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Korean Travel Online - Event Updates (1st week of March)



Yes! We can definitely feel spring now. Gotta start planning for those festivals otherwise you won't get anything done.

Sorted by location first (descending order), then end date.

FESTIVALS:

Ulsan Whale Festival 2013.04.25 – 2013.04.28 Ulsan
Seoul International Improvisation Dance Festival 2013.04.07 – 2013.04.13 Seoul
Yeouido Spring Flower Festival 2013.04.12 – 2013.04.18 Seoul
Lotus Lantern Festival 2013.05.10 – 2013.05.12 Seoul
Gwangyang International Maehwa Festival 2013.03.23 – 2013.03.31 Jeollanam-do
Gurye Sansuyu Festival 2013.03.29 – 2013.03.31 Jeollanam-do
Yudalsan Flower Festival 2013.04.13 – 2013.04.14 Jeollanam-do
Shinan Tulip Festival 2013.04.19 – 2013.04.28 Jeollanam-do
Jindo Miracle Sea Festival 2013.04.25 – 2013.04.28 Jeollanam-do
Hampyeong Butterfly Festival 2013.04.26 – 2013.05.08 Jeollanam-do
Damyang Bamboo Festival  2013.05.03 – 2013.05.08 Jeollanam-do
Boseong Green Tea Festival 2013.05.14 – 2013.05.19 Jeollanam-do
Muaksan Cherry Blossoms Festival 2013.04.19 – 2013.04.21 Jeollabuk-do
Jeju Hueree Apricot Flower Festival 2013.02.20 – 2013.03.10 Jeju-do
Jeju Field-Burning Festival 2013.03.08 – 2013.03.10 Jeju-do
Jeju Cherry Blossom Festival 2013.04.05 – 2013.04.07 Jeju-do
Jeju Canola Flower Festival 2013.04.19 – 2013.04.21 Jeju-do
Tongyeong International Music Festival 2013.03.22 – 2013.03.28 Gyeongsangnam-do
Hadong Wild Tea Cultural Festival 2013.05.17 – 2013.05.19 Gyeongsangnam-do
Hwagae Cherry Blossoms Festival TBA Gyeongsangnam-do
Yeongdeok Snow Crab Festival  2013.03.28 – 2013.04.01 Gyeongsangbuk-do
Jinhae Gunhangje Festival
How to go to Jinhae: http://bit.ly/13GfXij
 2013.04.01 – 2013.04.10 Gyeongsangbuk-do
Cheongdo Bullfighting Festival 2013.04.17 – 2013.04.21 Gyeongsangbuk-do
Holdman Lighting Show (Provence Village) 2012.12.23 – 2013.03.31 Gyeonggi-do
Icheon Baeksa Sansuyu Flower Festival 2013.04.05 – 2013.04.07 Gyeonggi-do
Herb Island Light Festival 2012.12.01 – 2013.04.30 Gyeonggi-do
Chuncheon International Mime Festival 2013.05.19 – 2013.05.26 Gangwon-do
Nonsan Strawberry Festival 2013.04.03 – 2013.04.07 Chungcheongnam-do
Cheongpunghoban Cherry Blossom Festival 2013.04.19 – 2013.04.21 Chungcheongbuk-do
Taean Flower Festival 2013.04.25 – 2013.05.09 Chungcheongnam-do
Gwangalli Eobang Festival 2013.04.26 – 2013.04.28 Busan


EXHIBITS/ MUSEUMS:

