Taean County

Taean County (Korean: 태안군; Korean: [tʰɛ.an]) is a county in South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. Taean Haean National Park is located within Taean County, and is known for its clear seas, unpolluted soils, coastal flora, tidal flats, coasts, and white sand. It includes thirty different beaches; one of these, Mallipo Beach, is considered one of the three most beautiful in Korea and is over three kilometers long. This beach is also the site of the 2007 Korea oil spill. The Korean government designated Taean Haean National Park in 1978. It consists of 326.57 km2 (126.09 sq mi) of land. There are about 130 islands in the park, and 250 species of flora thrive there. Chollipo Arboretum in Sowon-myeon, founded in 1979 by naturalized US-expatriate Min Byung Gal (Carl Ferris Miller), is a 64ha (158 acre) private botanical garden housing more than 6900 different species of plants collected from more than 60 countries. The Sinduri beach in Taean is home to the Duung wetland, a sand dune wetland and protected area that is also designated a National Treasure of South Korea. The Samsung-1 Hebei Spirit oil spill occurred on December 7, 2007, when a Hong Kong oil tanker, Hebei Spirit, and Samsung C&T's 12th tank collided with a shipyard near the port of Taean, South Chungcheong Province. It is commonly referred to as the Taean oil spill.