‘Video Album: Mountain’ Green Painted by Spring – Daecheong Lake 500-ri Trail

KBS2 ‘Video Album: Mountain’ Episode 1039

Popera singer Choi Hye-yoon from Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, meets ‘Spring in My Hometown’ at Daecheong Lake with Korean traditional painter Park Seok-shin.

At 6:55 a.m. on the 10th, Episode 1039 of KBS2 ‘Video Album: Mountain’ airs ‘Green Painted by Spring – Daecheong Lake 500-ri Trail’.

Daecheong Lake is an artificial lake formed when Daecheong Dam was completed in 1980 and, together with Chungju Lake·Soyang Lake, is considered one of the three major lakes in Korea. The Daecheong Lake 500-ri Trail that follows the lake is a representative ecological walking route of the Chungcheong region.

With a broad center encircled by mountains and trees around 300 meters above sea level, it offers outstanding scenery and presents different faces of nature by section, delivering landscapes that change throughout the four seasons. Along the Daecheong Lake 500-ri Trail, which embraces the vast lake and offers a sense of peace, Korean traditional painter Park Seok-shin and popera singer Choi Hye-yoon set out.

KBS2 ‘Video Album: Mountain’ Episode 1039

They begin walking with the Daecheong Lake Water Culture Center as the starting point. Along the path, spring flowersazaleas, redbud trees, and lilacswelcome travelers. A gentle path runs beside Daecheong Lake, which stretches out as if a dragon is flowing. In the forest laid out along the calm lakeshore, spring sunlight filters in, newly green leaves sparkle, and on the softened earth, graceful wildflowers lift their heads and begin to show their colors.

Some villages were submerged when Daecheong Dam was created, but the villages left around the lake live on, leaning on the lake’s scenery and nature. Seeing a grandmother ambling up and down the hills to pick spring greens sprouting throughout the untouched forest, Korean traditional painter Park Seok-shin recalls faint memories of his childhood, when he gathered wild greens with his mother.

Spring passes on warmth, memories, and strength. The elevation gradually begins to rise. On this path where water and mountains blend, a tranquil scene unfolds on the Daecheong Lake 500-ri Trail just outside the city, with only quiet birdsong to be heard. Thanks to the moderate elevation and pleasant walking conditions, it is also a restful route favored by local residents.

The route passes Cheongnamdae, a name that carries the meaning ‘the Blue House of the South’. In the serene scenery, one can guess why presidents loved this place. Raised in the lakeside city of Chuncheon, home to Lake Soyang and Lake Uiam, Choi Hye-yoon looks out over Daecheong Lake and recalls the familiar scent of water and the spring of her hometown seeping in from across the river.

KBS2 ‘Video Album: Mountain’ Episode 1039

The lake ripples gently, waves rising with the wind. Vast as the sea, Daecheong Lake is a precious water resource that supplies the Chungcheong region with drinking water, industrial water, and even power. The Daecheong Lake 500-ri Trail lets walkers come close to the water. In scenery where water and mountains meet, mountains rest at eye level and the lake at chest height, offering a comfortable pause.

In the mild breeze that moves across the lake, the rush of daily life settles quietly and personal memories accumulate. Park Seok-shin says he feels the changes of the seasons more distinctly with age. This year’s spring seems to cheer on the springtime of life with livelier energy.

They reach the end of Section 1, Ihyeon-dong Dume Village. Artists and residents mingle, and the entire village has taken root as a single art space. Sculptures placed along the walking paths convey a bright, friendly mood, as if welcoming visitors.

The blue energy of Daecheong Lake, loved by artists, is also a source of inspiration for Korean traditional painter Park Seok-shin, who has made his home here for nearly twenty years. The journey continues through picture-postcard scenery to the Meditation Garden on Section 4 of the Daecheong Lake 500-ri Trail, where the lake can be faced up close. On this route, the two embrace the vitality of spring and gain the strength to walk back into everyday life.