Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha | Sabang Memorial Park — The Boat on Mugeunbong

The path up Mugeunbong is steeper than a park sign usually admits. Sabang Memorial Park was planted to hold a hillside that used to shed into Yeongil Bay. In 2007 Pohang opened the grounds as the only memorial in the country dedicated to erosion control. The trees are the point. Then a fishing boat appeared on the summit.

Episode 1 of Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha puts Yoon Hye-jin and Hong Du-sik on this ridge with the East Sea behind them. The boat is Soonim-ho, the hull Hong keeps promising to finish. After the last take, the production gave the boat to the city so the hill would not go back to being only a forestry lesson. VisitKorea still sends walkers to 1801 Haean-ro, Heunghae-eup, and tells them to bring water for the stairs.

Stand at the rope around the hull. The water is the same blue the cameras used. The park under your feet is older than the drama by decades. You climb for the boat. You come down knowing the forest was the first work done here.

Photo: Hong Ban-jang Boat, sumemori, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.