the pattern, at once a beautiful forest trail and a witness to tragic history.

Rays of sunlight stream through trees in Saryeoni Forest in Jeju Island, Sept. 28. Korea Times photo by Lee Hae-rin

To walk its shaded tree tunnels today is to breathe in cedar-scented air, marvel at sunbeams converging through dense canopy and to feel the body unwind. But it is also, if one knows the history, a place to step softly where villagers once fled and recognize that Jeju’s most peaceful sights are layered with sorrow.

That duality is what makes Saryeoni unlike any other forest in Korea. Its healing power lies not only in clean air and quiet paths, but also in its silent insistence that beauty can coexist with grief and that remembering the past is a form of restoration.