Destinations known | South Korea is promoting its newest World Heritage ‘site’ to tourists: tidal flats, 2,150 species of flora and fauna, Mad Max-style mini-tractors - and plenty of mud
- Several of South Korea’s tidal mudflats - or ‘getbol’ - were inscribed as a combined property on Unesco’s World Heritage list in 2021
- Programmes designed to attract foreign tourists include catching, cooking and chowing down on clams. Elsewhere, pickers zoom across the flats in mini-tractors
At the southwestern tip of the Korean peninsula, South Jeolla province may not have many high-profile tourism attractions, but it does have plenty of mud.
And it’s that mud which the provincial government is hoping will woo the tourists when they are again able to visit the country, reports The Korea Times.
This, of course, is no ordinary mud. It is mud blessed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation.
Shinan county’s mudflat is the star of the show. The largest in the country, its environmental significance lies in the fact it consists of a range of mudflat subtypes: estuarine; open embayed; archipelago; and semi-enclosed. Its sedimentary system goes as deep as 40 metres (130 feet), believed to be the deepest in the world, according to those who know such things.
Mudflats are also effective carbon sinks, so they should help in the struggle against climate breakdown.