Where the Geumgang River Meets the West Sea: From the Riverside of the Novel Tangnyu to the Bieung Mapaji Trail

Head east from the inner harbor along Gangbyeon-ro and you see an exhibition hall shaped like a ship's bow on the riverbank overlooking the Geumgang River. It is the Chae Man-sik Literary Museum, which honors the literary world of the novelist Baengneung Chae Man-sik (1902–1950), born in Gunsan.

Tangnyu is a full-length novel set in 1930s Gunsan. In its opening, the author sharply captured the colonial capitalism of the time through the mighty Geumgang River turning a cloudy yellow at the estuary. Inside the museum, the author's handwritten manuscripts, letters and a chronology of his works are laid out like a panorama. Visit after seeing the banks and the site of the rice exchange on Haemang-ro, and the city's spaces and the novel's sentences fit together as one.

On Guam-dong Hill, not far from the Chae Man-sik Literary Museum, stands the March 1st Movement 100th Anniversary Memorial Hall, which recreates the old Guam Church building. The Gunsan March 5 independence movement, on March 5, 1919, was the first independence movement south of the Hangang River. It began with teachers and students of the former Yeongmyeong School and members of Guam Church. It is a history of resistance: by May, about 30,000 citizens had joined in 28 rounds of protest.

Inside the memorial hall are a model of the mimeograph used at the time to print Korean flags and the Declaration of Independence, along with historical records. Travelers who have mostly seen the traces of exploitation at the open port will meet here on Guam-dong Hill Gunsan's memory of self-driven resistance to Japan and of community.

Follow the river further east from Guam-dong Hill, and the Geumgang Future Experience Center and the Jinpo Great Victory Memorial Tower appear one after another around the Geumgang Estuary Bank. The Geumgang Future Experience Center, a remodel of the former Geumgang Migratory Bird Observatory, is a hands-on exhibition hall on the ecosystem of the Geumgang River estuary and climate change. It is a good place to understand the natural environment of the brackish zone where river and sea meet.

In nearby Seongsan-myeon, the Jinpo Great Victory Memorial Tower is a 22 m monument. It honors the Jinpo Great Victory of 1380, the 6th year of King U of Goryeo, when General Choe Mu-seon destroyed more than 500 Japanese ships with cannons he had made himself. The sculpture gives form to August and the 18th to mark the day of the battle. In front of it, the broad surface of the Geumgang River and a migratory bird habitat open out.

To end the long riverside journey of the Geumgang River estuary with the sound of West Sea waves, head to the Bieung Mapaji Trail at Bieung Port on the western end. This coast has long been called 'Mapaji' because it takes the south wind head-on. Along its cliffs run a coastal path 1.8 km long in total and observation rest areas.

It is easy to reach and has ample parking, so anyone can walk it comfortably. By day you can enjoy the West Sea horizon and people fishing, and at night the soft lighting that comes on along the coastal deck. This route starts at the inner harbor and the Geumgang riverside described in Tangnyu and heads to the open West Sea horizon of Mapaji Trail. It shows another charm of Gunsan beyond the old downtown.