Mysterious Saltwater Coming Ashore... Want to Play Around Freely in a Giant Playground on the Holiday? [Digging Travel]

Siheung-si Gaetgol Ecological Park, Korea's Only Inner Bay (Naeman) Terrain
19th Siheung Gaetgol Festival, Hands-on Ecological Culture Experience Site
General Director Kim Jong-won: "Gaetgol, the Largest Ecological Art Playground"

Before modern times, salt was literally called "small gold" because it was a precious powder. The ancient Greeks treated it as a "gift from the heavens," and in ancient Rome, salt was once used as currency, which is the origin of the word "salary" derived from the Latin word for salt, Sal.

Our ancestors produced salt using the boiling salt (煮鹽) method, where seawater was placed in large cauldrons and boiled for several days to evaporate the water and obtain salt. Because only a very small amount of salt could be obtained compared to the large amount of firewood and labor input, salt was treated as precious as gold on the Korean Peninsula. During the Japanese colonial period, Japan, obsessed with the plundering of Korean resources including rice, took notice of the Taiwanese-style solar salt production method called cheonilyeom and began sending people to investigate potential salt farm areas throughout the eight provinces of Joseon. The chosen location was the present-day Siheung City, Sorae Salt Field.

The 19th Siheung Gaetgol Festival, where visitors can experience the country's only inner bay (naeman) ecological culture, will be held for three days from the 27th to the 29th at Siheung Gaetgol Ecological Park.
[Photo by Korea Tourism Organization]

Siheung’s unique inland bay, the only one in Korea where seawater flows windingly through tidal channels all the way inland, will host the ecological and cultural festival "Siheung Gaetgol Festival" from the 27th to the 29th at the Siheung Gaetgol Ecological Park in Gyeonggi Province, where visitors can directly see, touch, and enjoy the ecological culture.

While tidal flats that are submerged and exposed by the ebb and flow of the tide are common, Siheung’s geography, where seawater reaches inland, is considered a rare case nationwide. The place names "Sahaengseong," meaning "meandering like a snake," and "Gaetgol," meaning "tidal channels winding through tidal flats," both originate from the ecological rarity of the area. Recognizing this geographical and ecological conservation value, Siheung Gaetgol Ecological Park was designated as a wetland protection area in 2012.

Kim Jong-won, the general director leading the Gaetgol Festival as the general director of the Siheung Festival.
[Photo courtesy of Siheung Gaetgol Festival]

Visitors are visually amazed by the fact that the water filling the Gaetgol is seawater, not freshwater, revealing the mystery of Siheung’s ecological culture. Kim Jong-won, the festival’s general director appointed in February, explained, "We are doing our best to organize various programs so that citizens and visitors can directly experience ecological culture at the Gaetgol Festival site and enjoy a comfortable festival atmosphere."

Regarding the goal of this year’s Siheung Gaetgol Festival, Director Kim emphasized "a comfortable festival that anyone can easily participate in." Indeed, shade tents to block sunlight are set up throughout the festival site, and barrier-free zones have been created in the stage seating and picnic areas to maximize viewing convenience. In addition, the festival seeks change through ecological harmony programs based on four main directions: "utilizing natural wetland ecology," "carbon reduction," and "utilizing local human resources."

Children experiencing salt farming at Siheung Gaetgol Ecological Park.
[Photo by Siheung City]

Sorae Port, once famous as a salt field, boasted massive salt production based on its natural environment, accounting for up to 30% of the country’s total salt production. Near the Gaetgol Ecological Park, there used to be about 40 salt warehouses densely packed, but now only two remain, testifying to its former glory.

Director Kim said, "We have planned a variety of sensory satisfaction programs that allow visitors to reminisce about the days when Sorae Salt Field’s solar salt was distributed through the Gaetgol waterways, including salt warehouse experiences, a salt playground where you can enjoy salt foot baths, and a windmill zone where you can feel the salty breeze of the Gaetgol." He added, "The Gaetgol Festival will truly be remembered by visitors as 'the world’s largest ecological art playground.'"

In 1934, Japan established a large-scale salt field of about 5 million square meters here and transported all the salt produced via the Suin Line and Gyeongbu Line to Busan Port for export to Japan. At the salt field experience site in the ecological park, a freight train called the "Gashireongcha," which was used to transport salt, silently testifies to the history of exploitation. After liberation, the Sorae Salt Field, which was state-owned, was privatized and gradually reduced salt production until it closed in 1996.

The acoustic music festival held on the lawn stage at Gaetgol Ecological Park during the Siheung Gaetgol Festival is considered another charm of the festival.
[Photo by Siheung City]

At the Shaking Observatory overlooking the Gaetgol Ecological Park, Director Kim was repeatedly conducting final checks for the festival opening. Siheung City predicts that about 150,000 visitors will gather for this year’s Gaetgol Festival. Director Kim emphasized, "Gaetgol is a mysterious space that shows that humans are also part of nature and that the mind feels most comfortable when in nature." He added, "I hope everyone enjoys the autumn atmosphere here, experiences the liberating feeling of ‘doing something else,’ and recharges with new energy."