Ten Oreum, One Course — Touring Aewol's Midland with GYULI

Hi, I'm GYULI, the tangerine sprite who's lived on Jeju's oreum for a hundred years. Today, instead of picking out a single oreum, I want to tell you about several at once — the oreum said to cluster unusually close together around Aewol-eup in Jeju City. Count them up — Nokkome Oreum, Jokeun Nokkome Oreum, Barime Oreum, Jokeun Barime Oreum, Eoeum Jokeun Oreum, Gonae Bong, Susan Bong, Geungnak Oreum, Eodo Oreum, and Gwa Oreum — and you get ten. Every time I look at how these ten sit clustered together within a single town, Aewol-eup, it strikes me as remarkable. Rather than digging deep into each oreum's individual story today, I want to focus on the experience of moving through them like a course, one after another. I'll be careful not to confidently pin down details like exact elevation, when each was formed, or any legends said to be tied to them, so today I'd rather focus on what it feels like to drive from oreum to oreum across Aewol's midland.

Why so many oreum cluster together in Aewol's midland

Jeju is said to be home to hundreds of oreum, big and small, and among its towns, Aewol-eup is considered one where oreum sit unusually close together. Once you leave the coastal road and head toward the midland, an oreum tends to appear and disappear along one side of the road, and just a little further on, another oreum's ridge comes into view — so even without deliberately seeking out several spots, you naturally end up passing by more than one. The ten I'm introducing today — Nokkome Oreum, Jokeun Nokkome Oreum, Barime Oreum, Jokeun Barime Oreum, Eoeum Jokeun Oreum, Gonae Bong, Susan Bong, Geungnak Oreum, Eodo Oreum, and Gwa Oreum — are all known as oreum situated within Aewol-eup. The names might sound unfamiliar at first, but rather than searching for and visiting each one separately, it's said to be much easier to approach them as a course you naturally encounter while driving the midland roads of Aewol. So today, instead of each oreum's individual story, I want to focus on the sense of stringing these ten together like a course.

🍊 Real Photos, via GYULI

Nokkome's pair, Barime's pair — oreum whose names come matched

The first thing that stands out on this course is the oreum whose names come in matching pairs. Nokkome Oreum and Jokeun Nokkome Oreum are known as a pair sitting side by side, one larger and one smaller. The word 'jokeun' is said to mean 'small' in Jeju dialect, so you can sense the two are paired just from their names. Both are said to sit around Yusuam-ri in Aewol-eup, and once you've seen one, the other reportedly tends to catch your curiosity too.

Barime Oreum and Jokeun Barime Oreum are said to form a similar pair. Barime Oreum is said to sit around Eoeum-ri in Aewol-eup, with Jokeun Barime Oreum right beside it, and a little further on, an oreum called Eoeum Jokeun Oreum is also said to be in the same area. With three or four oreum names overlapping just around Eoeum-ri, I imagine anyone looking up these names one by one for the first time might find them a bit confusing. But looked at another way, it also means this is a town where you can take in several oreum ridgelines in turn from a single spot — so rather than trying hard to memorize every name, I think it's more comfortable to just enjoy the oreum ridgelines changing outside your car window.

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Gonae Bong, Susan Bong, and the rest — the fun of touring them as a course

Move a little closer to the coast and you're said to meet an oreum called Gonae Bong. It carries the name of Gonae-ri, a coastal village, right in its own name, so you can guess just from that how close it sits to the sea. And around Susan-ri in Aewol-eup, there's said to be an oreum called Susan Bong, with a reservoir called Susan Reservoir known to sit nearby — so it's said to be a spot where you might catch oreum and water together in the same view.

Add Geungnak Oreum, Eodo Oreum, and Gwa Oreum, and all ten oreum of Aewol-eup are accounted for. Going by name alone, they might seem scattered far apart, but they're all known to sit together within the single administrative area of Aewol-eup, so it's said to be possible to sketch out a course that passes by all of them in turn over a single day of driving the midland roads. Along the roads between the oreum, fields lined with stone walls are said to appear, and the ridgeline toward Hallasan reportedly comes into view in the distance too — so even without climbing every single oreum, simply passing by in the car is said to be enough to take in scenery that feels distinctly like Aewol.

That said, details like each oreum's exact trailhead, parking situation, or whether it's currently open are things I'd rather not state with confidence here. Sources sometimes describe them a little differently, and trail conditions are said to change with the season, so if you're actually planning a visit, I'd recommend picking one or two oreum you want to see and double-checking the latest information. Touring the whole course in a single day is fine, but if it's your first time, I think it's also a good idea to start with just one matched pair, like Nokkome Oreum and Jokeun Nokkome Oreum, and save the rest for another visit.