Seobinbaeksa

This guide to Seobinbaeksa, on the small island of Udo off Jeju's eastern tip, opens with a beach made not of sand but of rhodoliths, the calcified skeletons of red seaweed that take years to form. It traces how decades of souvenir-taking, and a seawall and coastal road built nearby, put this rare shoreline at risk, and the yearly surveys and offshore breakwaters Jeju's government has tried since. Each bead is barely four to five centimeters wide, and pocketing even a handful is a punishable offense.