Baegunhosu Lake

Ringed by the ridges of Cheonggyesan, Baegunsan and Moraksan, Baegunhosu Lake in Uiwang was created as an irrigation reservoir in 1953. Its job of watering the rice fields of Pyeongchon ended when the Pyeongchon new town was built in the 1990s, and today a boardwalk of about 3 km around the shore, together with lakeside cafés and restaurants, makes it a favourite outing south of Seoul. It is one of the closest places to the capital where you can enjoy water and mountains together.

From reservoir to lakeside park

The reservoir was completed in September 1953 and takes its name from Baegunsan, "the mountain of many white clouds". It is still managed as farm infrastructure by the Korea Rural Community Corporation. It was built to supply paddy fields around Pyeongchon in Anyang, but lost its purpose when new housing replaced the fields. The water covers about 311,000 m², and with ridges enclosing it on three sides, the hills are mirrored in the surface on calm days.

Uiwang City has improved the lakeside path in stages. A 3 m-wide nature trail circling the lake, built for about KRW 12 billion, fully opened on 16 August 2018, and in June 2023 a missing link of about 500 m reopened, so you can now walk all the way round. The reopened section added pergolas, heat-relief shelters and cooling-mist sprayers every 100 m. South of the lake, waterfront parkland is being added as part of the Uiwang Baegun Knowledge and Culture Valley development.

Things to do

• Walk the boardwalk loop: about 2.7 km of the roughly 3 km path is wooden decking, flat and 3 m wide, so it is easy with a pushchair or wheelchair. There are pergolas and shade shelters along the way, and some stretches have cooling mist in summer.
• Lake views: the layered mountain ridges across the water are the classic view. Reflections are sharpest early in the morning or around sunset, when the wind drops.
• Cafés and restaurants: the road around the lake is lined with cafés and restaurants, handy for a break after your walk.
• Moomin-themed park: in November 2023 a small park themed on Moomin, the Finnish picture-book character, opened across from the lake. It has a pebble-paved barefoot path of about 140 m, and from 18:00 to 22:00 videos are projected onto a 6 m sphere.

Tripto tips

• Time needed: about 1 hour for the loop, or around 2 hours with a café stop.
• Best seasons: April for fresh green and October–November for autumn colour. The decking gets hot at midday in summer, so walk in the morning or evening.
• Parking: the Baegunhosu embankment public car park, where the trail starts, and the Lotte Time Villas car park both connect straight to the boardwalk. Next to the Moomin park there is a free car park with about 50 spaces.
• Public transport: the easiest way is to take Line 4 to Indeogwon Station and continue by bus or taxi. Keen walkers can follow the Hagui-cheon stream path from near Indeogwon Station up to the lake.
• Access: the lake and boardwalk are free and open at any time.