Park Young-seok Leads Second Annual Cross Country Challenge

“The world belongs to those who take up challenges. Let’s challenge with passion and confidence.”

With their feet dipping in the dark-blue sea water of Homi-got, the headland of Homi in Pohang, Gyeongbuk province, 128 university students from 79 universities across the country pledged themselves to win the fight against themselves without fail.

The “2005 Korea Cultural Expedition,” a walking cross-country tour by university students is being organized by NCsoft and sponsored by Dong-A Ilbo and Seoul Metropolitan City. The expedition covers 707 kilometers of the coastal region of the southern sea from Haemaji square in Homi-got at 8:00 a.m. on June 26 to Yudal stadium in Mokpo, Jeonnam province on July 19.

The tour will be led by Park Young-seok (42, director of Goldwin Korea), who achieved the grand slam of mountain climbing for the first time in the world. The expedition is the second one following the first one of last year that covered 850 kilometers from the east coast to the civilian passage restriction line. The expedition established itself as a prominent cross-country tour with a competition rate of 44:1, and 5,632 people applied for it this year.

Before starting the tour, Park said, “I realized that Korea is a small country while traveling around the world. Even though our land is small, we should not think small. Let’s walk our country today and think about marching into the world tomorrow.”

Participants, men and women, carry 10 kg backpacks for eight to 10 hours a day and walk 27 to 32 kilometers on the southern coast. During the expedition they are not allowed to carry cell phones or MP3 players. Daily diaries written by participants will be posted on the expedition’s homepage (www.ncroad.com) and pep talks posted on the homepage will be passed on to participants.

Chang Jeon jeon@donga.com