Land of Bamboo Giants: Korea’s Bamboo Forest
In the small town of Damyang, you can stroll walkways through 25 acres of bamboo skyscrapers. The Damyang Bamboo Forest is a popular tourist attraction for families and locals alike. If you go during the weekend, expect to find a crowd. But it’s not hard to find a quite spot among the bamboo giants.
Before heading into the forest, I recommend grabbing one of these cute little alcoholic icees.
In the park, you’ll find a manmade waterfall, benches for chilling, some cute stuffed pandas in random places, and signposts indicating where famous Korean movies and television shoes were shot throughout the park.
While the bamboo was the star of the show, I was captivated by the natural light posts all around the forest. They are lit up at night, which is probably a spectacular sight that I wasn’t able to see.
The pathways wind through the forest, taking you to a building in the middle that houses a gift shop, café, and an art gallery. You can find anything bamboo in the gift shop, and some interesting bamboo eats in the café. Bamboo wine, tea, ice cream. Who knew!?
There is a peak in the middle of the forest, and winding down the back side, you leave through a neighborhood with shops, restaurants and houses.
The surrounding area is beautiful too. A river runs along the Bamboo Forest, where you can rent bikes, walk along a stone path across the river, and picnic. You can easily spend a day in Damyang.
Getting to Damyang Bamboo Forest
To get to the Damyang Bamboo Forest, take a bus or train to Gwangju, a large city about 30 minutes south of Damyang. From either the bus or train station, take local bus 311 to the park.
I visited during a Korean road trip, which is the best way to see these sights. It can be time consuming to take public transportation, and may not be worth it for seeing just this sight, but it's great to pair with the Boseong Tea Plantation.
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