Enjoying a quiet and comfortable rest in the deep forests
New trend, goodbye concrete!
Outdoor camping

“Why do you keep going out? Does your family like it?” I asked.
The answer I got was, “You want to camping with me? Then you will know.”
This was the immediate response from an upper classman of mine, who was known better by his nickname ‘camper’, when I asked him out of curiosity. I started camping like this, and now my pride is the tools that I slowly collected.

I went on my way after being requested to cover the new trend of camping, which appears to be a collection of all the ‘outdoor’ games.
I was recommended to Saldun in Nae-myeon, Hongcheon. Reservations are required to go camping.

I made a phone call to the number I was given. Reservations are usually booked on the weekend. The only day available was the end of September, when autumn starts. It was the holiday weekend right before October.
It had been a while getting out of the city. The autumn sun was beautiful, I had a good friend next to me, and so I drove filled with excitement.
By getting off at Donghongcheon IC and following the four-lane street, take a right at the Cheoljeong checkpoint, and a bending two-lane street appears. We drove slowly for about 40 minutes.

After passing Naechon, Sangnum and the magnificent valleys of beautiful mountains, we arrived at our destination – the Saengdun Camp Site at Saldun Village in Hongcheon.
The riverside was already occupied and there were tents at all ends of the field. There was just a small space left in a corner. I struggled with my friend to set up our 3-person tent and then installed my newly purchased table and chairs. Though it did not stand out among the bigger and fancier tents, it had what it needed.

It felt great.
I took out a stove and pots and boiled water to have a cup of green tea, and sulked into my chair.
I spoke with Mr. Kang Tae-wook (44) who came with his family from Ilsan for the fifth straight weekend.
He said he was a novice as a camper saying, “I started camping this year digging deep into my memories as a boy scout.” He continued, “The mountains and nature are lovely, but what is really great about it is that our family can get together and cook together, and spend time talking with each other.” He also explained the advantages of camping, “My children are in the sixth and fourth grade. They will become busy in their school work and they might tell me that they don’t want to come with me in the future.

But, by camping like this, we will have more opportunities to talk with each other, so camping is just great. His wife, Mrs. Kim Na-young (40) said that experiencing nature with her children was a valuable experience. “While camping, I shared many new experiences with my children. We cut firewood, picked pine nuts, ate wild grapes and kiwi fruits, touched a spade, and even caught goby minnows. The children enjoyed this very much.”

Park Hye-jeong (41) also came to camp with her family from Yongin. They are an expert camping family that has been camping for five years. She said, “We started this because I heard that it was good for children. It is great because it gives us more time to relax in nature and forget about our busy work schedule for a while.”

The Saldun Village Camp Site is great to enjoy a quiet and comfortable atmosphere being surrounded by nature. It is right next to Naerincheon (Riv.) so visitors can play in the water or fish, and you can even make a raft and sail the river. The tracking course from Saldun Village to Munam Village is a famous hiking and tracking course, which is quite a nice addition.

Because this was made from a school that was closed in 1993, there are many large trees surrounding the area, and the field is a great place for children to play in. It is also popular as an experience-school. It was not used as a camping area from the beginning, but the townsfolk leased it from the Office of Education and removed the trees and fences that enclosed it, and also demolished an office building.

In its place, they installed benches, tables, restrooms, and shower rooms. After being aired on TV in 2009 and as campers blogged the area, fans of this place grew. Bicycles are rented for free here. On the weekends, it shows movies for children as well. In the summer, various hands-on experience based programs are offered.