Hiking Ansan (안산) 6am in the Morning Once a Week

Here in this blog, I will be talking about my experience of hiking mount Ansan at least once a week at 6am or even sometimes at 5am! 

Here is a video showcasing my first time hiking the mountain and some general day in the life! ;)

Ever since arriving in Korea, I always wanted to keep in touch with my family and friends back in my hometown but the difference in time makes it difficult to do so. Since I am from the east coast in the United States, the difference between the clocks is about 13 hours, meaning that if it is 6am here in Korea, it is 5pm back home in Rhode Island. If you are from Central America, 6am in Korea will be 4pm and 3pm in the west coast. So you are wondering how I motivate myself to wake up so early? 

My Experience with Coffee

Firstly, it is different among others, I am the type of person to usually wake up in the early mornings around 6-7 am, so waking up to hike a mountain isn’t as easy when compared to someone who may be a night owl. Normally, I sleep around 1-2 am but sometimes I sleep earlier if I am really worn out. Additionally, I am also not the person to drink coffee, but ever since coming to Korea, I’ve been drinking coffee almost every day. This is just occasionally due to being very tired and almost falling asleep in my class. Over the weeks, I’ve noticed that coffee has a negative impact on my body because I am consuming caffeine which my system isn’t completely used to. I find myself taking almost 2-3 hour naps after finishing my classes in the afternoon. Now, I am slowly transitioning myself to drinking less caffeine and found that I am more energized without coffee which is very weird. Of course having this type of drink wakes me up, but in the long run throughout the day, I tend to be exhausted more than usual. So not drinking coffee every morning makes it easier for me to wake up early. 

Next, Ansan (안산) is a mountain located right in front of Woojungwon (Woojungwon is a dormitory available for exchange students for the first time this semester to dorm with local students. This dorm does have a curfew between 2am-5am but as I am someone who doesn’t stay out that late, this doesn’t really affect me). 안산 is about 969 ft (295.5m) and for me, it takes roughly 30-40 minutes to reach the top. Hiking this mountain during the cherry blossom season around the end of March to mid-April is amazingly beautiful. There is a path near the top of the mountain where there are just trees glowing with cherry blossoms with fallen petals covering the ground. Along with this, you will see a number of areas that look like temples (unsure if 안산 has any temples, have yet to encounter one) with an outdoor volleyball net and in addition to an outstanding number of outdoor exercising machines located all over the mountain. 

Hiking Experience on 안산

My first time hiking this mountain was the beginning of April where I first decided to wake up around 6am. I remember seeing many ajjujis (아저씨) and ajjumas( 아줌마) already climbing the mountain before I had even arrived at the top. I always wondered and asked myself this question, “What time do they wake up just to go hiking”? This made me realize that the Korean culture here where as people get older, I guess they tend to have the love of hiking and exercising. I remember there was one time I was walking on Yonsei’s campus one morning and there was a man doing push-ups against a bench. As I got to the top of 안산, there were already people here and as expected, they were exercising and doing squats. There was a man, I guess, who was working on his breathing because I could hear him inhaling and exhaling as he repeatedly climbed up and down the same flight of stairs. I can keep going with the amount of people I see on this mountain, I just want to share because it is so interesting and funny! From all the times I've been to 안산, I had see a man at least three times, when he climbs down the mountain, he walks back with his face facing forward and his back facing backwards (pretty much just walking backwards). I noticed that around 7am, there is a group of people that gathers around a certain area (if you've been to 안산 before, there is a little tower with a exercising area right besides it) and they all count and from what it looks like, they are exercising and stretching.   

Other than seeing others exercising, in the far distance you can see the sunrise. In the direction of facing the sun, you are facing the east side of South Korea where you are able to see Seodaemun Prison, Namsan Tower, Gyeongbokgung Palace and other mountains such as Inwangsan and Insan! You might be able to even see the Han River as it is more difficult because there are so many tall buildings. Glaring, day-dreaming, and even just staring at the sun with the breeze of the wind passing by, the feeling of this experience is something I cannot relate to any other. It is unbelievable, which is my motivation to wake up and get out of bed.

In addition to hiking Ansan for the first time, there was a recent fire that occurred on the mountain in front of Ansan, so I was able to witness helicopters flying from and collecting water from the Han River and to releasing it on the mountain that was in front. You can see this in the small vlog at the top and this may be why the sky didn't seem as clear as seen in the photo below.