The Taebaek Mountains are a mountain range that stretches across
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...
and
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
. They form the main ridge of the
Korean peninsula
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
.
Geography
The Taebaek mountains are located along the eastern edge of the peninsula and run along the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula. The Hwangnyong Mountain in North Korea (1268 meters) forms the northern end of the range.
Busan
Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...
lies at the southern end of this mountain range, thus making the mountain range a total length of over 500 kilometers, averaging about 1000 meters in height.
Prominent peaks of the range include
Mount Seoraksan (1,708 m),
Mount Kumgangsan (1,638 m),
Mount Taebaeksan (1,566.7 m) and
Mount Odaesan (1,563 m). To the east, the mountain range falls steeply into the sea, but to the west, there are more gentle slopes. Many spurs stretch southwest. The most important rivers of South Korea, the
Han River and the
Nakdong River
The Nakdonggang River or Nakdonggang () is the longest river in South Korea, and passes through major cities such as Daegu and Busan. It takes its name from its role as the eastern border of the Gaya confederacy during Korea's Three Kingdoms Er ...
, both originate in the Taebaek Mountains.
Ecology
Many of the slopes are extensively covered in forests.
Industry
Economically the Taebaek mountains are important for the mining of
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
,
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
,
tungsten
Tungsten, or wolfram, is a chemical element with the symbol W and atomic number 74. Tungsten is a rare metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively as compounds with other elements. It was identified as a new element in 1781 and first isol ...
,
fluorite
Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon.
The Mohs sca ...
, and
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
.
Attractions
Manggyeongsa Temple in Hyeol-dong
Taebaek
Taebaek () is a city in Gangwon province, South Korea. Its name is shared with that of the Taebaek Mountains. Situated at an elevation of , Taebaek is the highest city in South Korea.
Attractions
Manggyeongsa Temple in Hyeol-dong, at an elevatio ...
,
Gangwon-do Province at an altitude of 1,460 meters on
Mount Taebaeksan, is a temple built to enshrine the statue of the Bodhisattva of wisdom. It was built by
Jajang, a
Silla Dynasty
Silla or Shilla (57 BCE – 935 CE) ( , Old Korean: Syera, Old Japanese: Siraki2) was a Korean kingdom located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula. Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo, formed the Three Kingdoms of Ko ...
monk. The "Dragon Spring" at the entrance of the temple is known as the highest spring in Korea.
[Cin Woo Le]
"Simply stunning: 33 incredible Korean temples"
''CNN Go''. 10 February 2012. Retrieved 2012-04-12
The
2018 Winter Olympics took place in
Pyeongchang,
Gangwon-do, located in the mountains.
Taebaek is also a name of a
poomsae
The Korean terms hyeong, pumsae, poomsae and teul (meaning "form" or "pattern") are all used to refer to martial arts forms that are typically used in Korean martial arts such as Taekwondo and Tang Soo Do.
* Hyeong is often romanized as ''h ...
that is performed by the 3rd Dan black belts in Tae Kwon Do. Taebaek is mostly practised in Southern South Korea.
See also
*
Baekdudaegan
The Baekdu-daegan is a mountain-system and watershed-crest-line which runs through almost all of the length of the Korean Peninsula, from Paektu Mountain (2,744m) in the north to the Cheonhwang-bong or "Heavenly Monarch Peak" of Jirisan (1,915m ...
*
List of mountains in Korea
The following is a list of mountains in Korea:
List of mountains in North Korea Pyeongyang
* Taesongsan (대성산; ) –
Chagang Province
* Namsan (남산; ) –
* Obongsan (오봉산; ) –
North Pyongan Province
* Myohyangsan (묘향 ...
*
Geography of South Korea
References
{{Coord, 38, 13, 29, N, 128, 11, 7, E, type:mountain_region:KR, display=title
Mountain ranges of South Korea
Mountain ranges of North Korea