Stunning views and eco-friendly initiatives: International students experience Jeju Island's greener side

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Stunning views and eco-friendly initiatives: International students experience Jeju Island's greener side

Published: 09 Jun. 2025, 09:00 Updated: 09 Jun. 2025, 19:37

LEE TAE-HEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Students pose for a photo before going plogging at Gimnyeong Beach on June 4. [PARK SANG-MOON]

JEJU — Jeju Island's beauty comes from its rich heritage and clean environment, with the island offering its stunning scenery with a side of learning for international students.

Jeju Island is having a busy year. It was chosen by the United Nations Environment Programme and Korea's Ministry of Environment to host this year's World Environment Day, which fell on Thursday. The island also designated 2025 as the Visit Jeju Heritage Year to encourage people to visit the island's many natural and world heritage sites.

To promote the two initiatives, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province invited around 80 international students for the "Global Youth in Jeju" tour through the Korea JoongAng Daily’s K-campus platform. The students gathered at Gimpo International Airport early Wednesday to start their one-night and two-day trip, flying to Jeju Island to be welcomed with warm weather, perfect for enjoying their first stop, the Jeju Stone Park.

Jeju's heritage

Jeju Stone Park is a large park spanning over 74,000 acres, showcasing the island's traditional stone structures. Students walked around the park, getting to see 48 dolhareubang, Jeju Island's iconic volcanic rock statues, lined up outdoors along with various jeongjuseok, a uniquely local stone gate that indicates if the homeowners are at home depending on how the wooden poles are placed.

Thatched-roofed houses, surrounded by doldam, or short stone walls made using volcanic stones, are also found throughout the park. Capturing the island's traditional structures, the park has been used as a filming site for Netflix's "When Life Gives You Tangerines," when young Ae-sun is almost kidnapped but gets saved by her mother.

Students walk along the Jeju Stone Park on June 4. [PARK SANG-MOON]

"I enjoyed the Jeju Stone Park because I got to see many Jeju stone structures, traditional houses and flowers," said Ho Thi Thao Van. "It's actually my first time visiting Jeju Island, and I'm also looking forward to going to the beach later and also maybe riding bicycles in the nice weather."

Just a 10-minute bus ride away is the World Natural Heritage Village in Gujwa County, where the Geomun Oreum lava tube systems branch out. Unesco designated the lava tube systems as a World Heritage Site, with the Bugoreumgul and Utsanjeongul tubes located in the village.

Although students couldn't venture inside the Bugoreumgul and Utsanjeongul, they saw the lava tubes from outside.

Despite the temperature reaching 27 degrees Celsius (80.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, the openings of the lava tubes were much cooler — the tubes' interiors were pitch black due to their depth. The Utsanjeongul tube stretches around 2.5 kilometers (0.6 miles), and the Bugoreumgul tube is 221 meters long.

The village is also home to remarkable wetlands such as Utsanjeonmot, a pond with a diameter of around 100 meters created on top of lava tubes and known never to dry.

Students pose for a photo at the World Natural Heritage Village, where lava tubes can be seen, on June 4. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Green initiatives

Apart from various world heritage sites, Jeju Island is also home to the well-known Samdasoo bottled water, made using the island's volcanic bedrock water.

Students also visited the Samdasoo Smart Factory in Jocheon County, seeing the production line and watching a video about how the water is bottled.

Various green initiatives, such as the label-free Jeju Samdasoo Green, first sold in 2021, were also displayed. The company also collects used water bottles and recycles plastic to create other products, such as clothing and bags.

"There can be issues with hygiene if you try to reuse the plastic bottles, so it's more hygienic and effective to recycle the plastic bottles and make them into other items instead," said a tour guide for the Samdasoo Smart Factory. "That's why we recycle our bottles into clothes, bags and other products."

Another environmentally friendly initiative of Jeju Island is its goal to be carbon neutral by 2035, with renewable energy to power 70 percent of the island and green hydrogen to fuel the rest.

To do so, the island operates 12 green hydrogen buses, carrying passengers from Hamdeok along three routes to Halla Arboretum, Wolpyeong or Gujwa.

Charging the green hydrogen buses is key, so students stopped by the Hamdeok Green H2 Station in Jocheon County to see how it's done. The station began operating in August 2023 as Korea's first green hydrogen charging station, fueling the city's buses and also doing commercial sales.

Visiting the charging station on Wednesday, bus 312 was parked in front of the charger, waiting to refuel. A student from the group, Lvov Victor, was allowed to try charging the bus.

A student tries charging a green hydrogen bus at the Hamdeok Green H2 Station on June 4. [PARK SANG-MOON]

The charging process is similar to that of gasoline cars, with a nozzle inserted into the fuel filler and the student selecting how much green hydrogen he wants to pump in.

