Suncheon Bay
Interesting facts
- In the early 1990s the bay's reed beds and mudflats were slated for sand extraction, a plan that local campaigners succeeded in stopping by 1998.
- In 2009 the city of Suncheon removed 282 electricity poles and about 12 kilometres of power lines from the rice fields beside the bay to protect wintering cranes.
- Roughly 200 hooded cranes wintered at Suncheon Bay in 1996; by the winter of 2017–18 the count had risen to about 1,700.
- The hooded crane, the bay's most celebrated winter visitor, was adopted as the official symbol of the city of Suncheon.
- The Korean government designated the Suncheon Bay wetland a protected area in 2003, three years before it joined the Ramsar list.
- The 2013 Suncheon Bay International Garden Expo was planned as a green buffer between the growing city and its wetlands, and drew more than 4.4 million visitors.
- The former expo grounds were proclaimed South Korea's first national garden in 2015, planted with some 860,000 trees.
Why it is worth it
Where the Dongcheon River meets the sea on Korea's southern coast, Suncheon Bay spreads out as a vast tidal landscape: a broad sweep of mudflat, a sea of reeds that turns gold in autumn, colonies of seepweed spreading over the salt marsh, and a river channel winding through it all in a great S-curve. Seen from the observation point above the bay at sunset, with the tide filling the channels and flocks of birds lifting off the flats, it is one of the most admired coastal views in the country, and Korean photographers have named its S-shaped waterway among the ten finest sunset scenes in Korea.
The bay is a near-circular inlet, part of the larger Yeoja Bay between Yeosu and Goheung. Its core is a tidal flat of more than 2,200 hectares, fringed by around 230 hectares of reed beds that form the largest and best-preserved single stand of reeds in South Korea. The shallow, nutrient-rich estuary is a nursery for fish, crabs and shellfish, and its salt marshes help filter and clean the water. The local coastline, indented with small islands and sea cliffs, runs for almost 59 kilometres.
Above all, Suncheon Bay is a place of birds. More than 140 species pass through or winter here on the route between Siberia, China and Korea, among them the globally threatened hooded crane, the Saunders's gull, the black-faced and Eurasian spoonbills, the oriental stork and the Chinese egret. Otters and raccoon dogs live along the shore.
Recognition came steadily. In 2006 the tidal flats between Suncheon and Beolgyo became the first coastal wetland in South Korea to be listed under the Ramsar Convention; in 2008 the bay was designated a national Scenic Site; and in 2021 the Boseong-Suncheon tidal flat was inscribed by UNESCO as part of the World Heritage Site "Getbol, Korean Tidal Flats", recognised as a vital stopover on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway for migratory birds, including the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpiper. The Suncheon Bay Ecological Park, with walking paths through the reeds, lies on the edge of the city of Suncheon.
Getting there
Suncheon Bay lies just south of the city of Suncheon in South Jeolla Province, about 12 km from the city centre. The nearest airport is Yeosu (RSU), about 10 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Suncheon Bay is a coastal wetland in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, South Korea. It is composed of a 3.5 km (2.2 mi) long stream, a 2,221 ha wide tideland and a 230 ha wide field of reeds. Due to its natural coast, it is the habitat of migratory birds, plants and animals. It is the first Korean coastal wetland, Suncheon Bay Ecological Park, to be registered on the list of The Ramsar Wetland on January 20, 2006.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
34.84280, 127.50600per Wikidata