A memorable trip to Mungyeong Saejae

While sojourning in Korea, my wife and I took a day trip to Mungyeong Saejae in late autumn with a friend and his wife. We finally set foot on that famous mountain pass where countless footprints must have crossed over time. The KTX-Eum train we boarded at Pangyo Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, ran for an hour and a half before arriving at Yeonpung Station in North Chungcheong Province. The scenery outside the window was steeped in the fullness of autumn. The rice in the fields bowed their heads, and the mountains piled layer upon layer in the distance spread out like a beautiful landscape painting in light mist. When we stepped out of Yeonpung Station, fresh air seeped deep into our lungs. Mungyeong Saejae, said to be so high that even birds struggle to fly over it, is a mountain pass, with its highest point at 642 meters above sea level. It crosses the Baekdu Mountain Range in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province. Long ago, people from the Gyeongsang region who wished to travel to Hanyang (present-day Seoul) had no choice but to walk the entire way. Along their journey, they