One of the closest places to visit if you are living in Gwangju is the Damyang Bamboo forest. You can catch a direct bus from the Gwangju Terminal and it takes just 30-40 minutes to arrive. Jeollanam-Do (my province) is home to the the largest concentration of bamboo in South Korea and Damyang accounts for about 70% of that population. Many bamboo craftsmen still live in this area and much of the surrounding county survives off of their product.The Koreans called us "crazy" for going outside on a rainy day, but we did it any way...these were the same Korean friends that suggest I have crampons to go for a short day hike in February. pshhh.
The village might have been fake but Milkis is a real boy.Anyway, the paths were muddy but it was cool being surrounded by a thick forest of bamboo. Bamboo grows even larger than this, but many of the stalks we saw reached 6 inches in diameter and were 30-50 feet high. Pretty impressive for a grass. There was also this cool little eco-center full of wild plants, succulents, and bonsai trees. Also, on the back side of the forest, there was a traditional village in the process of being built. It was fake, of course, and is only being built to draw more visitors. Still nice, there are some close-up pics of the joinery used to put together a traditional roof and tea house structure.
Right before the entrance to the forest park there is a bamboo market. I am sure that people sell stuff almost every weekend but the entire market is open on days ending in the numeral 2 or 7. We went on February 22nd, a Sunday, and the main Bamboo vendor was open but we suspect there was more that we missed because we went late. My guidebook says the markets stays up from 7am-12 noon. Guidebooks. I bought a Korean dice game made from bamboo stalks..it probably looks alot more fun than it really is.
I'm realizing now that I didn't get any pictures of the actual bamboo...picture fail.
Here are the rest of the pictures from the day.
