Restore your body and mind through meditation, five-sense walks, and a hinoki heat dome
Some kinds of healing arrive quietly. Not with a prescription or a reservation number, but with sunlight falling between the rustle of the breeze, the earthy scent of the ground, and the hush of leaves. After five years of preparation, Eumseong County in North Chungcheong Province has opened the doors of “Maengdong Healing Forest,” creating a space just like that. Without grand tourism slogans, this forest is shaped around the words “rest,” “meditation,” and “recovery.” It officially opened on April 1, 2026, and entered a pilot operations phase.
What is Maengdong Healing Forest?
In Maengdong-myeon, Eumseong County, Tongdong-ri—at the point where Maengdong Reservoir and Mount Hambak meet—a forest therapy space covering a total of 60ha (about 180,000 pyeong) has been established. It is a public wellness facility completed by Eumseong County with a total project cost of KRW 5 billion (including KRW 3.25 billion in provincial funds) over six years, from 2020 to 2025.
This is not just a simple park or walking trail. Centered on Forest Healing Culture Center Building 1, it features a 2km healing forest path, a 300m barefoot forest path, and two observation decks. Indoors, specialized healing equipment—including a health measurement room, an acoustic heat device, and a hinoki heat dome—is installed, creating an integrated healing route that connects experiences inside and outside the forest.
Set where both the forest and the lakeside (riverside/waterside) come together, the site naturally blends two core elements of forest therapy: psychological stability supported by phytoncides, and a soothing effect from the water scenery. When the surface of Maengdong Reservoir gently ripples, the air released from the trees of Mount Hambak flows over it. At the point where these elements meet, meditation becomes far deeper.
The core is meditation — let the forest guide you
At the center of the forest therapy program operated by Maengdong Healing Forest is meditation. When it comes to calming an overburdened nervous system brought on by city life, a forest environment offers more foundational support than any meditation app or meditation center.
The meditation program, guided by a certified forest therapy instructor, is designed to make direct use of elements from the forest—such as walking meditation, breathing meditation, and landscape meditation. Walking meditation, in which you match your breath and steps while walking along the 2km healing forest path, is the most intuitive way to set your “anchor of awareness” onto “this very moment.”
Especially worth noting is the 300m barefoot forest path segment. The sensory experience of touching soil barefoot—pressure stimulation (foot pressure/ground pressure), differences between your body temperature and the temperature of the ground, and the texture of the soil felt through your soles—becomes meditation through all five senses on its own. Here, you can feel how thoughts filling your mind gradually seep into your feet and flow down into the earth.
Five-sense walks, stretching, and a hinoki heat dome — program details
The Maengdong Healing Forest forest therapy program is divided into three main types.
① Five-sense walks
A whole-body experience of natural sensory exploration—seeing with your eyes, hearing with your ears, smelling with your nose, feeling with your skin, and sensing with your soles. It helps reset sensory “overfocus” on sight and sound that can dominate everyday life, and awakens your entire body through the sensations of the present moment. According to research, five-sense stimulation in natural environments significantly lowers stress hormone (cortisol) levels.
② Stretching
A program that loosens muscles and joints stiffened by long hours of sitting in a forest setting. Unlike stretching indoors, relaxing your body in natural light and breathing in the forest air also creates a sense of psychological openness. The moment your body tension eases, your mind’s tension follows.
③ Experience specialized healing equipment — acoustic heat device & hinoki heat dome
The acoustic heat device installed in the Forest Healing Culture Center combines acoustic waves at specific frequencies with far-infrared heat to support muscle relaxation and improve blood circulation. The hinoki heat dome is a space that combines phytoncide components unique to hinoki (Japanese cypress) with a warm thermal environment—offering an experience that concentrates the benefits of forest bathing. It’s time to deeply absorb the forest’s energy indoors.
For everyone — customized programs for different audiences
Maengdong Healing Forest is open to everyone, with special attention to those who need healing the most.
Vulnerable populations: Customized programs are offered for residents experiencing physical and emotional changes, such as seniors, middle-aged people during menopause, and pregnant women. Accumulated research indicates that forest environments have positive effects—helping relieve menopausal symptoms, providing psychological stability during pregnancy, and supporting the maintenance of cognitive function in older adults.
High-risk occupations: Specialized programs are also prepared for certain job groups—such as firefighters, police officers, and public officials involved in quarantine/disinfection—who, due to the nature of their work, are continually exposed to extreme tension and stress. As post-traumatic stress and job burnout have become social issues, this care is not only a form of welfare; it is also a safety net for the community.
You can use the walking paths of the healing forest freely without reserving a separate program.
A wider healing landscape — walking loops and the national ecological trail
Eumseong County is not limiting its efforts to Maengdong Healing Forest alone. It is also moving forward in parallel with the development of the nearby Maengdong Reservoir walking loop and the national ecological trail. If the healing forest—reservoir loop—national ecological trail are connected into one course, the Maengdong area could evolve into a stay-based healing route where visitors can spend long periods and align their bodies with nature’s rhythm, rather than treating it as a single destination.
In 2026, all programs will be offered as free pilot operations. This spring is a rare opportunity to experience meditation and forest healing for free.
A forest that becomes healing
In busy everyday life, we often forget how exhausted our bodies and minds truly are. Fatigue becomes habitual, and tension becomes the default setting. Maengdong Healing Forest is a place that temporarily changes that default.
Meditation isn’t something that can only be done in special places. However, a forest environment makes meditation much easier. From the phytoncides released by the trees, to the light reflected on the water, to the sound of the wind passing through—everything naturally opens your senses, clears your thoughts, and leads you to be present in this moment.
Spring in Eumseong, North Chungcheong Province is seeping into a 60ha forest.