Yongmeori Beach is a place where Mt. Sanbangsan stretches into the ocean and it looks as if a dragon’s head is going underwater. This area is made of Sa-am stacks, built up over millions of years. There are Gulbangs here which are depressed into the shape of rooms, and wide rocks stacking up on one another along the seashore cliffs which create a majestic scenery by the sea. Along the road down to the seashore, there is the Hamel Castaway Memorial, in remembrance of Hamel who drifted to this place in 1653. Just off to the right of the beach is a soft and dark sandy beach. You can meet the women sea-divers of Jeju who sell sea cucumbers and stroll on the road that spreads along the seashore.
Across the road, a footpath leads downhill to the spectacular Yongmeori coast, a spectacular oceanside trail of soaring cliffs, pockmarked by erosion into catacombs, narrow clefts and natural archways. Haenyeo sell freshly caught seafood, which you can scoff with soju on the rocks (₩20,000 per person). Note the walk along the cliffs closes during very high seas.
At the coastal trail exit is a replica of the Hamel Memorial (admission included in Yongmoeri coast ticket) housed in a replica of a Dutch merchant ship. Hendrick Hamel (1630–92), one of the survivors of a shipwreck near Jeju in 1653, was forced to stay in Korea for 13 years before managing to escape in a boat to Japan. Later he was the first Westerner to write a book on the ‘hermit kingdom’.
Buses (₩2500, 45 minutes, every 40 minutes) leave from Seogwipo bus terminal for Sanbangsan. You can also walk here along Jeju Olle Trail Route 10 from Hwasun Beach.
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