New & Now : SeMA's New Acquisitions 2012 2013.01.18 – 2013.03.17 Seoul
Seoul Modern Art Festa 2013.03.02 – 2013.03.17 Seoul
Van Gogh in Paris 2012.11.08 – 2013.03.24 Seoul
American Impressionism Exhibition 2012.12.22 – 2013.03.29 Seoul
I Am an Artist Exhibition 2012.11.02 – 2013.03.31 Seoul
Musei Vaticani Collection 2012.12.08 – 2013.03.31 Seoul
Song of Life Kim Byung Jong  2013.03.01 – 2013.03.31 Seoul
Tim Burton Exhibition 2012.12.12 – 2013.04.14 Seoul
AR+OY Exhibition by Michael Lau 2013.02.08 – 2013.04.14 Seoul
Modern Masterpieces from the Museum Collection  2313.01.25 – 2013.04.21 Seoul
Memory of Landscape I have never seen 2013.01.25 – 2013.04.21 Seoul
Seoul Nostalgia: A Retrospective Photographic Exhibition of Kim Hanyong 2013.02.28 – 2013.05.05 Seoul
Art Across America 2013.02.05 – 2013.05.19 Seoul
Seoul has the City Walls Special Exhibit 2013.02.21 – 2013.05.19 Seoul
The Peranakan World: Cross-cultural Art from Singapore and the Straits 2013.03.19 – 2013.05.19 Seoul
Opulence : Treasures of Korean Traditional Craft 2013.03.28 – 2013.06.02  Seoul
DMZ 60 Years Photo Exhibit 2013.03.19 – 2013.06.16 Seoul
Xiongnu, the Great Empire of the Steppes -Mongolian Archeological Excavation Result Exhibition 2013.04.30 – 2013.06.19 Seoul
Buddhist Guardian Paintings of Late Joseon 2013.05.14 – 2013.09.08 Seoul
Dream Walking in the Magical Reality 2012.10.23 – 2013.03.24 Gyeonggi-do
Caricatures of Korean Presidents 2012.12.21 – 2013.03.31 Gyeonggi-do
The Poetic Object - Contemporary Crafts 2013.09.28 – 2013.03.31 Gyeonggi-do
Donated Photographs 2012 2012.12.21 – 2013.05.26 Gyeonggi-do
Korean Art from the Museum Collection_Grand-Narrative Part I 2013.05.01 – 2013.06.09 Gyeonggi-do
The Secret Forest 2013.05.03 – 2013.07.28 Gyeonggi-do
Figurative Journal Chung Guyon Archive 2013.02.28 – 2013.09.22 Gyeonggi-do


OTHERS:

Buddhism Expo 2013 2013.03.07 – 2013.03.10 Seoul
Myeongdong Night Festival (monthly) 2013.03.09 – 2013.03.10 Seoul
St. Patrick's Day Celebration Seoul 2013.03.16 – 2013.03.16 Seoul
Seoul International Marathon 2013.03.17 – 2013.03.17 Seoul
TAL: Taekwondo Non-verbal stage show 2013.01.25 – 2013.03.24 Seoul
Seoul Fashion Week F/W 2013 2013.03.25 – 2013.03.30 Seoul
Seoul International Photo and Imaging Industry Show 2013.04.04 – 2013.04.07 Seoul
Seoul Seafood Show 2013.04.18 – 2013.04.20 Seoul
Jason Mraz Live in Seoul 2013.05.17 – 2013.05.17 Seoul
Seoul Jazz Festival 2013 2013.05.17 – 2013.05.18 Seoul
Korea World Travel Fair 2013.05.30 – 2013.06.02 Seoul
Wednesday Midday Concerts 3rd Wed of each month Seoul
Suncheon Bay Garden Expo 2013 2013.04.20 – 2013.10.20 Jeollanam-do
Seoul to Jeonju Free Shuttle Bus 2013.03.01 – 2013.08.25 Jeollabuk-do
Garden of Morning Calm Wildflowers Exhibition 2013.02.28 – 2013.05.31 Gyeonggi-do
Korea Golf Fair 2013.03.07 – 2013.03.10 Gyeonggi-do
International Horticulture Goyang 2013.04.27 – 2013.05.12 Gyeonggi-do
Jarasum Rhythm and BBQ Festival 2013.05.17 – 2013.05.18 Gyeonggi-do
Gwangju Spring Flower Show 2013 2013.03.29 – 2013.04.07 Gwangju
St. Patrick's Day Celebration Chuncheon 2013.03.15 – 2013.03.15 Gangwon-do
Daegu International Marathon  2013.04.14 – 2013.04.14 Daegu
Traditional Music & Dance Saturdays 2013 Busan


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Korean Travel Online - Jinhae Gunhangje Festival (진해군항제축제)

http://tong.visitkorea.or.kr/cms/resource/63/284763_image2_1.jpg

The Jinhae Gunhangje Festival, also known as the Jinhae Cherry Blossoms Festival, will be on April 1 to 10, 2013.

Jinhae is a county in Changwon City, Gyeongsangnam-do. To get there, you can take the bus or train. Bus takes 4 to 5 hours (or more if traffic is bad) so it would be better to take the train. We'll explore some options in this post. Do keep in mind that I haven't tried these routes myself yet, so these info might be subject to change.

