The most well known and most often hiked mountain in the South Korean city of Uijongbu (also spelled Uijeongbu) is without a doubt the extremely beautiful Dobong-san Mountain.  However, there is another mountain that borders the city, that may not be as well known by people outside of Uijongbu, but it does provide even better views of the city and region than Dobong-san .  This mountain is called Chenbo-san and it is easily recognizable across the city due to the twin towers that cap the top of the mountain:

The mountain can also be easily recognizable because of the large graffiti of the 702nd Maintenance Support Battalion crest left by US soldiers many years ago:

Uijongbu is located just north of Seoul and was once a small village that was home to a number of United States Forces Korea (USFK) military bases.  To get better oriented with  the city I recommend reading this prior ROK Drop posting about the city.  Most of these US military bases are closed today with only Camp Red Cloud and Camp Stanley remaining open within Uijongbu and the NCO Academy located at Camp Jackson in Dobong-gu just to the south of the city remaining open as well:

Cheonbo-san is not very high with a max altitude of 336.8 m (1,105 ft).  The trail up the mountain is likewise not very long or steep with a distance of only 2.8 kilometers round trip from the trailhead:

Since Dobongsan is very well known outside of Uijongbu it is very easy for people outside of the city to access the various hiking trails up the mountain via the subway.  Cheonbosan on the other hand is not well known outside of Uijongbu and it is located no where near the subway line.  The best way to reach the trailhead is to first take a taxi to the city’s Home Plus and then follow the directions below:

From Home Plus walk across Highway 43 and then head towards the west passed the old USFK base, Camp Kyle.  After walking by Camp Kyle look for the church pictured below:

After the church on the right there is a narrow road that leads into a residential neighborhood.  While walking up this road besides all the small homes and apartments you will also see a large cultural center building that looks totally out of place in this neighborhood:

The cultural center has a Romanian flag flying in front of it for some reason, but when you see this building you at least know that you are going the correct way:

Continue up the road until it ends atthe Yeonghua-sa Temple gate:

Compared to other temples in Korea there isn’t much to look at here other than to take a minute to enjoy the peaceful solitude of this temple compared to the dense urban city that borders it:

Located right in front of the temple’s entrance is the start to the summit trail:

The hike up to the summit of Cheonbosan is only 1.4 kilometers and is actually something that when I lived in Uijongbu that I would run up for PT occasionally.  The trail is in pretty good shape all the way up the mountain:

What I like the best about hiking up this trail is the strong scent of pine that permeates the air here.  It is a welcome relief from the smog that usual plagues this area of Korea.  The trail runs adjacent to a small creek that on the weekends locals will sometime hang out and have picnics at:

About halfway up the mountain there is a series of four graves who I figure must be for some important people considering how elaborate and well maintained the graves are:

After the graves the trail becomes much steeper, but has some nice rock stairs installed which makes the ascent quite easy:

On the upper reaches of the mountain the trail does become a bit slippery due to loose rocks:

Once the trail reaches the main ridgeline of Cheonbo-san the Sorim-sa Temple comes into view:

Like the prior temple at the base of the mountain there isn’t a whole lot to see here other than this interesting Buddha display on the granite rock:

The trail continues on past the temple and across this open rock face where the first unobstructed views of Uijongbu are available:

From the rock face the trail just continues to follow the ridgeline of the mountain where prior military bunkers and fortifications are still easy to make out along the surface of the mountain:

Since Cheonbo-san is a east-west ridgeline it is a natural military fortification to defend the city of Uijongbu from any North Korean attack.  During the Korean War this ridgeline wasn’t much help though against the North Korean tanks that were decisive in winning the Battle of Uijongbu against the defending ROK Army forces.

Eventually the trail reaches the summit of the mountain, which is capped not only with the twin communications towers, but a newly constructed lookout as well:

A sign that has only Korean writing provides the names of the various terrain features to the north that can be easily seen from the summit:

Unfortunately no views to the opposite side of the mountain are available because of this large control station that blocks the view:

Anyway, this next picture is the view looking towards the west where Highway 3 can be seen at the base of the valley that connects Uijongbu with Dongducheon to the north:

This next picture is looking towards the northwest where the most prominent terrain feature is the scenic Bulgok-san mountain where a major ROK Army base is located at the base of.  The base of the mountain is also where the city of Yangju is located:

Looking directly north the outskirts of Dongducheon as well as the rolling peaks of Soyo-san Mountain are visible in the far distance:

What I found most interesting looking towards the north is the progress made on constructing the major new highway between Uijongbu and Dongducheon.  Anyone that has driven Highway 3 between these two cities understands that a new highway is greatly needed due to the dense traffic.

Here is the view looking slightly towards the northeast where the amount of apartment construction over the past 10 years has just been incredible to those of us who remember this area as rural farm land:

Here is the view looking towards the northeast which shows how the Cheonbo-san ridgeline eventually turns northward towards Dongducheon:

Since views to the south are blocked from the summit of the mountain there is another area on the front side of the mountain that I always go to instead.  By walking along the fence line of the control station, a trail that leads down to this rock outcropping becomes visible:

It takes less than five minutes to walk down from the summit and passed the twin towers to reach this rock outcropping:

From here there are unobstructed views of Uijongbu and Dobong-san mountain that lies to the south of Cheonbo-san:

From the summit it is easy to see the various changes that have happened over the past few years to the various US military bases in Korea.  You can read more about these USFK camps in Uijongbu in this prior ROK Drop posting.  The first change was that Camp Essayons that was closed out in 2005 was completely leveled:

Likewise Camp La Guardia that was closed out in 2005 has been leveled as well.  What remains of the camp can be seen at the top of the above picture where the Uijongbu light rail line has been built over the camp.

This next picture shows that Camp Kyle that was also closed down in 2005 has has met the same fate as the prior two camps:

Here is the view looking directly south from Cheonbo-san where Suraksan can be seen in the distance as well as what remains of yet another USFK military base in Uijongbu:

Camp Sears was closed out in 2005 and has been completely leveled as well:

Right next to Camp Sears is a ROK Army fuel storage yard that long ago used to be part of Camp Sears:

Also visible at the base of the mountain looking towards the south, is the small Geumo-dong neighborhood that lies between Camp Sears and Camp Kyle:

I can remember when over 10 years ago when this neighborhood that extends passed Camp Sears towards St. Mary’s Hospital was the main area of Geumo-dong while the land where all the highrises and apartments are standing today was nothing more than farm houses and rice paddies.

Here is the view looking towards the west:

If you look closely it is possible to make out the gold roof’s of the barracks at Camp Red Cloud:

Camp Red Cloud like I mentioned before is one of the three US military bases remaining in the area of Uijongbu.  One of the other bases is Camp Stanley that can be seen looking directly to the south of Cheonbo-san at the base of Surak-san mountain:

Camp Stanley just like Camp Red Cloud is easy to spot due to the distinctive color of the roof on the various barracks on the camp:

Here is the last picture I took looking towards downtown Uijongbu:

To fully appreciate how much this view of Uijongbu has changed over the years due to the city’s incredible growth, I highly recommend reading this prior ROK Drop posting.  The next time I hike up Cheonbo-san the view will definitely be even further changed once the construction projects on the leveled former US military bases are complete.  For all of us that have served in Uijongbu over the years the changes in the city are incredible and just one of the many signs of the amazing economic development of South Korea.