Seoul Window
The short answer
- Since a fortune teller told a national TV audience in January 2026 that Gwanaksan has the best energy in Seoul, young Koreans have been climbing it to change their luck. They call it gaeun sanhaeng, a luck-opening hike.
- The ritual is simple: reach the summit, Yeonjudae (629 m), make the same wish three times, and take a photo with the summit stone. The cliff-side temple Yeonjuam sits just below.
- Beginners usually start at Seoul National University's engineering buildings. Gear can be rented at the city's hiking center inside Gwanaksan Station (Sillim Line), Tuesday to Sunday.
- Go on a weekday morning. Weekend queues at the summit stone are the main thing that ruins the day.
Gwanaksan used to be the mountain of retired men in matching windbreakers. Walk up it on a weekend this year and the crowd looks different: university students in leggings, office workers who took a day off, friends filming each other for Reels. Many of them are not here for the exercise. They are here for luck.
This guide explains where the trend came from, what people actually do at the top, and how to join them without spending an hour in a queue.
Why is everyone climbing Gwanaksan right now?
It started with one sentence on television. On the tvN talk show You Quiz on the Block, aired on January 28, 2026, Park Seong-jun, a fortune teller with 30 years in the business, was asked how to turn your luck around. Besides giving to others, he said: go to Gwanaksan. In his view it has the best energy of any mountain in Seoul, and there is even a saying that a wish repeated three times at Yeonjudae comes true.
The clip went everywhere. According to the Herald Corporation, Naver search interest in “Gwanaksan” jumped from below 10 in February 2025 to a peak of 100 on January 31, 2026. Hankyung counted Instagram Reels about the climb with 550,000 and 1.33 million views. Online, people even coined 관쫀쿠, a pun on the viral Dubai chewy cookie (dujjonku), to say the summit photo had become the next must-have.
The word you will hear is 개운 (gaeun), literally “opening luck”. It belongs to the same family as saju, the Korean four-pillars fortune reading that many young Koreans check as casually as a horoscope. If your saju says a hard year is coming, a gaeun habit is the thing you do about it: wear a lucky color, give something away, or climb a mountain with strong gi (energy).
Background: Gwanaksan, Seoul's fire mountain
Gwanaksan has carried a reputation for powerful energy for centuries. In Joseon-era geomancy, its jagged granite peaks south of the Han River were read as a fire mountain whose heat faced the royal palace. That is why the gate of Gyeongbokgung is guarded by haetae, mythical beasts believed to swallow fire, and why Sungnyemun's name board hangs vertically instead of horizontally. So when a fortune teller calls Gwanaksan's energy strong, he is drawing on a story most Koreans learned at school. Our guide to pungsu in Seoul covers the wider picture.
What do people actually do at the top?
The goal is Yeonjudae, a small rock terrace at the summit with a stone marker and a tiny hermitage hall, Eungjinjeon, built right on the cliff edge. The ritual most young hikers follow is:
- Make your wish three times, the same wish, ideally in front of the summit stone or the hall.
- Take the summit-stone photo. This is where the queue forms. Be quick and step aside afterwards.
- Stop at Yeonjuam, the temple just below the summit. Tradition dates it to 677, when the monk Uisang is said to have founded it; it was moved to its current spot in 1411. Entry is free, and a shrine holds the portrait of Prince Hyoryeong, a brother of King Sejong.
- Eat a cup of ramen. The temple sells cup noodles and water, and slurping them on the steps has become part of the ritual. Bring cash: hikers report card payment is not accepted.
Yeonjuam also runs a temple stay, and it has been hard to book since the broadcast. The temple office told Digital Daily that most participants are now in their 20s and 30s, and that young foreign travelers sometimes come as groups. If an overnight stay appeals, see our English-friendly temple stay guide for how bookings work.
Summit etiquette
- Join the line for the summit stone instead of squeezing in for a side angle. Take two or three shots, then move.
- Eungjinjeon is an active prayer hall with regular services through the day. Keep your voice down and don't film people praying.
- Park Seong-jun himself has said that showing respect to the place matters. Take your rubbish down with you.
Which Gwanaksan trail is best for beginners?
Most of the luck-hike crowd uses the Seoul National University (SNU) engineering route. It follows a valley with stone steps most of the way, and the only really tough part is 깔딱고개 (kkaldak gogae), the “gasping pass” of long stairs just before the ridge. A Hankyung reporter took about 70 minutes from the engineering buildings to the top. The city’s hiking center lists the distance as 4.7 km and allows 3.5 hours, which is a comfortable pace with breaks.
