Hoemunsan Mountain is 837m high in Geumchang-ri, Gurim-myeon, Sunchang-gun. Also called Yeongsan Mountain, it is formed as Wunjusan Mountain in Taein-myeon, Jeongeup-si, stretches east.
There is a natural gate made with rock on this mountain. So, Hoemunsan Mountain is written ‘(Hoemun)回門’ as well as ‘(Hoemun)回文’ in Chinese characters. The ancient literature wrote that the magnificent rocks that looked like a platform stretching for about 4km and the soaring peaks were always covered with clouds.

Hoemunsan Mountain is mysterious enough to be called ‘Yeongsan Mountain (meaning spiritual mountain)’. The foot of the mountain is bordered by several cities and provinces, including Sunchang, Imsil, Jeongeup, and Damyang. The mountain keeps the scathing history of Korea it was the base of the righteous army during the Donghak Revolution in the late-Joseon period and the base of the North Korean partisans during the Korean War along with Jirisan Mountain. The old landscape doesn’t exist anymore as a fitness field was made on the training site used by the North Korean partisans in the past.

The history proved that the mountain was very rugged with a deep valley. Shown in the movie ‘Nambugun’, based on the fiction ‘Nambugun’, filmed in the 1980s, Hoemunsan Mountain was known as the site of the ideological conflict between South and North Korea. However, Hoemunsan Mountain is also famous as the origin of chili paste legend and the starting point of an anti-Japanese movement during the colonial era. Moreover, Hoemunsan Mountain is the sacred place of the Catholics with the tombs of the brother and the nephew of Father Kim Dae-geon, the first Roman Catholic father in Korea. Geumgang Rock is the birthplace of Gaengjeongyudo and is called the religious base of Jeungsangyo (one of the ethnic religions of Korea) and Cheonghakdong.