The festival takes place at a lot of places, mostly scattered around the area (refer to map below). The little pink flower icons in the map are areas with cherry blossoms. The Yeojwa Stream (여좌천) is probably the most popular spot for cherry blossoms. It will be decorated with lights, laser beams, and mirrors, offering a fantastic light show in the evening. The stream is not far from Jinhae Station.
click to enlarge
Gyeonghwa Station looks amazing in pictures too. So it is also worth checking out.
Cherry Blossoms at Gyeonghwa Station


Option 1: 
Seoul -> Masan -> Jinhae Station -> Gyeonghwa Station -> and the same way back

BY TRAIN:
To find train schedules, go to Korail's website: www.korail.com
Type Seoul to Jinhae, but make sure you click on 'Transfer' as the type of travel since there is no direct train to Jinhae.

You'll get this schedule. You're going to have to take the KTX and transfer to the Mugunghwa line at Masan. Your one way trip would cost you 49,600 won in total.
There are more train departure times if you want to make Masan your destination first. Then from Masan, you can take the bus going to Jinhae (Bus number 160, 162 or 760 - scroll below for screenshot).


BY BUS:
Nambu Bus Terminal to Jinhae Intercity Bus Terminal (approx. 4 hours)
For complete bus schedules: https://www.nambuterminal.co.kr (Korean only)

26,100 won

Then take Bus 305 or 317 at the opposite side of Jinhae Intercity Bus Terminal and get off at Jinhae High School (진해고등학교)
1,100 won


or

Express Bus Terminal to Masan (4hours 5min)
For complete bus schedules: http://www.kobus.co.kr (Korean, English)
20,600 won (General) - only 3 or 4 buses
30,500 won (Special) - majority of the buses

Then Masan Bus Terminal to Jinhae Station (approx. 40min)
1.600 won (more or less)

You can take bus 760, 160, or 162 to Jinhae. To find the bus stop, follow the dotted lines in the screenshot below.
bus 760 and bus 160
bus 162



Option 2: 
Seoul --> Masan Station --> Gyeonghwa Station --> Jinhae Station --> Masan Station --> Seoul

You might want to see the lights display at sundown at the Yeojwa Stream, that's why. So if you arrive in the daytime, explore Gyeonghwa Station first. Personally, I think this is the better option between the two.

To do this, take the train or bus to Masan Station (as explained in Option 1).

From Masan Station to Gyeonghwa Station, take Bus 530 then transfer to 164. Note that Masan Station (train station) and Masan Express Bus Terminal are two different places.
Bus 530, then Bus 164

If you're coming from Masan Express Bus Terminal though, Bus 164 is just right outside terminal.
Bus 164 from Masan Express Bus Terminal

From Gyeonghwa Station to Jinhae Station, take Bus 315 just right outside the station (screenshot not necessary).

From Jinhae Station to Masan Station, take bus 760 across Jinhae Station (approx 50 minutes)

Lastly, take the train from Masan Station back to Seoul.

For more about the activities during the festival read this article


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Korean Travel Online - Touring Gyeongju with the Smart Tour Guide App

The free shuttle bus to Gyeongju ran during the VisitKorea 2010-2012 year. Too bad it is no longer offered in 2013. But what I spent on transportation expense, I made up for by gaining a brand new appreciation for this city. And that's thanks to the smart tour guide app.

For this trip, I downloaded the Silla History Tour App which contains major historic sites in Gyeongju, and the Gyeongju National Museum app.The great thing about this app that it shows you a map of the location with markers where the specific item can be found. Click on it and it will give you an explanation
 
Another awesome thing about the app is that it isn't boring. It incorporates dialogues and some sound effects. The best thing is that it actually addresses what most people are probably thinking.

So it is just a bunch of tombs. It doesn't sound like there's much to see.

That's exactly what I thought the last time I came to Daereungwon (대릉원). I came, I took pictures, and I left without taking away anything from the trip. But with the app explaining the significance of this place, I realized there's quite a lot to be learned.

Below is a picture of the Great Hwangam Tomb. If you take a closer look at it, you'll see that it is not a single tomb but is actually two linked mounds. Tombs consisting of two linked grave mounds like this one is considered to be a tomb of a married couple. Info like this, I never would have learned it without the app.



From Daereungwon, you could walk towards Cheomseongdae (첨성대). Just like the student in the dialogue, I didn't understand why it is a famous cultural heritage. It's neither gorgeous nor tall and not what I thought an observatory would look like. But the app will tell you what makes it impressive.



Next, I took the app with me to the Gyeongju National Museum. With Korean museums, I've noticed that although they have English descriptions of the items on display, the explanation would be in Korean. The smart tour guide app provides detailed explanations of the major items on display. Another benefit of carrying this around is you don't have to bend or squint to read anything and you can simply listen to the app while appreciating the items.

