[One Day Ten Thousand Steps, One Day One Thousand Characters] Barefoot Walking Craze Leader Chairman Park Dongchang

If we were to name the person who led the barefoot walking craze, it would undoubtedly be Chairman Park Dongchang of the Barefoot Walking National Movement Headquarters. Chairman Park still holds the ‘Barefoot Walking Forest Trail Healing School’ every Saturday afternoon at Hansol Park in Daemosan, Gangnam-gu, organized by the Barefoot Walking National Movement Headquarters. The gathering consists of lectures and consultations on the methods and benefits of walking barefoot, as well as walking together.

Graduating from Seoul National University’s College of Law and having spent half his life as a finance professional, Chairman Park endured a difficult time in 2001 due to excessive work and stress, suffering from insomnia and liver enzyme levels exceeding the normal range. Then he encountered barefoot walking. At that time, while working in Poland, he had a new experience walking barefoot on forest trails. His insomnia disappeared, his liver enzyme levels returned to normal, and he became an evangelist for barefoot walking.

On August 29, 2023, Lee Cheol-woo, Governor of Gyeongbuk Province (center right), and Park Dong-chang, President of the Barefoot Walking National Movement Headquarters (center left), along with officials from Gyeongbuk Province and the Movement Headquarters, posed while walking barefoot on the loess road. President Park visited the Gyeongbuk Provincial Office to present a plaque of appreciation to Governor Lee Cheol-woo and was appointed honorary president of the Movement Headquarters.
[Photo by Barefoot Walking National Movement Headquarters]

Since 2016, he has been hosting the ‘Barefoot Walking Forest Trail Healing School,’ and in 2018, he established the movement headquarters. The name was changed from the Barefoot Walking Citizen Movement Headquarters to the National Movement Headquarters to promote nationwide expansion. The Naver cafe opened in March 2017 has 28,400 members. Chairman Park has also consistently published books promoting barefoot walking, including The Joy of Walking Barefoot (2006), The Miracle of Barefoot Walking (2019), and Walk Barefoot (2021).

Local governments consult Chairman Park to create ordinances related to barefoot walking trails and hold barefoot walking events together. In June, he attended the launch ceremony of the Hamanha Stream National Movement Headquarters as a founding member, expressing, “The barefoot walking movement is spreading like wildfire across the country,” and added, “If barefoot walking is combined with the Hamanha Stream movement, it will create synergy.”

Park Dong-chang, Chairman of the Barefoot Walking National Movement Headquarters, is delivering an encouragement speech at the launch ceremony of the Hamanha Stream National Movement Headquarters held on June 15, 2023, at Namsan Hanok Village, Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

Chairman Park said, “Simply walking alone does not perfectly solve health problems,” adding, “The World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted walking exercises worldwide for the past 20 years, but the rate of disease increase has not slowed at all. The number of cancer and cardiovascular disease patients worldwide continues to rise.” He emphasized, “Increasing contact with nature through barefoot walking can be a solution.” His dream is “to create an environment where anyone can walk barefoot.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.