Memory Created by “Sunshine and Salt”

The fair spring season of red camellias passes, and the blue barley fields call for summer. Then in late summer, salts in the saltpan flower shine white to dazzle the eyes. Soon afterwards, in autumn, red hardy clusters bring a crimson shade to this place.

In Gochang-gun, South Cholla Province, a place of beautiful nature any time throughout the four seasons, you can collect salts by yourself in the saltpan if you visit these days. Or you can ride a cultivator in slit at the estuary during low tide and enjoy a “beach safari.”

Village Twinkling with Salt Flowers—

There is a place where the hot weather surpassing 30 degrees Celsius is rather appreciated: the village that glitters more as the weather gets hotter. This village is located in Dongho-ri, Haeri-myon, Gochang-gun. It is known for its “Samyangsa Saltpan” and once when sea salt was popular in the market, it had a saltpan area as wide as 1.1 million pyong. The saltpan area has shrunk to 160,000 pyong as imported salts prevail these days. This saltpan that used to be run by Samyangsa is now run by villagers who bought it from Samyangsa.

Approaching the village, the saltpan that is aligned in small squares like a checkerboard greets a visitor. Here and there, deserted salt repositories made of rough tree trunks are seen. Reeds, taller than a man, grow thick to create exotic scenery. This place, still having the old atmosphere seen decades ago, was also the background of “Era of Heroes,” a TV drama.

People who are busy shaving (collecting salts using big wooden planes) in the saltpan can be seen about everywhere. As the sun sets, an idyllic sentiment that is reminiscent of the “Angelus (Evening Bell)” by Millet visits you.

To Collect a Bundle of Salt—

In order to collect a bundle of salt from the sea, it should normally be processed over salt plates of 20 different levels for five sunny days. These 20 salt plates are lined from the plate in the highest place in a steady slope to the last final plate that harvests salt.

In salt plates where seawater has evaporated, white salt grains are floating. When the concentration grows, the particles become bigger and sink to the bottom. It feels somewhat hot when entering there in bare feet. Whenever I move, salt grains under my feet give me special sensations. As much as a bucketful of salt are raked when I scrub the plate with a wooden shovel.

After several scoops of the shovel, all of a sudden there is a pile of salt that has been collected. The salt piled in the middle of the plate glitters like snow in winter. The hot water feels rather cool while I am sweating to collect salts under the sun. After experiencing the salt collecting process, I automatically feel that I should not waste even one grain of salt. “Sea water being free” doesn’t mean salt is also free. You are allowed to take up to 1 kilogram of salt home after collecting it yourself.

Beach Safari in Cultivator—

Let’s try to cool ourselves down at Dongho beach after experiencing this “hot taste” in the steamy heat of the salt plate. The scenery of several-hundred-year-old pine trees lined along one kilometer of the beach is magnificent. The sea has slow slopes, and the depth is shallow and safe for playing.

Beach safari is an experience special to Dongho Beach. One can ride a car made from a used cultivator and drive around the beach during low tide. One can go into the muddy field at the estuary in the cultivator and try mud on your body or examine living creatures in rocks or breakwaters in the beach. One can also dig clams and catch shrimps. The allowed time for this experience is three hours.

When the tide retrieves, a slit field of two kilometers appears. It is quite fun to drive around the beach in a cultivator during this low tide. The creatures, hiding swiftly in holes in the sand as a cultivator goes, are cute.

Winds coming from the sea with a salty taste feel pleasant as well. When driving into the sea and dividing waves, it is even more fun. Splashed seawater from the cultivator wheels add the cool feeling of the seawater. It feels like as if riding a small ship when the cultivator drives into the sea.

It is about evening time when the beach safari is over. This place is also called “Haeneomi (sunset) Village” because of its beautiful scenery of the sun setting into the Yellow Sea. It feels fantastic to stroll in the beach where the sun is sitting dying the sea gorgeous red. Information: 063-564-2022

Written by Choi Mi-sun, travel planner, tigerlion007@hanmail.net

Photos by Shin Seok-gyo, freelance photographer, rainstorm4953@hanmail.net