About GRUAN
GRUAN tells the story of a single tree. We pick trees tied to human history, such as old giants, trees that fed a village, or a tree that became a symbol of friendship across the sea, and introduce each one with a character who looks like it.
How we write the stories
- For historical records and figures, we look to public institutions and academic sources first. When we use news reports or expert columns, we say which source.
- Handed-down tales are kept apart from records and introduced as “stories passed down”.
- Every description of leaf, flower, fruit and bark in the tree guide was checked against a source, and the references are listed at the bottom of the page.
How we choose sources, how we handle historical figures and real places, and how to ask for a correction are explained in our editorial principles (in Korean).
About the character images
The character images are AI-made creations. Traits of the tree, such as leaf shape, flower and fruit colors, and bark pattern, are worked into the clothes and props so you can recognize the tree.
A character is a tree drawn as a person, not a portrait of a historical figure in the story. Buildings and scenery in the background were inspired by real places but are not exact copies.
About pest and disease information
The pest and disease pages and the calendar only gather what can be seen, as written in the sources: names, appearance and when they appear. They do not judge a tree’s condition, or cover care methods or substances.
Visit statistics
We count which pages are viewed, and how often, only with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which uses no cookies. We collect nothing that can identify you, and play records and favorites stay in this browser only. Details are in the privacy policy (in Korean).
Map data sources
The protected trees, natural monuments, city and provincial monuments, street trees and forest data on the tree map are public data, processed and shown under their license terms. Age, height and notes are as in the original records, and we do not mark any tree’s condition.
The full list of datasets, providers, licenses, download dates and counts is in the Korean version (in Korean).
Base map © OpenStreetMap contributors (provided by OpenFreeMap)
Channels
- Naver Blog — blog.naver.com/gruantree
- Instagram — @gruantree
- Threads — @gruantree
- X — @gruantree