The haenyeo surfaced without warning, her head emerging from the black water like a seal's. She spat out her breathing tube, raised a net bag full of sea urchins, and handed it to the woman waiting on the rocks. Then she took a deep breath, replaced the tube, and disappeared again. I had come to Jeju Island to understand the haenyeo, the female free divers who have harvested the sea floor here for centuries. What I found was a culture that is disappearing, a cuisine that is unlike anything else in Korea, and an island that feels closer to Hawaii than to Seoul.
The Haenyeo: Last of the Sea Women
The haenyeo are female divers who free-dive to depths of twenty meters without oxygen tanks, harvesting abalone, sea urchins, octopus, and seaweed. The tradition is passed from mother to daughter, and at its peak in the nineteen-sixties, there were thirty thousand haenyeo on Jeju. Today, there are fewer than four thousand, and most are over sixty years old. The work is dangerous and physically demanding, and younger women are choosing easier livelihoods. I spent a morning with Kim Young-sook, a seventy-two-year-old haenyeo who has been diving since she was fifteen. She showed me how to hold my breath for two minutes, how to equalize pressure without pinching my nose, and how to spot abalone in the crevices of volcanic rock. After two hours in the water, she sold her catch to a restaurant owner on the beach for forty thousand won, about thirty dollars.
Jeju's Distinct Cuisine
Jeju's food is shaped by its isolation and its volcanic soil. The island is famous for black pork, a breed of pig with black hair and skin, raised on the island's volcanic grasses. The meat is darker, fattier, and more flavorful than standard pork, and it is served grilled at restaurants across the island. A meal of grilled black pork with banchan side dishes costs fifteen to twenty thousand won per person. Jeju is also known for its citrus, particularly the hallabong, a large, sweet tangerine that is exported across Korea. The haenyeo harvest provides a third pillar of the cuisine: raw sea urchin, abalone porridge, and seaweed soup. I ate sea urchin fresh from the water at a beachside shack near Seongsan Ilchulbong. It tasted like the ocean concentrated into a single bite.
Beyond the Food: The Island's Landscape
Jeju is a volcanic island dominated by Hallasan, a shield volcano that rises to 1,947 meters and is the highest peak in South Korea. The hiking trail to the summit takes eight hours round trip and passes through four distinct vegetation zones, from subtropical forest to alpine scrub. The coastline is equally dramatic, with waterfalls, lava tubes, and columns of hexagonal basalt formed by ancient eruptions. Seongsan Ilchulbong, a tuff cone crater on the eastern coast, is one of the most photographed sites in Korea. I climbed it at dawn and watched the sun rise over a sea of clouds that filled the crater like a bowl of milk.
Planning a Visit
Jeju is accessible by flights from Seoul, Busan, and international destinations including Tokyo and Shanghai. The flight from Seoul takes an hour. I spent five days on the island and rented a car, which is the most practical way to explore. Public buses serve the main towns but are infrequent in rural areas. Accommodation ranges from guesthouses at thirty thousand won per night to resorts at two hundred thousand won. The best time to visit is April to June or September to November, when the weather is mild and the crowds are manageable. July and August are hot and humid, with the risk of typhoons.
