Gyeongpo Lake

Gyeongpo is a brackish lagoon separated from the East Sea by a sandbar carrying Gyeongpo Beach, and a flat path runs the whole way round it - about four kilometres, walked or cycled in an hour, with rental bikes at several points. Its season is the first half of April, when the cherry trees planted right round the shore flower at once and the town holds a festival: the path becomes a tunnel of blossom with the water on one side, and it is among the better-known blossom spots in the country. Above the lake stands Gyeongpodae, a pavilion first built in the fourteenth century and rebuilt since, from which the classic boast is that you can see the moon five times - in the sky, on the sea, on the lake, in your cup and in your companion's eye. Reeds and wetland at the northern end hold birds through winter. The beach is a few minutes' walk over the bar.

What you actually see

• The cherry ring - blossom right round the shore in April.
• Gyeongpodae pavilion - the old lookout above the water.
• The lakeside path - the flat four-kilometre circuit.
• The reed beds - the wetland end and its winter birds.

When to go

The first half of April for blossom, which is the reason most people come and brings heavy crowds. Autumn is quiet and the reeds are good; winter brings waterfowl.

Honest expectations

Blossom lasts about a week and the timing shifts each year. Festival weekends fill the path and the roads. Outside blossom season it is a pleasant but ordinary lakeside walk.

Nearby

Gyeongpo Beach is over the sandbar; Ojukheon and Gangneung's old houses are in town.