Saturday 29 December 2012

Saturday Tour, Jeju Island

This is what we did earlier today (Saturday), the last day of my vacation trip to Jeju (and Busan).

I have a lot of pics to share, and decided to work backwards, so the most recent first.

Jeju is Korea's biggest island, located off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, and attracts millions of foreign and domestic tourists every year.  It is a volcanic island by history, so a lot of the features you will see in these and other pics have volcanic origins and feature basalt rocks and/or columns of basalt/lava that formed when cooled by the surrounding sea.

Jeju is more temperate than the rest of Korea, and though it had some snow when we visited this week, it is viewed as a kind of Asian "Hawaii" (in part to promote it for honeymoons) and provides the rest of Korea with tons of tangerines and, to a lesser extent, other fruits.  Tangerine trees and their orange fruits are evident in many places on the island.  Many shops sell tangerines, and you can often see them lying on the ground next to orchards.

Anyway, back to today's tour pics.  After viewing the sunrise (a "must do") from the rooftop of our accommodation, we drove to a rocky beach to see a mix of geology, then did a short hike in a small but scenic canyon, and finally experienced a nice trek on a cliffside boardwalk (yes, there are palm trees; though apparently imported they are abundant.  When you see the ocean pics, remember, this is an island):
















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