Maisan
Maisan Provincial Park; The Stone Towers Of Tapsa Are A Provincial Monument · Jinan, North Jeolla
Maisan, the horse ear mountain, is a pair of bare rock peaks rising steeply out of the high farmland of Jinan county in North Jeolla, one of the strangest silhouettes in South Korea. The two summits, Amai-bong and Sumai-bong, the female and male ears, stand side by side at roughly 680 to 690 metres, made of conglomerate, pebbles cemented in ancient lake sediment, and their cliffs are pitted with tafoni, honeycomb hollows eaten out by weathering. Tucked under the cliffs of Amai-bong is Tapsa, a small temple famous for roughly eighty towers of dry-stacked stones built by the hermit Yi Gap-yong in the late nineteenth century and said to have survived every typhoon since; in hard frosts, water left in bowls here is said to grow icicles upwards. Above it on the saddle between the peaks sits Eunsusa temple. In mid April the road around Tapyeongje reservoir at the south entrance is lined with some of the latest cherry blossom in Korea. Jinan town, known for red ginseng and black pork, is about an hour by bus from Jeonju.
Maisan Provincial Park, Maryeong-myeon, Jinan, North Jeolla, 55407, South Korea
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the provincial park and its trails open every day, with ticket booths staffed from early morning, around 7 or 8 am, to early evening, and trail entry restricted towards dusk; the Amai-bong summit route, when open, has earlier cut-off times and closes in bad weather and under rest periods. Tapsa and Eunsusa welcome visitors in daytime. The traps that ruin a day are finishing at the wrong entrance with your car at the other, the last bus from Jinan to Jeonju leaving in the early evening, blossom weekend traffic on the approach roads, and ice on the stairs in winter. Confirm current times before relying on them.