[Where Am I] February Photo Trip: Mankyung River in Wanju
Creatrip Team
7 months ago
I stand before the flowing Mankyung River, listening to the thin ice crack and thinking of an old poem. The river, originally called Sasu River, is formed where four streams meet and its modern name (Mankyung, meaning ‘one hundred thousand ri’) came from administrative changes during the Japanese colonial period. Starting near Sabong-ri in Dong-sang-myeon, Wanju, the river joins reservoirs and flows past Gosan-myeon where a large “turtle rock” rises beneath SeSimjeong (SeSim Pavilion). The rock bears an inscription honoring the Joseon scholar Manjuk Seoi (만죽 서익), who loved bamboo groves and the river landscape; his memorial stele still stands there. Around the thawing ice, small birds pick along the river’s edge. I watched the Mankyung in February as it winds past Wanju, Jeonju, Iksan, Gimje and Gunsan on its way to the West Sea (Yellow Sea). (SeSimjeong: a small riverside pavilion; stele: a commemorative stone monument)