"I've read some articles about hydrogen or different types of energy before, so I was somewhat interested in them," said Lvov Victor. "I've never seen how hydrogen buses are charged before, and it was interesting to see the process."

As the station can fully charge four 25-kilogram green hydrogen buses per hour, the student couldn't fully finish charging the bus due to time constraints, but said it was a unique experience to be part of.

The last stop of the day was Gimnyeong Beach, a popular destination known for its emerald blue waters, on Jeju Island's northeastern coast.

Although Gimnyeong Beach is known for its scenic views, litter prevents the beach from maintaining its pristine beauty.

While enjoying the beach, students participated in a "plogging" activity with Save Jeju Bada, a nonprofit organization founded in 2017 to rid the island's beaches of trash. The organization hosted 51 group plogging activities in 2024 to collect 13.4 tonnes (29,541 pounds) of waste.

Everyone was given a yellow vest, gloves, tongs and a bag made from recycled banners to place the trash they picked up.

Students pick up trash found on Gimnyeong Beach during a plogging activity run by Save Jeju Bada on June 4. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Stepping out on the beach, it wasn't hard to spot trash.

Tiny pieces of styrofoam mixed in with the beach's white sand were the most obvious, along with pieces of plastic bags and cut-up ropes. There were also some surprising items, such as clothing and a toothbrush.

"I think I found more trash than I expected," said Chai Xinfen. "When you first look at the beach, it seems like there isn't much trash, but when you start looking in detail, you actually see lots of trash like ropes or styrofoam."

Although other students said there was less trash than expected, they all said they enjoyed the plogging experience and would like to try again.

The first day ended with students moving to the Jeju Dream Tower, a hotel run by Lotte Tour Development, to rest and prepare for the next day.

Fun experiences

After getting to recharge, the second day started with an exciting thrill, with students visiting the 9.81 Park.

The venue in Jeju Island's Aewol County offers a nonmotorized racing experience that produces less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional racing cars.

Students could choose between beginner, intermediate and advanced courses, with the downhill racing courses whisking cars down with the power of gravity and riders getting to slow down at the end using the brakes.

Students wait before they start racing using a nonmotorized car at 9.81 Park on June 5. [DANIELA GONZALEZ PEREZ]

More group activities followed, with students dividing into three teams to enjoy the Sound Walking, Color Lab Jeju or Murung Farm programs.

Sound Walking took students on a trek through the Hwasun Gotjawal Eco Forest, with students given headphones and a small microphone to listen to the sounds of the forest.

For Color Lab Jeju, students ventured to Suwolbong, a peak designated as a Global Geopark by Unesco. Suwolbong is a volcanic hill that climbs 77 meters, with visitors able to see volcanic layers and rocks on the side of the peak's cliffs.

The trail also offers a view of Jeju Island's seas from the side, with students taking a short walk to enjoy the view.

To help students engage with the view a bit more, the Color Lab Jeju program provided students with a small paint palette, brush and drawing paper, guiding them to recreate the colors they saw at Suwolbong. Many captured the bright blue color of the sea, the charcoal black color of the volcanic rocks and the earthy green moss.

A student mixes paint to replicate the color of Jeju Island's rocks and greenery during the Color Lab Jeju program on June 5. [LEE TAE-HEE]

Some also drew the scenery they saw. Salsabila Khoirunnisa was one of them, drawing the sea and black herons standing on the rocks.

"The first thing I noticed from looking out to the sea is the birds because most of the beaches in Korea have seagulls, which are white, but the ones here are black," said Khoirunnisa. "I think I've got to see unique animals that live in one of the most beautiful islands, Jeju Island."

The other group went to Murung Farm, a company that sells locally grown Jeju produce, to make marmalade out of tangerines grown on Jeju Island.

The students' last stop before leaving Jeju Island was the Jeju Food Waste Resource Recovery Facility in Seogwipo, which treats 340 tons of food waste daily. The food waste is turned into biogas, which is used as energy to operate the treatment plants. The province plans to use biogas to produce clean hydrogen at a newly built facility by 2026.

After having so many international students see Jeju Island's various environmentally friendly initiatives during the two days, Jeju hopes the students will spread what they saw and help invite more visitors to the island.

"Over 260,000 international students live in Korea, and they are the future's global influencers and people who can promote Jeju tourism," said a spokesperson for Jeju Tourism Organization. "We hope this program was more than just a tourism opportunity, but a way to enhance understanding of Jeju's ESG policies and promote Jeju globally."

BY LEE TAE-HEE [[email protected]]