I’m not claustrophobic, or at least I don’t think I am, but something about the thought of going around in circles and feeling trapped, even in a wide open space, is something that gives me the heebie-jeebies. That’s why you won’t see me entering a haunted house (not even in an amusement park, no) or a maze all by myself. Because I don’t particularly relish the thought of not being able to find my way out. But Maze Land in Jeju made me see the fun side of the concept.
There are a total of 14 maze parks in Jeju, but relatively, there are two more notable ones. The first one – the older one, having been built in 1995 – is the Gimnyeong Maze Park, which was designed in the shape of Jeju Island. Thinking of it now, it would be interesting to visit all, if not most of these maze parks while in Jeju.
The other one – the maze that we chose to visit – is Maze Land which opened only on April 2011, but has already established a reputation as one of the must-see maze parks in the island.
And a huge part of that is because it was featured in Episode 105 of the South Korean SBS variety show Running Man. I remember seeing that episode entitled “Race for Vacation Money”, and thought it was such a fun place to play around in.
That is why Maze Land is also sometimes referred to as the “Running Man Maze Land”. There is also a large board/panel by the entrance of the park, featuring the Running Man members during their filming here.
Maze Land is the largest maze park in South Korea, and features the longest stone maze IN THE WORLD. All in all, the maze has a length/distance of 5 kilometers. (But when we were there, I didn’t notice that distance, because everything was just curling round and round, it seems.)
Mr. Bruce also automatically brought us here because, compared to the other maze parks, this is the most visited one by locals and tourists alike, and he also happens to have some sort of a VIP card that enabled us to have discounts for our admission ticket. SO YAY.
Admission to the park is 9,000 KRW (Php 435 or USD 8.35) for adults. I don’t quite remember how much the discount we got was. I think we paid only around 6,000 to 7,000 KRW each.
This wall gives you a rough idea of what the maze park looks like from above. Note how there are three specific mazes right there. That is because Maze Land was designed to show the “Samda” or the three principal things that represent Jeju. Basically, they are also the three things that are said to be in great abundance in Jeju.
What are they, you ask?
Stones or rocks.
Wind.
Women.
…. Uhm, yeah, we’ll get into more detail later.
Incidentally, aside from the outdoor maze park, there are other things you could check out in Maze Land. Like the indoor Maze Museum, which will give you a crash course on this maze park, in particular, and mazes, in general. Visitors can walk around the maze galleries, and even participate in solving puzzles.
We opted to skip out on that museum visit, though.
Another one is a small alcove that is designed to be like a forest, where you can find some “healing time”. Again, we’ll get to that later.
So what Mr. Bruce did was to make us enter the mazes, and he’ll be waiting at the exit, keeping time on how long it’d take us to make it out. We got a map from the Ticket Booth, but challenged ourselves to not rely on it.
What we did, however, was to take a moment to study the panels by the entrances of each maze and try to memorize as much of it as we can. Oh, and maybe took a photo of it using our phones, but decided to rely on it unless absolutely ABSOLUTELY necessary.
The Wind Maze
First was the Wind Maze. In the photo, it’s the circular one, probably to represent the movement of the wind blowing. It is described as a typical Crete-type maze shaped like a typhoon. If you’re familiar with mythology, you’re probably familiar about the story involving King Minos of Crete, the Minotaur, a labyrinth, and a ball of yarn that helped him get out of the maze.
The maze walls are 1.5 meters high and are made with Thuja cypress trees, and has a length of close of 1.5 kilometers. Which means there are around 2,709 of these cypress trees for that entire length.
We entered the maze at 2:25 (we kept tabs of time), and came out of it at 2:31. I was relieved, because I thought it’d take us, like, ten or twenty minutes or something.
Since the Wind Maze is shaped like a typhoon, of course it had to have an “eye”, which is right at the center. This is one of the parts in that Running Man episode where all the members had to check in, if I remember correctly.
It has two palms stretched upwards, as if in supplication or offering, depending on how you look at it.
By the way, all the stones/rocks in the walls and other fixtures on the maze are made out of Jeju whinstone. As are these palms.
Just like the other tourist attractions in Jeju, the locals (and by that I am referring to Koreans that either reside in Jeju or other parts of South Korea) far outnumber foreigners. There are families, with kids that enjoy hiding from their parents, young couples that are obviously on a date, and friends (in small or large groups) that are simply hanging out together.
