Simhaksan Dulle-gil Paju: Forest Loop Near the DMZ
Most people drive through Paju to get somewhere else. That's a mistake. Paju sits just south of the DMZ, and most foreign visitors treat it as a corridor — either to the Dorasan Station tourist complex or the Imjingak peace park. Few stop to walk the Simhaksan Dulle-gil , a quiet 6km forest loop that circles the lower flanks of Simhaksan (해발 약 198m) through pine and oak woodland. It takes about two hours at an easy pace, gains almost no elevation, and leaves you feeling like you've stepped out of Korea entirely. What is the Simhaksan Dulle-gil, exactly? The trail is a designated dulle-gil — a 'surrounding path' that loops around a mountain's perimeter rather than climbing to a summit. Simhaksan's version is well-marked, mostly flat, and runs through managed forest with good shade even in summer. The path crosses a few small wooden bridges, passes old pine stands, and at one point offers a partial view north toward Gyeonggi-do farmland with the hills of th...