Yongmunsan, Korea: A Day Hike to the 1,100-Year-Old Ginkgo
Yongmunsan (용문산) translates to "Dragon's Gate," and the name fits. This 1,157-metre ridge in Yangpyeong, about an hour east of Seoul by train, is one of Gyeonggi-do's most substantial day hikes. It is also the walk that ends — or begins — in front of a tree that was already centuries old when the temple below it was rebuilt around it: a ginkgo, roughly 1,100 years old, protected as Natural Monument No. 30 and counted among the largest of its kind in Asia.
October is when the two halves of this walk meet. The ridge turns first, the temple courtyard turns a few weeks later, and for a short window the whole mountain reads as one gradient of colour.
The mountain and its name
Yongmunsan rises to 1,157 metres in Yangpyeong County, Gyeonggi Province — a proper mountain by the standards of anywhere within day-trip range of Seoul, and high enough that the summit views open across the province's ridgelines rather than just the suburbs. The peak most hikers aim for is Gaseopbong. The upper ridge was a restricted military zone until 2007, which is why it stayed quiet for so long; today the trails through it are well-marked and walked year-round.
At the mountain's south-eastern foot sits Yongmunsa (용문사), a Silla-era Buddhist temple whose current buildings were largely reconstructed after 1909. The temple and the mountain are inseparable in the Korean imagination: the mountain is the gate, the temple is what the gate guards.
The route: Yongmunsa to Gaseopbong
The classic approach starts at the Yongmunsan tourist complex, where you park (or the bus drops you) and walk up through Yongmunsa Temple before the trail proper begins. From the temple, the route climbs past Madangbawi Rock and up to the summit of Gaseopbong — roughly 9 kilometres there and back, about five hours at a comfortable pace.
The character of the walk is steady rather than dramatic: a consistent incline from the temple upward, mostly stone and dirt paths with stair sections, turning rocky near the top. There is a steep staircase section just below the summit — gloves help here, and the granite deserves proper footwear, especially if the morning is damp. The summit itself is open rock with long views; on a clear autumn day you can see why the mountain's name stuck.
If five hours sounds like more than you want, the temple courtyard alone is worth the trip. Many visitors come for the ginkgo and the temple, walk the lower forest paths, and call that the day. The mountain does not mind either choice.
The 1,100-year-old ginkgo
The tree is the reason autumn visitors outnumber hikers at Yongmunsa. Planted, by legend, more than a millennium ago, it stands about 42 metres tall with a trunk some 14 metres around at the base. Every autumn its fan-shaped leaves turn the whole courtyard gold — a colour so concentrated that photographers plan their calendars around it.
Stand under it and look up: the branches have been splitting and re-splitting for longer than any structure in the temple has existed. The temple has burned and been rebuilt around it; the tree has never been harmed. That is the whole story of Yongmunsa in one image.
Getting there from Seoul
Take the Gyeongui–Jungang Line east to Yongmun Station — the ride from central Seoul passes through rice fields and river valleys that feel a long way from the capital. From Yongmun Station or the adjacent bus terminal, local buses (routes 7, 7-4, and 7-8) run to the Yongmunsa tourist complex, roughly 9 kilometres away. The bus stop is a short walk from the station, and your T-money card works the whole way.
Note that the tourist complex charges a small entrance fee — around ₩2,500 for adults, cash only — which covers the temple grounds. Restaurants and local-product shops line the approach before the entrance, and there is a decent tea house near the temple itself.
Make a day of it: Yongmun's traditional market
Near Yongmun Station, the local five-day market is the other half of this day trip. It sells what the surrounding county grows and makes — mountain vegetables, herbs, seasonal fruit, snacks you will not find in Seoul. Go before the hike for breakfast supplies or after for the kind of wandering that pairs well with tired legs. Unlike the capital's markets, this one still runs for the people who live here.
When to go
Late October into mid-November is the window for the ginkgo at its peak gold, with the ridge colours arriving slightly earlier. Weekends draw crowds to the temple courtyard — start the hike early and save the courtyard for the quieter afternoon light, or come on a weekday if you can. In summer the valley trails stay cool under the canopy; in winter the summit stairs ice over and need traction.
Yongmunsan is not the most famous mountain in Korea, and that is precisely the point. It is a full day — train, market, temple, tree, ridge — that asks nothing of you except that you show up. The dragon's gate has been open for centuries; the ginkgo is still waiting underneath it.
Walking Yongmunsan this autumn?
Plan your trip with Off Map Korea — routes checked against current timetables, stays booked by phone in Korean, and a local line on WhatsApp while you walk.
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