🥾 Main routes to Yeonjudae (distances and times from the Seoul Hiking Tourism Center and GQ Korea)
| Route | Start | Distance / time | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| SNU engineering route | SNU engineering buildings (Bldg. 301 area) | 4.7 km, about 1.5–3.5 h one way | First-timers; the classic luck-hike path |
| Jaunam ridge | SNU engineering buildings | 4.3 km, about 3 h | Hikers who want rock and views; some scrambling |
| Gwacheon route via Yeonjuam | Gwacheon Hyanggyo (Gwacheon Station side) | 4.1 km, about 2 h | A gentler climb that passes the temple first |
| Gwanaksan Park to Samgeori spring | Gwanaksan Park gate near Gwanaksan Station | 3.4 km, about 1.5 h | An easy forest walk without the summit |
| Sadang ridge | Sadang Station | about 3 h | Experienced hikers only; several rocky ridges |
To reach the engineering buildings, take bus 5511 or 5513 from exit 3 of Seoul Nat’l Univ. Station (Line 2). Both loop around the campus; hikers get off near the engineering buildings at the top of the campus. Search “서울대 신공학관” in Naver Map to see the stop.
There are no good public toilets at the SNU trailhead, so use the ones at the station or a campus convenience store before you start. Yeonjuam has toilets near the summit.
No boots? Rent them at the station
Seoul's Hiking Tourism Center, Gwanaksan branch opened on November 1, 2024 on basement level 1 of Gwanaksan Station (Sillim Line, 23 Sillim-ro). It is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Mondays) and rents boots, hiking clothes, poles, backpacks, gloves and crampons to foreign visitors and to Koreans hiking with them. It also has shoe sanitizers, a clothes-refreshing cabinet, a powder room and free trail maps on a wristband. At the city's other hiking centers, rentals have cost about ₩1,000–2,000 per item.
When should you go to avoid the queue?
On a weekday, starting between 9 and 10 a.m. That is the advice from GQ Korea’s trail guide, and it matches what reporters found. On a weekday visit in March, Hankyung counted about 30 people in line, roughly a 15-minute wait. On busy weekends in February the crowd was bad enough that some hikers came down without their summit photo, and Gwacheon’s parks department said it had received complaints asking for crowd control.
A few more things to plan for:
- Autumn and spring are peak season. Late October to early November brings foliage and the biggest crowds. Check our foliage timing guide.
- The summit is granite. It gets slippery after rain and icy from December to March, when crampons are worth renting. Stairs near the top are steep.
- Start back down with daylight to spare. Trails are not lit. In an emergency, call 119; trail posts carry location numbers you can read out.
- Seoul’s mountains have rules too, from no drinking in some areas to fines for leaving marked paths. See hiking rules and fines in Korea.
Is the luck hike just a passing fad?
Partly. The summit queues may shrink as the TV moment fades. But the luck hike sits on top of something bigger: young Koreans have been taking up hiking for years, and Seoul now markets its mountains to foreign visitors as a reason to come. The Bukhansan hiking center reported that 60% of its visitors last year were foreigners, and the Gwanaksan branch had the most visitors of the city’s three centers.
Park Seong-jun has already moved on to new recommendations. On KBS2’s Malja Show on May 18, 2026 he named two “second Gwanaksans”: Gatbawi on Palgongsan in Daegu, a Buddha statue famous for granting one wish, and Boriam in Namhae, a hermitage above the southern sea.
If you are curious about the fortune side, our explainers on how saju shows up in everyday Korean life and fortune-telling in Seoul are the next step.
Where to eat after the hike
If you come down the Gwacheon side, two restaurants near the trailhead get recommended again and again.
📍 Open in Naver Map 📍 Open in Naver Map
For more mountains inside the city, read the mountains Seoulites actually hike and why Koreans dress like pros on the trail.
Sources
- Seoul Metropolitan Government — Hiking Tourism Center, Gwanaksan branch (location, hours, courses)
- Seoul Metropolitan Government — Bukhansan and Bugaksan hiking centers (rental items and fees)
- Seoul Metropolitan Government — Three ways to enjoy Gwanaksan (height, trails)
- Seoul Shinmun — Foreign visitors and Seoul's hiking centers (March 2026)
- Herald Corporation — The broadcast and search data (February 2026)
- Hankyung — A weekday at Yeonjudae (March 2026)
- Sports Kyunghyang — The "second Gwanaksan" picks (May 2026)
- Digital Daily — Yeonjuam temple stay (May 2026)
- GQ Korea — Gwanaksan beginner course and restaurants
- Seoul National University — Getting to the Gwanak campus