Saryeoni Forest Path Red Ascension Entrance

This guide to the Saryeoni Forest Path on Jeju opens at the reddish gate with the staggering toll of the island's 1947-54 uprising, and the martial-law line drawn five kilometers inland in October 1948 beyond which anyone found could be shot as a rebel. It follows the last guerrilla holdout, commander Yi Deok-gu, and the villagers who scattered into these same ridges before the cedar and cypress around you were ever planted. Listen for how the forest's calm now sits over ground it was planted to cover.