My Seventh Chuseok Story in Jeju.

Since I grew up at my grandmother’s house as a child, holidays were always bustling—packed with relatives who had gathered from all over the country, and filled with the smells of food, almost like a banquet. It was even more so because ours was a big family: my grandmother had five sons and four daughters. Now that she’s no longer with us, you can’t find that kind of scene anymore, but even so, holidays still bring back memories of sitting together with my cousins on the floor bedding and playing.

After moving to Jeju, holidays took on a new form for our family. For the first few years after we relocated, family members would come to Jeju. They’d gather here for the long weekend, like a vacation, and we’d spend the holiday together. If you’ve lived in Jeju, you probably know this too—but that only lasts a year or two, and from some point on, visits from family and friends became less frequent. After that, our family would travel to the mainland instead, and even that gradually tapered off, and now we each greet the holidays from where we are.

On the first day of the Chuseok holiday, our family climbed Neuriji Oreum for a morning walk. 

Up until we set out, Neuriji Oreum wasn’t actually our destination. I really wanted to climb Wonmul Oreum, which I’d been eyeing while driving along Pyeonghwa-ro, so we went to find it—but the trail was far too rough to do with the kids. So we had no choice but to turn back and head to Neuriji Oreum, which I’d also noticed on the way to Hallim. 

Even though this is my 7th year living in Jeju, it hits me again how many oreum I still haven’t been to.

Neuriji Oreum, which I’d only ever passed by, felt like a neighborhood back hill, but the trails are really well maintained. There are several routes too, and as we followed the path, there was quite a lot to see. 

After about 20 minutes along the trail, we reached the summit observatory.

The Aewol sea and the Hallim sea spread out in a single view, and Hallasan was clearly visible too. From below, I thought the trees would block the scenery—but with oreum, you really only know once you climb. 

“Ding-dong”

On Chuseok day, the doorbell rang. 

The uncle from the house behind us brought over food. Living in a quiet rural village, we don’t really feel what people call Jeju’s “local exclusiveness.” Maybe it’s also because we live pretty quietly without much interaction, but whenever we happen to meet neighbors in the alley, they are endlessly kind to our kids and welcome us generously.

Among Jeju holiday foods, my favorite is pork jeokgal.

It’s pork made into skewered jeok (like the beef sanjeok on the mainland). With its soy-sauce seasoning, it’s the ultimate rice thief.

On the third day, we finished a simple meal from the morning. I don’t usually eat much breakfast, but since I heard today’s oreum would be a bit tough, I was worried about hiking on an empty stomach, so I ate something light.

We visited Daebyeongak Oreum in Andeok-myeon. At the entrance there’s a hydrangea path, so it’s also a place many people visit in the season when hydrangeas bloom. 

Daebyeongak sits side by side with Sobyeongak. People who love oreum often climb both in one go, but our goal today was to do only Daebyeongak.

If you keep walking along the hydrangea path, you’ll come to a fork for Daebyeongak and Sobyeongak. There’s no separate sign, so straight ahead leads to Sobyeongak, and the left path leads to Daebyeongak.

After climbing the seemingly endless stairs for about 15 minutes, we arrived at the summit.