Hwaam Cave (Hwaamdonggul)

Gold miners opened the way into the mountain

Miners looking for gold broke into a limestone cave in 1934. Their workings had already been cutting into the mountain for more than a decade; the unexpected chamber would eventually turn the same tunnels into a place for visitors to see both mining and natural geology

Mining at the Cheonpo gold mine ran from 1922 to 1945. The upper passage that visitors enter today is part of that industrial system. Its first 515 metres now contain reconstructions of finding a gold vein, excavating ore and processing the material. The engineered tunnel now opens a geological landscape that was forming long before the miners arrived

After the mine era, formal cave investigations followed. Jeongseon County conducted a survey in 1963, another investigation took place in 1964, and a joint Korean–Japanese speleological survey brought wider attention in 1966. The cave was protected as a Gangwon provincial monument in 1980

The descent changes everything

A run of 365 stairs links the upper and lower mine levels. The descent covers about 90 vertical metres, and the visitor route eventually opens onto a natural limestone chamber of roughly 2,800 square metres. Along its perimeter, around 392 metres of passage place visitors beside flowstone, stalactites, cave flowers and large calcite formations

Near the straight walls of the mine passage, pale calcite hangs in thick, finely ribbed curtains. The enormous flowstone 'waterfall' has broad vertical folds and rounded, layered edges, like a cascade caught mid-fall. Its cream-colored stone was slowly deposited by mineral-rich water; there is no waterfall visibly pouring over the ledge today. Elsewhere, stalagmites rise where falling drops left minerals on the floor

The internal 365-step drop is the route's central physical challenge, regardless of the weather outside. The natural chamber still requires walking along the underground path and negotiating uneven cave conditions

The cave's second life

The first public visitor operation ran from March 1993 until March 1998. Following work on the interior, the cave reopened on 4 June 2000 with a themed interpretation linking gold and the natural underground environment. In November 2019 it received national Natural Monument status, following decades of provincial protection

The 676-metre lower passage presents the process of turning ore into gold objects. In the larger limestone chamber, the mineral formations remain in place

Six cave animal species have been recorded here, including three first described from Hwaam

Before you go

The full route is about 1.8 kilometres and normally takes around an hour and a half. An uphill monorail, ticketed separately, can take visitors to the starting entrance, but it does not bypass the 365 internal stairs. The temperature remains near 14°C year-round, making good footwear and a warm layer useful even in summer

The mine-and-cave route runs in one direction, so leaving partway through is not the same as turning back in an ordinary gallery. Rural buses are infrequent in this part of Jeongseon; a workable return schedule or a prearranged taxi matters more than finding the first outbound bus