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Overview

Overview

 

Jeju Island

Jeju Island is an oval-shaped volcanic island with a span of 73 km to the east and west and with a span of 41 km to the north and south. Mt.Halla, a shield volcano with a height of 1,950 m, soars up in the air at the center of the island. Jeju Island was formed by volcanic activity that started approximately 1.88 million years ago. As for the structure of its strata, a number of lava flows and sedimentary layers, with a thickness of 2 to 3m on average, lie one upon another.

 

Weather Condition

Jeju Island has an average temperature of 16.6 degree celsius.
Also, the average annual rainfall is 2,061 mm, larger than the national annual of 1,131 mm.
Notably, Jeju Island has 130 days of rain in total per year, more than 17 days added to the national average of 111 days.

 

Samdado

Jeju Island is called Samdado, meaning an island abundant in three things; wind, rocks, and women. Samda reflects the life and history of the people in the island who overcame hardship, through wisdom and perseverance, in a barren natural environment. Abundance in wind describes difficult living conditions where the people had to resist strong wind blowing continuously toward the volcanic island of rocks sitting in the way of storms. Abundance in women does not mean that there are a large number of women in the island. Rather, it suggests that people working hard in the hills, fields, and sea were mostly women.

 

Environmental Value of Jeju lsland

Jeju Island, the world’s natural heritage, was designated as a biosphere reserve in 2002; listed as a UNESCO world natural heritage in 2007; and officially recognized as a UNESCO Global Geopark in 2010. These achievements made Jeju Island a triple crown winner. In 2016, the culture of Jeju Haenyeo(Women Divers) culture was listed as a UNESCO intangible heritage. Also, Jeju Island was selected as one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature in 2011 by a popular vote of all citizens around the world. This has taken the value of Jeju Island to the next level.

 

Water Culture of Jeju

Jeju Island has a lot of rain. However, it is very difficult to get water as its soil absorbs water quickly. Moreover, it is difficult to set a water jar on the head and walk due to wind and stone in Jeju Island. Therefore, the ancestors in Jeju created unique ‘mool hubeok’, ‘mool gudeok’ and ‘mool pang’ cultures. A jar containing 20 L water was called ‘mool heobuk’ and a woven bamboo basket to move the mool heobuk was called ‘mool geoduk’ and the place to put down a ‘mool heobuk’ was called ‘mool pang’.

 

Springs are the life of Jeju residents

Jeju Island has about 1,000 subsurface springs. Spring is life-giving water for Jeju residents that was used not only as drinking water but also as the water for living and agricultural purposes before the 1980s when public water was not supplied enough to meet the demand of all the households in the Island. Jeju Special Self-Governing Province has established the plan for preserving spring water and then developed the programs for ecological learning about the water of Jeju Island and for exploration of its history and culture. This way, the province is using spring water as a tourism resource.

This is an illustration of the approximate location of the Walk through Jocheon Spring Water Trail and the 1-18 roads.
This diagram shows the reclaimed spring water and the preserved spring water from 1 to 18 points on the route from A to B. - reclaimed spring water : 1. Gomangmool 2. jeongjungdangmool 3. Jeonyeokmool 4. deamool - preserved spring water : 1. Keunmool 2. small donjitmool 3. seangimool 4. Jangsumool 5. Dumalchimool 6. Billemool 7. jokbakmool 8. Doritmool 9. Gaenamgae oegmool 10. Sangdongdumalchimool 11. Seamool 12. Jeju Jalitmool 13. Oegmool 14. Suamjeong ammool 15. abbillemool 16. Surukmool 17. Jeolganmool 18. gwemool

Jocheon Village

People fetched water to drink, do laundry and take a bath from the nearest spring water and it led to form villages revolving around spring water.

Gojaeso

In Gojaeso, there are many major spring waters. Children enjoyed swimming and catching baby crabs or shrimps there on the way back home from school. On summers, it became a playground.

1 Gomangmool

‘Gomang’ is Jeju’s dialect and it means a hole. Water sprang from the small hole, so people draw drinking water here. People prayed for their healthy and peaceful life.

4 Jangsumool

There were Jocheon Catholic Church near Jangsumool. At church, people handed out some food to the poor. For cooking food, they needed lots of water and they got it from Jangsumool.

5 Dumalchimool

This spring water’s name means it has huge volume of water and people can draw about 36L.

6 Billemool

Jocheon people had many parties here. They often enjoyed eating pork at party. It needed much water to slaughter pigs and cook. People covered it from Billemool. Also, there were an unique culture only in Jeju, which is giving water to host’s house .

8 Doritmool

People divided spring water into 3 sections depending on usage of water.

9 Gaenamgae oegmool

Some spring water used as public bath. Surukmool had so huge volume of water that the bottom couldn’t be shown.

3 Jeonyeokmool

Jeonyeok means evening in Korean. People could draw water only in evening. In Summer, many people gathered here and enjoyed bath with cold spring water.

11 Seamool

People divided spring water into 3sections depending on usage of water.
The first section that is the nearest one from spring spot used for drinking water.
The middle one used for wahsing vegetable or ingredients and the furthermost one used for taking shower.

12 Jeju Jalitmool

Clear water often spouted from a broad and flat rock after rainning. It seemed like a beautiful fountain. However, water volume is going down recently because of excessive use and development of groundwater.

13 Oegmool

It has not always sprang out fresh water from spring water. In ebb tide, sea water still remained so people always kept in mind the period of tide. However, especially at Oegmool, people could draw fresh water regardless of time.

16 Surukmool

Many women performed ancestor worship and prayed for baring their babies here.

17 Jeolganmool

Jocheon people often made tofu which needed much water when cooking. They covered it from Jeolganmool. Still now, clean water has sprang out from here.

Mrs.Han's well

Mrs.Han dug a well on her own expense for village people. Thanks to her, people could get drinking water easily and they erected a memorial to Mrs.Han.

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