Gok-Seong (곡성). Maybe not even all Koreans know this city. I have been in this city for travel, by means of Rail-ro (내일로). Rail-ro is a ticket in which you may ride the train for an unlimited amount for one full week! If I have a chance I will introduce about Rail-ro more in detail later on. My memories of this city is just calm. Calm and relaxed. I got this city in the evening in summer. In front of the train station, it was empty. There was no people, even it was peak season to travel. However, this city has exciting sports. I will introduce this calm and exciting city, Gok-seong. To go Gok-seong, train is best way. It is on the way to go Suncheon (순천) and Yeo-Su (여수). A train runs every hour.
(1) Seomjingang Train Village (섬진강 기차 마을)
Gok-seong is known for train village. It is not far from train station. You can go to the train village on foot from station. Just follow signpost in front of the station. Entrance fee for train village varies by month. For age over 12, in peaked season, from April to October, it is 3,000 won per person. In off-season, from November to March, it is 2,000 won per person.
There is an old station. It was real station in the past. This old station was built in 1933, and it was center of Jeolla Line, train line from Ik-San (익산) to Yeosu. However, it changed to today’s station, and it remains in train village for a commemoration.
There is a huge rose park. It has most various species of rose in Korea. There is a lake and fountains. There is a structure like bridge or like rampart. On the top of the structure, you can see all of the park at a look, and you can see trains passing rail road. In addition, in May the Gok-Seong International Rose Festival is held annually in train village. In 2015, 5th festival was held from May 22 to May 31.
There is a steam train. The train goes to the Ga-jeong station and comes back to old Gok-seong station. It runs 5 times a day and it takes about 80 minutes. It goes so slowly that you can watch relaxed. Train starts at 9:30 and it ends at 17:30. However, it varies by season. If you want to check time, enter this site. http://www.gstrain.co.kr/. On this web site you can reserve steam train. Charge for using is 7,000 won for round-trip and seat, 4,500 won for one-way and seat.
There are rail-bikes. There is a rail-bikes runs in train village. It takes about 5~7 minutes to round the train village with rail-bike. It costs 5,000 won for each bike. In addition there are rail-bikes runs out of the train village. They runs from Chim-gok station to Ga-jeong station, about 5.1km. It takes about 30~40 minutes for one-way. It costs 20,000 won for two seater bike and 30,000 won for four seater bike.
(2) Exciting sports
Gok-seong is adjacent to the Seomjingang river (섬진강) and Jirisan National Park (지리산국립공원). Both river and mountain are wide and high. For this reason, there are exciting sports like rafting, paragliding and hang-gliding. There are survival games, too. There is a youth camp and they held rafting and survival games. It costs 30,000 won per each rafting and survival games. If you want to join go to the web site (http://www.gokseongcamp.com/) and reserve previously.
Article by Hyosik from Korea
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