Walking into the Late Autumn Birch’s Naked Whiteness!
The Sad Forest Spirit that Reveals Itself in the Leaves

Broad-leaved trees have lost all their leaves and the larch, which is known to hold on to their leaves for the longest time also only have leaves on its sunny side. At this time, the pure-white bark of the birch tree shyly reveals itself.
The thin cover of birch trees that minimize moisture in colds below -70 degrees and protects the tree is white, soft and shiny.
Its cold but noble appearance is the romance and charm of birch trees.
Eunbongsan (Mt.) in Susan-ri, Nam-myeon, Inje-gun, Gangwon-do (also known as Changmakgol, Maebongsan).
Birch tree forests, which can sometimes be seen in the mountainous areas of northern Gangwon-do, grow in humungous scales.
We visited a mountain village in Susan-ri after following an edge of Soyangho (Lake). Susan-ri was a quite busy town that had an elementary school until the Soyang Dam was built towards Chuncheon in 1973.

On top of a forest road 580m above sea level. The birch tree forest below is mysterious as if nature cast a magic spell. The white birch stems with red and yellow colored clothes on its heads look like a fabulous oriental painting. It may be a slight exaggeration, but when also taking a look at the Japanese cedar, larch and pine nut trees, you might find yourself thinking that you are in a small town in the Swiss Alps. How did such a vast and beautiful birch forest come to being in such a mountain?

This forest was planted by Donghae Pulp (currently Moorim P&P), which was the only company in Korea that manufactured pulp, in 1987 in order to produce pulp.
The reason why they chose birch was because they are not only materials for high quality pulp, but also because they grow quickly.
The planted birch forest makes up 600ha (6km2) of the total forest that spans across 2,000ha, and it is twice the size of Yeoido, Seoul (2.95km2).
The birch trees, which have grown for 24 years, are now over 15m tall.
When going along the forest road passed the peak that is covered with fallen leaves for an hour and a half, you can see the pinnacle of beauty of the birch tree forest path in Eungbongsan (Mt.).
The view is completely open with not even one tree that gets in the way of the scene.

The mountain peaks are connected all the way to Seoraksan (Mt.).
The birch tree forest below passes the mountain peaks and stretches down the mountain. This is a magnificent site that looks like the Korean Peninsula.
Birch trees that extend down Baekdusan (Mt.) appear to pass Geumgangsan (Mt.) and ride on the Baekdu Mountain Range.
The Eungbongsan (Mt.) forest path that spins around the mountain on the soft ridges should be traveled slowly on foot to enjoy it to the fullest.
Simply slowly walking out of the autumn forest, or just looking at the forest from afar, is more than enough to be an enjoyable experience.
Here, the birch trees become the spirit of the forest and walk with you every step of the way, so you will not be lonely.
When you come down, the wind that blows on the path and your face, and the birch tree leaves and the larch becomes the rain and glides through the skies.