Suncheon Bay is located in Suncheon, surrounded by Yeo-su peninsula and Goheung peninsula, Jeonnam in South Korea. Suncheon Bay was made famous because of the novel “Moo Jin Ki Haeng” written by Kim Seung-ok. The novel takes place in Suncheon Bay. Now it holds a strong reputation as a quality ecological park.
    Suncheon Bay is a coastal wetland, composed of a 3.5 km long stream, a 2,221 ha wide tideland and it boasts a 230 ha wide field of reeds. Due to its natural coast, it is the habitat of migratory birds and plants and animals. As a saltwater wetland, Suncheon Bay is extremely unique to the Korean Peninsula and has therefore been named as a preservation area in light of ecological development and protection. 
    Suncheon Bay's wide tideland, field of reeds, and salt swamp are undamaged by human encroachment. Salt swamp functions as a natural purification system; keeping Suncheon Bay clean and undamaged. Because of this, Suncheon Bay often is called the lung of Korea. The shallow tideland at the mouth of the river has reasonable salt content, abundant organisms, and a sustainable water quality. These characteristics make Suncheon Bay a spawning ground for fish, crab, and shellfish.
    Suncheon Bay is rapidly gaining international recognition as pristine a natural eco-system. Suncheon Bay is the fifth-largest wetland in the world and has been protected by the RAMSAR Convention since 2006. There are many Korean National Monuments in Suncheon Bay including

 
Hooded crane, Saunders's Gull, and Spoonbill. It is said that Suncheon Bay hosts 15 species of birds that have been designated to reside at national monuments, six endangered species specified by the Ministry of Environment, 13 preserved species, 12 International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List species, 16 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species annex species and 15 Ramsar Convention species. It is said that many migratory birds can be seen in Suncheon Bay during the winter. CP reporter visited with the purpose of showing you its beauty.
    Before visiting the bay, you should check out the Eco-Museum at where you can briefly study migratory birds, the bay’s ecology and wetland plants through various visual aids. Suncheon Bay's Eco-Museum is built where the Haeryong-Myeon, Byeolang-Myeon, and Dasa-Dong areas meet. The Museum consists of a large Ecology Display Area and the Yongsan Observatory. The museum is situated in the center of the Bay, giving it access to a variety of ecological resources that, in turn, support the processes of ecological academic research for both students and the general public.
 
    Indoors, the museum consists of a layout room, an exhibition hall, a small movie theater, an ecology classroom, and a seminar room. Outdoors, the facility offers an observatory access to organized hikes, boat rides, cycling trails, a mini-rail line and eco-educational tours. You can take a little boat ride down the length of the river for about 4,000 won. During the boat ride, the driver will hit the boat against the shore, and you'll see the land come alive as the little creatures run for cover.
    There is a bridge that runs through the reeds. After crossing the bridge, you can start exploring the reed field from wooden decks. When the tide ebbs, you can see little crabs moving busily here and there on the mud flat. If you are lucky, you can see the crabs like Red clawed crab and the Send crab. In addition, you can also see a goggle-eyed goby which is very ugly but tastes good. Fortunately, I saw them but they are too fast to capture by camera. There are several points to note. Even if you want to whittle and take it to your home, don’t do that. You should know that the collection of reeds and crabs in the area is prohibited. In the middle of the path of reeds, you can also see herds of Spot-billed Duck. They float on the river. Sadly, I didn’t see any of the Korean National animals like the Hooded crane, the Saunders’s Gull, or the Spoonbill. Most of birds I saw were ducks. When I was just coming back from the Yongsan Observatory, I saw Little Egrets. They moved very slowly; it felt like the Little Egrets wanted to be photographed and welcomed us.
 
    If you follow the path to the east, you'll see it leads up a small mountain. It's a twenty-five minute hike to Yongsan Observatory. Before you get to the observatory, you will go up a few sets of stairs. One kilometer away frome the reed field, you can climb up to the Yongsan Observatory to take in a panoramic view of the entire area. Recently, a set of walking trails has been established along the Suncheon Bay. The 16-kilometer Suncheon Bay Reed Road, one of 11 walking courses around the Suncheon coast, starts from Waon Village and ends at the mouth of the bay. It takes almost two hours to complete. At Yongsan Observatory, you can see the entire Suncheon Bay. There were lots of photographers at the observatory who had parked themselves in their spots, making it difficult for others to sneak in and get clean photographs. They weren't really taking pictures, though, and I assume they were waiting for the sunset. People like this place because of the view of the sunset. The natural "S" shape of the Bay is one of Korea's best settings for sunset photography. The sunset viewed from the Suncheon Bay is a source of wonder to all who see it. When I reached the top of Yongsan Observatory, I was very tired. However, the view of the sunset from here made me forget the fatigue. The view was remarkable.
    In early 1992, Suncheon Bay was faced with ruin. To prevent flooding, Suncheon city solicited a river refurbishment business to come and destroy 40,000 pyeong of reed field. However, roughly 5,000 citizens of Suncheon signed a petition against the refurbishment business. They attempted to protect
 
the lung of Korea. As a result, Suncheon city revoked its permission and refurbishment was stopped in 1998. If river refurbishment continued, we couldn’t see those beautiful reeds, crabs, and birds today. In an “about-face,” Suncheon city has grown eco friendly rice to feed migratory birds for three years now. Also, fishing and flight are prohibited in an effort to protect migratory birds and other creatures in Suncheon Bay. We should preserve this priceless wetland now and for ever as Suncheon citizens did before.
    The 2013 Suncheon Garden Expo will take place in the Suncheon Bay area beginning Saturday, April 20th through Sunday, October 20th. This massive six-month long event will focus on both local and global ecological concerns. How about visiting Suncheon Bay and experiencing an awesome piece of nature?

 

By Choi shi-young CP Reporter
mangoo444@cnu.ac.kr 

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