3 October 2011
Cheonjeyeon Waterfall was just a 10 minutes walk from the Teddy Bear Museum. From what I have read, Cheonjeyeon is a three-tier waterfall. We had seen the third part of the waterfall while walking along the Olle trail from Jusangjeolli Cliff to Jungmun beach on Day 1.
Upon entering, we took a short tree-lined trail leading to a square featuring a wishing fountain.
A stone sign (above) described Cheonjeyeon Waterfall and its legend.
Cheonjeyeon means “God’s pool” . The legend says that the maids of the heavenly god descend from the heaven at night to take a bath in the pond of the waterfall. It is believed that if you shower in the water of the pond, you will be healthy and sound.
A flight of steps leads up to the Cheonjeru tower where more scenes of the legend could be seen painted on the ceiling structure.
The tower was a good place to take a rest and enjoy the views of Jeju. Mount Hallasan could be seen. Hallasan, standing 1950m above sea level, is the highest mountain in Jeju and South Korea.
There is a lookout point besides the tower where I took a few shots of the waterfall.
Cheonjeyeon waterfall.
We crossed the Seonimgyo Bridge which is an arch bridge over the Cheonjeyeon valley below. The bridge has 7 nymphs carved on the side.
A steep flight of steps led down into the valley where there was a platform for viewing the waterfall.
The platform was quite crowded at this time. It was impossible to take a long exposure shot of the waterfall on the platform since it was constantly vibrating with the people moving about. Even a steady tripod would be of no use. In any case, I didn’t have a tripod with me.
I finally figured out a way to take the shot above. I rested my camera on the corner pillar of the platform which was solidly anchored to the rocky ground. This position had the least vibration and offered a good composition of the photo too.
We did not go explore the first tier of the waterfall as we had seen the best of Cheonjeyeon Waterfall. We went to Seogwipo where we visited two other famous Jeju waterfalls.
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