The Woman Maze
It’s not just any woman, mind you. To say that Jeju has an abundance of women refers to the fact that there are a lot of haenyo or women divers in the island. If you don’t know it by now, Jeju is known for its women divers, or the women who make a living from diving deep into the sea for various seafood that they will then sell.
So why is it called the Woman Maze? Because from above, it resembles a woman diver in the act of, well, diving.
I haven’t watched the drama, so I won’t know about it, but Maze Land was also a filming location of the Lee Minho-Jun Jihyun drama “Legend of the Blue Sea“.
We entered at 2:37 and came out the other side at 2:48. That’s 11 minutes, but, hold up! We have an excuse.
At this point, we decided to just enjoy ourselves and ditch any effort to memorize routes, so those times we ended up on a dead end, we just laughed and looked for another way.
Oh, and the many stops we made to take photos, because boy, the trees inside this maze are so much prettier!! It felt like we were surrounded with so many trees on Christmas!!
Unlike the Wind Maze, the Woman Maze had no center or middle point that will indicate where you are, or what your progress is. That means you can just go about freely.
For us, however, we subconsciously stuck to the edges of the maze, making sure we never go far away from the sounds of conversation outside the maze. Because we knew that if we wander too far into the middle, it’d be more difficult to get out of it.
The Stone Maze
And so we come to the Stone Maze, also called sometimes as the Grandfather Maze. This is because the shape of the maze is that of the dol hareubang, or those stone statues of Jeju’s gods/grandfathers.
If we’re talking about Jeju symbols, then no doubt the dol hareubang or grandfather is the main one.
This time, Mr. Bruce decided to go in with us, because he said it is much more difficult to navigate than the other two mazes. We entered at 2:50 pm.
I mentioned earlier that the Stone Maze of Maze Land is the longest stone maze in the world, at 2.261 kilometers. These stone walls are taller than that of the other two mazes, with a height of 1.8 meters. The paths are constructed to resemble that paths of Olle trails, which are scattered all over Jeju.
I’m not quite sure what those mist/smoke emissions are, but from what I’ve read, the hedges of whitstone in this Stone Maze emit high levels of far-infrared radiation which, supposedly, is good for the health.
Perhaps to avoid making the stone hedges and walls boring, there are several “decorations” to break things up a bit. Like crawling vines and flowers as well as stone sculptures.
We had quite an easy time of it, thanks to Mr. Bruce. When we asked what his trick was, he said it is to look at the path, and follow the one that is obviously more trodden upon. Hah, smart.
I bet if we just went around on our own, we’d go around in circles. There was a group of young ladies who were obviously having a hard time, and decided to join Mr. Bruce’s posse in getting through the maze.
The exit or end point of the maze was an elevated area that will offer an encompassing view of the maze. Just look at that. 🙂
There was a calming feeling as we stood there and looked out into that maze. By this time it was 3:01, which means we made it through in around 10 minutes. Without Mr. Bruce, we would have walked the whole 2+ kilometer length of the maze. Sheesh.
We also witnessed the exact moment when the hedges emitted the mist, and it added a bit of mystery to the place.
By the way, there is a smaller, real bell in here, which you can ring once you arrive here, signalling the end of your maze run. While we were wandering inside the maze, we heard the bell rung several times, and only realized now that it was made by those who made it out of the maze before us.
Once you leave the Maze, you’d get into this area, which is designed to resemble a small forest, complete with trees that are said to have healing properties (scientific, not supernatural, something to do with something called phytoncides).
The main star of this forest, however, is the stream. According to Mr. Bruce, the water truly flows out of the surrounding oreums, or volcanic mounds, which means they also have healing properties. The flowing water is so clear and clean and *sucks in breath* coooooold. But in a relaxing way.
People are encouraged to take off their shoes, sit down at a spot, and soak their feet in. After having walked much of that day, it was a welcome respite for our tired feet.
After this, we leisurely made our way to our ride, but not before Mr. Bruce treated us to some ice cream which tasted even much better than we expected, maybe because it was still quite warm, even if it was already mid-afternoon.
Overall, I’d have to say this was an instant hit for me. And it made me wonder how the other maze parks are like. Won’t it be fun, though, to come back and make a Maze Tour? Then I’d be all “maze-d” out at the end of the day. Worth giving it a try, though.
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