{"id":38884,"date":"2026-06-17T19:17:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T11:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=38884"},"modified":"2026-06-17T20:51:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:51:28","slug":"day-05-jeju-northeast-jeju-manjanggul-lava-tube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2026\/06\/17\/day-05-jeju-northeast-jeju-manjanggul-lava-tube\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 05 @ Jeju – Northeast Jeju – Manjanggul Lava Tube"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was past noon when we got to Manjanggul Lava Tube<\/strong>, and a visit to this cave system was one of the key highlights of our Jeju trip. This cave system had been closed for 2.5 years for safety upgrades, and we couldn’t find notices informing us with certainty when it would be re-opened. As luck would have it, it had just reopened at the end of May.<\/p>\n

The Manjanggul Lava Tube at 7 km is one of the longest lava tunnels known in the world, though just a 1 km section is open to the public. So, a 2 km walk in all from the entrance to the terminal point open to visitors, then back out. The cave was formed thousands of years ago when flowing lava created underground channels, and there are numerous info boards in the tunnel explaining how lava flow creates the natural patterns on the walls, as well as unusual formations. You can allocate about an hour to visit this cave system, and you’d probably take far less time if you brisk walk the path. We took 35 minutes: about 25 minutes in to soak in the sights, and then another 10 minutes of walking very purposefully the way out LOL.<\/p>\n

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There were quite a number of visitors, but the tunnel is long, so it didn’t feel crowded.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The section that’s opened to the public apparently isn’t the start of the entire tunnel, but a middle section.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Entrance to the section opened to the public. There is a flight of steps to get down to the path, but once there, it’s level throughout.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The cave is actually much darker than what the photo here suggests. It looks brighter only because of Samsung Galaxy phone trickery LOL.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Unusual rock clusters formed by lava.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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13.7 degree celsius in the tunnel! There is also constant water drops falling from the cave ceiling, so wear head gear or a rain coat if you’re particular about these things.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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A turtle shaped rock, according to the info board – though it looks more like the the Voyager starship from the Star Trek TV series!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The end-point for the section that’s opened to the public, 1km in, features a lava column.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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For folks who’re much taller than the typical Asian: not to worry: the tunnel height is quite high in most places, and there were small sections that were lower, but still offered plenty of clearance. The cave offers visitors a solid path to walk on, with railings on both sides, and just enough ambient light for you to see where you’re walking. However, the tunnel gets very cold inside: it was about 24 degrees Celsius on the outside, and that temperature dropped rapidly to around 12 degrees Celsius from the tunnel entrance onwards. We strongly advise that you dress appropriately, including wearing long-sleeved shirts.<\/p>\n

We were in and out of this place in less than an hour, and continued onwards Woljeongri Beach next!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was past noon when we got to Manjanggul Lava Tube, and a visit to this cave system was one of the key highlights of our Jeju trip. This cave system had been closed for 2.5 years for safety upgrades,<\/p>\n

Read More Day 05 @ Jeju – Northeast Jeju – Manjanggul Lava Tube<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[690],"class_list":["post-38884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-traveling","tag-jeju-2026","wpcat-17-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/blog-2026-jeju-day-05-20260617_124509.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38884"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38942,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38884\/revisions\/38942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}