TRAVELER STORY · 전남
Written by AI from Korea Tourism Organization travel-course data. It is not a real visitor’s review, so check hours and travel times before you go.
A forest-and-river road trip from Gokseong toward Gurye, threaded with metasequoia trees, old railways, and the romance of steam.
Route 17 felt less like a road than a long green corridor, with the Seomjingang River flashing beside me like a strip of polished silver.
The first thing I noticed was the height of the trees. On the approach to Gokseong, the metasequoias rose on both sides of the road in a straight, stately procession, their trunks making the 800-meter stretch feel almost ceremonial.
I had come for a drive, not a checklist. Route 17 promised that rare Korean road-trip pleasure: forest on one side, river country ahead, and the sense that the landscape would do most of the talking. Gokseong Metasequoia Road, near the entrance to Gokseong town, delivered that promise immediately.
There is a cinematic familiarity here, too. The road appeared in the film The Wailing, in a bright, fleeting scene that locals still remember. But the place does not need fame to hold your attention. It works best from inside the car, windows cracked, the green columns sliding past in rhythm.
Gokseong Metasequoia Road runs for about 800 meters near the entrance to Gokseong-eup, along National Route 17 between Gokseong and Gurye. Tall metasequoia trees rise on both sides of the road, turning lush green in summer and burnished gold in autumn; the road also appeared in the film The Wailing during a bright motorcycle scene with Jong-gu and his daughter Hyo-jin.
The drive feels cinematic: tree trunks flicker past the windows, the road narrows into a green corridor, and the Seomjingang River route waits just beyond it.
Treat this as a drive-by landscape rather than a walking stop; the metasequoia trees line the roadside, and stopping or getting out on the road is dangerous. Continue toward Gurye for river views, spring azaleas around the Gokseong–Aprok section, and the chance to drive near the steam-locomotive-style train from Gokseong Train Village.
The air changed after the tree-lined road gave way. The view opened, the drive loosened, and the Seomjingang River began to appear beside the highway in bright, glancing pieces.
Route 17 from Gokseong toward Gurye is not dramatic in the showy sense. Its beauty is in motion: a bend in the road, a sudden glimpse of water, railway tracks keeping their own parallel course, hills folding back from the riverbank. For travelers new to Korea, this is a gentler face of the country, far from neon avenues and temple crowds.
Somewhere around the Gokseong-Aprok stretch, the road becomes especially memorable. In spring, this section is known for royal azaleas, but even without that seasonal bloom, the route has a clean, expansive pleasure. You drive beside the river and understand why roads like this become local legends.
A whistle, or the thought of one, seemed to hang over Seomjingang Train Village. The place carries the charm of a railway memory made tangible: old tracks, a restored steam-locomotive-style train, and the slow excitement of watching a vintage-looking carriage prepare to move.
Seomjingang Train Village began drawing attention after a local tourist train event launched in Apr 1999, and its centerpiece still feels wonderfully direct. The restored train runs a 10-kilometer round trip between old Gokseong Station, now part of the village, and Gajeong Station.
What makes it special is the layering. Route 17, the Jeolla Line railway, and the Seomjingang River run through the area together, forming a rare three-part landscape of road, rail, and water. I stood there with the river nearby and understood the appeal: this is not nostalgia sealed behind glass, but a moving piece of countryside.
Seomjingang Train Village is an open-air riverside attraction built around the old Gokseong Station and a restored steam-locomotive-style train. The train runs a 10 km round trip to Gajeong Station, passing the Seomjingang River, old rail lines, ferry crossings, flower paths, and countryside scenes shaped by National Route 17.
The place carries the warm clatter of wheels on retired tracks, with river air, grass lawns, waterwheels, and cosmos-lined paths giving the drive a nostalgic pause.
Follow the old railway scenery, then look for the meeting point of National Route 17, the Jeolla Line railway, and the Seomjingang River. Admission is free, parking and restrooms are available, and the surrounding riverside cycling route is especially vivid in spring greenery, roadside flowers, and the pink azalea stretch between Gokseong and Amnok.
By the end, what stayed with me was not one landmark but a sequence of sensations: the shade of metasequoias crossing the windshield, the river flashing beside the road, the old rail line turning travel into theater.
This drive asks very little of you. No grand performance, no hard itinerary. It simply invites you to follow the landscape from Gokseong toward Gurye and let the region reveal itself in strips of forest, water, and track.
I left with the feeling that Route 17 is best understood in motion. It is a road for travelers who like the spaces between destinations as much as the stops themselves.
The journey left me with the quiet satisfaction of having followed a river rather than conquered a route. Gokseong and Gurye felt close, generous, and beautifully unforced.
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