Declaration ceremony held in Taean
First 500 applicants to be accepted
10,000-won marine healing program
Events to run nationwide through October
The Korea Trail, which links South Korea's coastlines and border areas, meets the East-West Trail, which cuts across the peninsula from east to west, in Taean, South Chungcheong Province.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization, together with the Korea Forest Service, will hold a declaration ceremony for the "2026 Korea Trail x East-West Trail Walking Travel Week" at the Taean Marine Healing Center on Oct. 1, marking the start of the autumn walking season.
The ceremony will take place near Mongsanpo Beach in Taean, where Course 65 of the Korea Trail's Seohaerang-gil and Section 2 of the East-West Trail intersect. Officials from the ministry, the Korea Forest Service, the tourism organization and local governments, along with members of the public, will attend the event, which is meant to promote cooperation between the two trails and encourage more people to take up walking.
The Korea Trail is a roughly 4,500-kilometer walking route linking the east, west and south coasts along with border areas. The ministry began building it in 2016 together with related ministries and local governments and completed the entire route in 2024. The East-West Trail is an approximately 850-kilometer forest path running from Taean, South Chungcheong Province, to Uljin, North Gyeongsang Province. The Korea Forest Service has overseen its construction since 2023 and plans to open the full route in the second half of 2027.
Applications for the declaration ceremony will be accepted from Sept. 9 to Sept. 20, on a first-come, first-served basis for 500 participants, through the walking travel app Durunubi and the official website. After the ceremony, participants will walk together for about 3 kilometers from the Taean Marine Healing Center to Mongsanpo Beach as part of the event. Those who complete the course will receive a medal. Detailed schedules are available on Durunubi.
The ceremony will also include an awards presentation honoring those who have contributed to promoting walking. Street performances will take place along the walking route, followed by wellness programs afterward. Participants who register in advance when applying for the walking event can take part in yoga and singing bowl sound therapy sessions at the Taean Marine Healing Center. The sessions will run twice at sunset, starting at 5 p.m. in 30-minute intervals, with 30 participants per session for a total of 120 people. The participation fee has been reduced to 10,000 won from the regular price of 24,000 won ($18).
Nationwide participatory events will continue after the declaration ceremony through Oct. 11, when Walking Travel Week ends. These include an online quiz titled "Find It, Kodul Detective!" — Kodul being a nickname for the Korea Trail — in which participants guess the names of the trail's signature courses from AI-generated landscape images, and the "Kodul Stamp Challenge," which lets participants use the recording feature in the Durunubi app to enter for prizes.
Organizers are also running programs that link walking with local visits and spending. For a total of six days — Oct. 3-5 and Oct. 9-11 — participants who complete a designated Korea Trail course can take part in the "Walk and Have a Cup of Coffee" event, receiving a drink at a nearby cafe. Local experience programs will also run at Korea Trail rest stops nationwide, including the Oryukdo Safety Walking Road in Nam-gu, Busan; the Haeparang Rest Stop Experience in Dong-gu, Ulsan; and the Naturalist Road in Goseong, South Gyeongsang Province. Details are available on the Durunubi website.
"The Korea Trail and the East-West Trail are the flagship walking routes where people can fully enjoy every corner of South Korea on foot," said Kang Jeong-won, director general of the Tourism Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. "The ministry will keep expanding content that helps people discover the charms of local areas across the various Korea Trail courses, so that walking travel can help boost regional tourism and local economies."
terry@heraldcorp.com
