Day trip to Daedunsan

On the second day in Jeonju, we took a day trip to Daedunsan.

The Diamond Cloud Bridge in Daedunsan

The mountain is in the Daedunsan Provincial Park north of Jeonju. There is a direct bus to the park from Jeonju Inter City Bus Terminal with limited schedule (06:40, 09:40, 14:20, 15:50).

The bus schedule from the Jeonju Inter City Bus Terminal. The last row is the timing for Daedunsan. Note that the 09:00 is no longer available.

We took the 0940 bus. The ticket was 6400 won each. The bus journey was roughly 1 hour 15 min and it stopped at the park’s bus terminal.

The bus schedule posted on the door of Daedunsan bus terminal. We ended up taking the 16:13 bus bound for Gunsan instead. 

At the bus terminal, I checked the bus schedule for the return trip. The next timing was 13:00 but it would be a mad rush to get up and come back down to catch the 13:00 bus as it was already 11:00.

While I was looking at the schedule, the bus driver got down the bus to go to the washroom and he pointed at 17:10 to me. So it would appear that’s the only option if we want to take our time exploring the mountain. In the end, that that was not to be! But more about that later.

Map of the mountain

There was no entrance fee to the park. There was a row of Korean food restaurant along the road that leads up the park.

One of the shops that line the road at the park entrance. All the restaurants were selling some kind of tempura made with some kind of leaves and root. I later found out that the the yellow colored one was ginseng tempura!

It was too early to have lunch. So we bought some snacks at the CU convenient store to snack on top of the mountain instead.

The cable car tickets costs 6500 won one way and 9500 won round trip. It only run 3 times per hour (every 00, 20, 40 minutes). So it would really be a mad rush to get back down to catch the 13:00 bus back to Jeonju. It only took a few minutes to reach the top.

When we reach the top, there was a sign that said that on busy days, it is necessary to exchange for a scheduled ticket back down. As we were there on a Monday, it was pretty quiet, so that was unnecessary.

the trip up the mountain

the cable car station

Notice telling people to exchange for a time-reserved ticket for the return trip on busy days.

There are several "trick eye" type of murals around the base cable car station.

The main attractions in Daedunsan are the suspension bridge that hangs between 2 peaks and a rickety stairs that goes up a steep cliff.

The cable car station was just below the start of the Diamond Cloud Bridge (金剛雲橋 Geumgang Gureumdari Bridge) and we were at the bridge after a short flight of stairs.

The trail to the bridge is one way only. You are supposed to cross the bridge and come back down on a separate trail. This make sense to keep the human traffic going when it is crowded.

Honestly, I was a little disappointed when I saw the bridge. It was shorter than what I had imagined. But it’s still exhilarating once I stepped onto it. The bridge is quite stable. It does shake a little when the wind is strong and there is people stomping on it. I thought it was quite fun, but not my partner who found it rather scary.

The good thing about visiting on a weekday is that we practically had the whole place to ourselves. We could take our time taking pictures and going back and forth the bridge. Yes, I know it's supposed to be one way, but the Koreans were doing it too...

View of the Diamond Cloud Bridge from the top of Three Fairies Stairs

The next stop after crossing the bridge is the Three Fairies Stairs (三仙階梯). It is a flight of step narrow stairs up the cliff. This one is definitely not for those afraid of heights. Once I got onto it, I had butterflies in my stomach. I could only grip the railing tightly and focus on going up the stairs. Some Koreans turned around in the middle of the stairs for photos but I did not dare to turn around at all.

Going up the Three Fairies Stairs

View of the Stairs from below

At the top of the Stairs

After the going up the stairs we trekked up to the Macheondae Peak (마천대) before slowly making our way down. I wanted to cross the bridge again before taking the cable car down and my partner reluctantly agreed.

The tower marking the peak of Daedunsan

The trees were blooming and it attracted lots of bees. I could hear the buzzing when i was standing below the tree.

It was only about 3pm plus when we got back to the base. We weren’t particularly hungry so we ordered a dolsot bibimbap set to share in one of the restaurants. After the meal we decided to head back to the bus terminal.

Dolsot sanchae bibimbap (mountain vegetables bibimbap in hot stone). The set comes with Doenjang Jiggae (meatless) and cost 10,000 won.

There was a cafe at the bus terminal and we decided we will have coffee there as we wait for the 5:10 pm bus. It was 4pm when we dropped in the cafe. The cafe appears to be owned by a couple and they hardly speak any English. The menu was all in Hangul. While I was struggling to make sense of the menu (I only managed to make out “Americano”), the lady boss produced an English menu for us to order from.

The bus terminal at Daedunsan. There is a cafe in the bus terminal. When we bought coffee there, the owner told us the 17:10 bus back to Jeonju was cancelled!

While the lady boss was making our drinks, the male boss asked “Jeonju? Five?” I told him yes. Then he started to cross his arms. It took me a while to realize that he was trying to tell me the 17:10 bus was cancelled!

I was quite confused as when I arrived, the bus driver had pointed at the 17:10 timing to me. I took it that it should be confirmed.

To be sure, the boss called the bus company to confirm. Yes, the 17:10 was cancelled. That was bad news! I wasn’t sure if I wanted to wait for the last bus at 18:25. What if that got cancelled too! Gasp!

Then the boss suggested Iksan. I recognized Iksan. It is a small city near Jeonju. There is a bus that heading to Iksan and Gunsan departing at 16:13.

Before we could deliberate further, the bus arrived. The male boss kindly came out and told the driver to take us to Iksan. He brought us the drinks we had ordered as the bus was departing.

The bus accepted T-money. But unlike the city buses in which you tap when you board and alight, you have to tell the driver of long distance inter city bus the destination. He would key in the fare before you tap as you board. No need to tap again when alighting. The fare to Iksan from Daedunsan was 7400 won.

On the way to Iksan, the bus had a brief stop at Samnye bus terminal (it just opened its door and then closed it!). Samnye is a small town north of Jeonju. If I had known before hand, I would have dropped off here and take a public bus into Jeonju. From what I could tell from Kakao Map, there were several services that goes to Jeonju. It would have been cheaper and faster to get to Samnye and change to a bus heading to Jeonju instead.

It was another 20 min from Samnye to Iksan. There were frequent buses from Iksan to Jeonju. We bought the tickets for the next bus (the fare was 2400 won if I remember correctly) and within 5 mins, we were on our way back to Jeonju. We actually boarded a long distance bus heading to Daegu but passing by Jeonju to pick up more passengers on the way.

It was almost 7pm when we arrived at Jeonju bus terminal. We were lucky we decided to drop in the cafe at the Daedunsan bus terminal. Otherwise we would be waiting for a long time…

We were tired after the long trip. We decide to just have dinner in one of the Korean restaurants at the bus terminal. I had Sundubu Jiggae while my friend had Donkatsu. The food was bleh…

We just headed back to the hotel for an early rest after dinner.

So the day turned out to be quite an adventure after all!