Damyang - Bamboo County

Enroute from Boseong back to Seoul, we took another day trip to Damyang. Damyang is famous for its bamboo forest. There is no lack of bamboo products and food items you can find in the quiet city. Damyang is a short bus journey from Gwangju and there are several attractions in Damyang. I personally think that a day trip to Damyang is sufficient to cover the major attractions.

How to get there: From the Seoul express bus terminal, there are direct buses to Damyang (4 trips a day - refer to the bottom schedule). Alternatively you can take a bus to Gwangju and take local bus 311 from Gwangju to Damyang.

Seoul-Damyang bus schedule

Panoramic view of the mountains surrounding the county as we walked over for lunch

Signboards along the main road

Drive-thru Lotteria!

Deogingwan (덕인관 / 德仁馆）

Address: 408-5 Baekdong-ri, Damyang-eup, Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do, South Korea 전남 담양군 담양읍 죽향대로 1121

Opening hours: 11am to 9.30pm

Our first stop after we arrived was lunch at Deokinkwan. The restaurant is about 800m from the bus terminal. From Gwangju, you can stop at the bus stop before the bus terminal. We missed the stop and hence took a walk there.

The restaurant is famous for the bamboo rice and ddeok galbi (marinated beef patties). You need to order a minimum for 2 pax for the galbi. Since we were not that hungry we requested for 1 pax only, and the restaurant imo (we usually call middle-aged Korean ladies ajumma, or imo (meaning mother's sister) for a more intimate way of calling) allowed us! She probably thought we were students looking at the way we were dressed and let it pass this time. :) The food was more than enough for 2 pax though.

Ddeok galbi is famous in the region, as it is believed to have originated from Damyang-gun or Gwangju. In Damyang, the galbi is minced and stuck back onto the bones and cooked together.

One of the special side dishes they gave was the soup with bamboo shoots. 

I enjoyed the bamboo rice too since it had my favourite pulses!

There's even bamboo shoot in the japchae!! 

Juknokwon (Bamboo Garden) (죽녹원)
Address: 119, Jungnogwon-ro, Damyang-eup, Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do
전라남도 담양군 담양읍 죽녹원로 119 (담양읍)
Opening hours: 09:00 - 19:00
Admission Fees:
* Adults 2,000 won / Group 1,600 won
* Youths 1,500 won / Group 1,000 won
* Children 1,000 won / Group 600 won
※ Group - more 20 people
※ Free - ages under 6 or over 65 visitors

How to get there: From Gwangju Station or Damyang Station, take local Bus 311 to Juknokwon.

Bus sign at Damyang station

Garden map

There's free lockers at the entrance and the staff was helpful in making sure we could squeeze our backpacks in. I'll strongly suggest using the lockers and have minimal baggage with you given the terrain.

Although the bamboo forest was not huge, we took a few hours to cover the entire area, including a short tea break and souvenir browsing. Some of the slopes are really steep, so walking shoes are recommended.

Koreans in colourful hiking clothes, because the place is really quite a hike!

Pavilion for a short break

Juknokwon is also the filming location for R-point, Iljimae and 1N2D!

How can there be no pandas when there's bamboo? :)

More pandas

Love how tall the bamboo trees are

And the roots of the bamboo trees look like dinosaur bones to me. Haha!!

Gift shop

The shop sells a wide variety of bamboo products such as bamboo wine, cups, shoot glasses, insoles, folkcraft, etc. 

There's even a bow and arrow set that works!

If you walk to the other end of the garden and go down the path, you can find a beautiful lake with hanoks surrounding it. 

The path down is quite steep though. Remember you'll need to climb up the same path again.

We had a quick break at the cafe as well to try the bamboo ice-cream and bamboo tea. The ice-cream was very milky, not much taste of bamboo, but the tea was quite refreshing!

Another place we wanted to go is the Metasequoia-lined Road. We didn't really research on the actual location, but spotted a road that looks quite nice on our way back to the bus terminal. I'm quite sure this is not the road we wanted to go to, since the road was quite busy and there's no way we can take photos leisurely in the middle of the road.

The surroundings were pretty nevertheless.