In the evening, we headed out to Anapji Pond (안압지). Too bad the app didn't have this. Oh well... Anapji is worth checking out during the day, but when the sun goes down, it's absolutely glorious! The place is open til 10pm so it makes for a great walk at night. The views of the pavilions across the water are absolutely worth the trip.

If you're going to Bulguksa (불국사), here are some additional things that are not on the app but I learned on the trip anyway.

The delicate colors and and traditional patterns on the temples are called dancheong (단청). These Korean-style decorative colorful patterns on wooden buildings and other wooden items are used to convey beauty and dignity, using five basic colors: red, blue, yellow, black and white.
As I was trying to be a diligent tourist, I was intent on learning as much historical and cultural info at Bulguksa. The smart tour guide app was telling me to take a look at the pagoda next to the one
I was looking at but I couldn’t find it. I thought the app was wrong, but later found out it was there
all along, just covered up with a protective barrier. The reason for this is that the Three-story Stone Pagoda of Bulguksa Temple (National Treasure no. 21), a major representative of Silla Dynasty’s history and culture, is undergoing an overall repair and the repair is expected to be completed on December 2014.
You'll also come across the courtyard filled with stacked rocks. It's quite enchanting to see so many of them. Basically, the practice of stacking rocks is for wishes and good luck. If you can add a stone to the top of a stack without toppling it, your wish comes true.
According to this sign, it was documented that during the Silla Dynasty, one can find these many-tiered towers everywhere in Seorabeol (a name which originally referred to Gyeongju), standing closely together just like a flock of geese. In the Beophwagyeong (Lotus Sutra), even if the kids are stacking sand towers just for fun, they get unlimited blessing and can become Buddha. Hence, from those days, the practice of using stones to make little pagodas came to being. For this reason, a lot of visitors, in the hopes of making their wishes come true, naturally stack one, two, or three stones in the shape of a little pagoda at Bulguksa's Nahanjeon Hall.

Well that's it for Gyeongju. Also, if you're interested in taking the Gyeongju City Tour Bus, Cheonma Gwangwang is the company that operates this tour. Prices are at 15,000 won (adults), 13,000 won (teens), and 12,000 won (children). They offer four different day courses and one night course. You can find out more about the individual courses at http://cmtour.co.kr/en/.



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Korean Travel Online - Herb Island's Fairy Tale Light Festival

Herb Island's Fairy Tale Light Festival this winter started on December 1, 2012 and is ongoing until April 30, 2013. Similar to the Garden of Morning Calm in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi-do, the place is draped with colorful lights to make up for the lack of flowers during winter. For more pictures of the Garden of Morning Calm's light festival, go here.

More of a village than an island, this place located in Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do is not as easy to go to if you don't have a car. Unless you're coming from Northern Seoul, it would take you more or less to get here. First, you have to go up all the way to the end of line 1, Soyosan station. From there, you have to take the local bus number 57 that goes to Herb Island. According to the website, the bus only comes once every hour so you have to overestimate the travel time a bit if you don't want to wait for another hour for the next bus. The bus schedule on their website says the bus arrives at 15:50. My train arrived at Soyosan station at 15:50 and I rushed outside to see if I could still catch the bus. At the bus stop, there's one of those computer screens that tell you when the next bus is arriving. It said bus 57 will arrive in 12 minutes. 5 minutes later, the bus arrived. So, it's either the 15:50 bus was 20 minutes late or the bus comes more often than what the website says.

Anyway, from the bus stop, it takes about 20 minutes to reach Herb Island. From where the bus drops you off, you have to walk about 10 minutes to reach Herb Island itself. If you don't have a car, you have to make sure you make back to the bus stop by 19:00 because the last bus is at 19:20.

Arriving around 4:30ish will give you just enough time to walk around and explore the surroundings before the lights come on.

According to the brochure, the place is supposed to be divided into a Italian Village, Greece Village, French Village, and German Village. You can also smell the delicious smell of freshly baked bread a kilometer away, coming from the Herb Island Bakery. By the looks of it, business is going very well.

There's also a pretty neat coffee shop and an aroma shop that sells herb teas, coffee, candy, perfume, herb fragrances, shampoos, lotion and a whole lot more

The best part is the 2,000 square meter herb museum containing around 180 types of plants. Inside, you can smell the different types of plants and see a variety of flowers regardless of the season.




I would say a few hours at Herb Island would be just enough. But you'll be hard pressed for time if you want to wait for total darkness to see the lights shine brightly. If you have a car, this won't be a problem. If not, then you don't want to miss that last bus going back to Soyosan station.



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