The multitude of tiny islands here at the southern point of South Korea can be reached by enormously fantastic bridges and causeways linking them together.
The islands, like much of the mainland countryside, is intensive crop farming. The soil is bright red. All the people we saw working in the fields were of the older generations. The youngsters are few and far between.
We drove over to Jeungdo Island, in the South Jeolla Province the first designated Slow City. South Korea is developing at a breakneck speed, so now they have assigned certain places the slow city status. It is a town or city which promotes a high quality environment and healthy eating on locally grown and prepared food. In Jeungdo’s case it was because of its unspoiled nature and clean waters.
This is the area where wetlands, fish farms, mudflats and salt fields coexist.
I have really been looking forward to this. The salt from the Jeollanam-go area is made on reclaimed tidal flats. They date back to the late Joseon Dynasty in the 19th century when the process of making sea salt was first introduced from Japan.
Taepyung Salt Fields was our destination, but it appeared closed despite me talking to someone who assured me it was open for visitors. Not wanting to give up, we left the Taepyung Visitors Site and went over to the saltfields to see for ourselves how the salt was created.
I love the silence here, the stillness and the monochromatic landscape punctuated by splashes of colour. It’s one of the strangest landscapes I have seen, like an oversized chessboard.
One gentleman didn’t seem to mind me nosying around his warehouse. He explained to us he was the third generation salt farmer. He took us over his boards to show us his evaporation and crystallisation fields. He is the only salt farmer here that does not use plastics. He uses mud as his tank base which means evaporation is a longer process. All the other salt farmers use black plastic as their base over the mud.
There are are quite a few independent salt farmers here, some appear to live on site. They rent the land from Taepyung.
Sea water from a reservoir is sent to the evaporation fields to increase the water's salinity with the help of the sun and the wind.
When the saturated brine has reached maximum salinity it is passed to the crystalisation fields where the saline water turns into salt crystals.
Meanwhile, brine tanks, found only in Korea, are built in preparation for the monsoon season.
Salt is raked up, made into piles and then collected in troughs, letting the water drain away.
The salt is moved to the warehouse and is kept for a certain period of time before sale. It can take between one to three years for the salt to be sold as a finished product, because the bittern is extracted during the storage process.
The huge salt bags are packed and collected by a lorry and taken to the nearby factory.
The finished Natural Sea Salt is packed in batches ready for sale. Korean Natural sea salt is produced in the traditional method and dependent on the natural environment. It accounts for 0.1% of the entire salt in the world.
Doing some research into the salt fields, it has to be noted that there is another side to Taepyung Salt fields. It has a sinister recent past. Some farm bosses have been charged or imprisoned for exploiting vulnerable people as labour. I have no idea how this will affect the future of Taepyeong Salt Farm only time will tell.
This brings an end to our adventures in the southern area, I’m so pleased we rented a car, it really was a necessity in order to see so many varied aspects to this region.
So its goodbye to Mokpo, Jeonju here we come…