Inwangsan: from south to west Gichabawi Rock 기차바위 인왕산

I have been up Inwangsan (인왕산) a number of times as part of the Seoul City Fortress Wall trail. The last time I went up and followed the wall as I normally would, but I took a detour after the peak and went to Gicha Rock (기차바위). However getting to Buam-dong proved tricky and I got a bit lost, with no water left and hit a few dead-ends…not my finest hour, feeling dehydrated so close to civilisation! So I thought I’d try that route again.

I started at got a bus to Sajikdan (사직단.어린이도서관), turned right at a GS Caltex petrol station and wound my way north through a neighbourhood with some interesting modern architecture. On the main street is an old-school looking factory building called Wecook; something to check out later. Finding the trail along the wall is easy as you’ll see parts of the wall soon enough–hint: go up!

The trail up soon gets steep and is mainly steps. There are good views of Seoul behind you and other parts of town, especially today as the air was uncharacteristically clean today. I had a quick picnic at the top and was offered food by a kind woman (raw radish!) and a cup of ginger tea. I thought twice about taking them (coronavirus?!) but I did…

Down past the peak I took the left turn to Gicha Rock and was determined not to go wrong this time…I mean how hard can it be… The main attraction was was as I remember, them I walked along a granite ridge which looked over Buam-dong one right and another part of town on the left. It’s a really nice spot.

Heading dwon through some trees, I decided to keep as straight as I could. I went past the sign saying the temple (to the right) this time and kept straight. Eventually you run out of trail it seems. There’s a military instillation through some trees so I doubled back slightly and eventually found the proper way down; not easy because the path is soil and looks like you wouldn’t normally walk along it. Anyway, down some concrete steps through a rundown temple and into some really cool looking houses in the back street of Buam-dong. Success!