If you were to look at a map of South Korea and pointed to the very center of the country, more than likely you will probably being pointing at one of my favorite areas of the country, the Chungju Lake region.  Chungju Lake was created in 1985 when a hydroelectric dam that took seven years to construct was completed.

The dam is the largest concrete dam in Korea as well as being Korea’s largest water project.  Along with creating hydroelectric power the dam also protects the region from flooding from the South Han River that the dam regulates.

My wife’s family is originally from a village that is now under the water of this dam, but a number of her relatives still live in the Chungju area.  So I am pretty familiar with the area from our multiple trips here.  The best way to see the lake is by taking one of the many tourist ferries that traverse the expanse of the lake:

Here is the schedule for the ferries:

Chungju Lake Ferry Information
Information: (043) 851-5771~3 | Seoul branch office: (02) 532-3274~5
Hours: 8:30-16:30, every hour (Summer), 9:30-15:30, every hour (Winter

These ferries get quite packed with excited ajummas running all over the place trying to take pictures of the incredible scenery, but it was no where near as bad as my experience with the stampede of ajummas over at the Dokdo Islets.

Anyway, with the scenery around the lake it is easy to understand why the ajummas get so excited:

The lake is rimmed by a variety of impressive rock formations:

The boat tour concludes at the tourist city of Danyang, which I recently had as a Korea Finder:

At least one ROK Drop reader thought the city was in North Korea.  Danyang does have a bit of a rustic old Korea look to it, but I can assure you it isn’t that bad of place.  The town may not be much to look at, but it is located in an extremely scenic location along the river:

Danyang is also well known in Korea for its 8 Wonders of Danyang.  If you have done the boat tour before it is well worth taking a drive around the lake as well because as this picture shows it is incredibly beautiful:

Autumn is a particularly great time of the year to head over to Chungju because of the incredible changing of colors that takes place across the rugged hills that surround the lake:

It is even possible to take the ferry boat to a pier that provides access to a hiking trail that leads to the summit of the highest peak in the region, Woraksan mountain:

The summit of Mt. Worak is 1,097 meters high and one of the nicest hikes I have been on in Korea:

Here is the view from the summit of the mountain looking out over the expanse of Chungju Lake:

So it is well worth taking a weekend and exploring the lake, hiking up Mt. Woraksan as well checking out the Mireuk-ri Temple Site.  So if you have a weekend to spare the Chungju Lake area is well worth checking out.