Brich Tree Forest

        The birch tree looks white, because it reflects all visible light. The image of the tree is associated with romance, since the movie “Doctor Zhivago” stared by Omar Sharif and Julie Christie. It is a historical romance film based on the 1957 novel by Boris Pasternak. The birch tree when peeled off, it looks like thin white paper, so some business cards are made of and love letters are written among lovers. It does not rot for a long time, so letters engraved on the bark of a birch tree were found in ancient tombs from the Shilla Dynasty.

        Birch wood is hard and dense, so it is often used as a carving material. Also, it is not eaten or distorted by insects even in the long years. In particular, part of the Tripitaka Koreana(팔만대장경), a national treasure that Korea is proud of, was carved on the birch tree wood. And its bark is almost oily. There is an expression in Korea “화촉(樺燭)을 밝히다. It means ” light candles at a wedding“. The Chinese charater(樺) means ”birch tree “ . In the old days, there were no candles, so they lit birch bark to replace candles.

    The whispering birch tree forest is one of the most favorite winter hiking places in Korea, approxmiately 690,000 birch trees in an area of 138 hectares, with 25 hectares of land being used as forest experience center. It locates at Wondae-ri, Injegun, Gangwon province. From the forest entrance, visitors can hike the forest by following the forest walking trail. The hike up to the forest takes aproximately 1~3 hours depending on the path taken. The forest was designed to promote educational and environmental values and recognize the beauty unique to the birch forest.

I got a chance to experience, one last snow of this winter in Korea in Brich tree Forest. Thank you to this beautiful snow mountain.