The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival ~ KOREA TOTAL SOLUTION PROVIDER

2014년 1월 15일 수요일

The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival

오전 10:11

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The Hwacheon region is famous in Korea for the thick sheets of ice that form on its lakes and rivers during winter. It is also home to the sancheoneo, a type of mountain trout that only lives in the coldest and cleanest of waters. Every January, hundreds of thousands of people rush to this winter paradise to enjoy the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice festival, the top winter festival in Korea.

At first sight, the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice festival is certainly an impressive spectacle. The 150m-wide river stretches into the snow-covered mountains and every inch of its densely frozen surface is covered with people. You have to hope that the ice holds! Read on to learn more about the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice festival.

What is the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival?

The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice festival has been running for 7 years. It is regarded as Korea’s best winter festival and ranks in the top three out of all the festivals in Korea. The festival is held in the northern regions of the beautiful Gangwon-do province, an area known in Korea for its deep winter freeze.

Click here to visit the Sancheoneo Festival

Ice Fishing

As soon as we arrived at the festival, we headed straight to the main attraction: ice fishing for mountain trout, known in Korean as sancheoneo and also called the ‘Queen of the Valleys’. Sancheoneo can only be found in the purest of streams, and its abundance in Hwacheon indicates the area’s clean ecology. Small holes have been drilled through 40cm of thick ice in areas reserved especially for ice fishing. First we purchased plastic rods and some bait, and then we headed off to try our luck at ice fishing. At first, the mountain trout wouldn’t even come near us, but a local fishing expert informed us that the best method to catch mountain trout is to slowly lower the rod through the hole into the icy water and then quickly pull it up. Amazingly, I caught a fish! It was so exciting!

The Festival’s Delicacies! Tasting Sancheoneo!

Barbecues line the banks of the river and visitors can purchase charcoal and cooking implements to grill the fish that they have just caught. The mountain trout can also be sliced and filleted for you at the Raw Fish Center. This has got to be the freshest fish that you will ever eat! Sancheoneo has a nutty and slightly sweet flavor, and when you are standing outside eating the fresh mountain trout you’ve just caught, it’s even more delicious. There are also many restaurants and food stalls for those people who weren’t so lucky at fishing, where you can try out all sorts of different Sancheoneo dishes. Sancheoneo-hoe (raw mountain trout) is a particularly tasty delicacy that is difficult to find anywhere else in Korea, while the Sancheoneo-maeuntang (spicy mountain trout stew) will definitely keep you warm.

Read about Sancheoneo (Korean)

Other Activities to Enjoy

As well as ice fishing there are over 30 different fun filled winter activities and events that can be enjoyed at the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice festival, such as ice sledding and folk games.

● Ice Sledding
A traditional Korean sled is made of a small wooden board with metal blades attached to them. The rider kneels on top of the sled and propels himself along using pointed wooden sticks. Though I couldn’t quite figure out how to stop, it was loads of fun as I was able to get up to pretty high speeds. Another thrilling activity is the ice-bobsleigh, where you sit on a rubber tube and hurtle down a slide on to the ice. There is a bungee trampoline, and the ice soccer results in some hilarious spills onto the ice. The festival is held around the same time as Korea’s Lunar New Year’s holiday (Seollal), and so, you can also try out many of Korea’s traditional folk games such as Neolttwigi (Korean seesaw) and Paengi (a spinning top duel).

● Ice Sculpture Exhibition
The World Cup Winter City Plaza has some enormous ice sculptures on display, which took a team of 40 people nearly half a year to create. A particularly impressive structure is the near life-size recreation of Namdaemun, the iconic historical gate of Seoul, which was tragically burned down last year. The wooden watermill located next to the Namdaemun sculpture is covered with water that has frozen into large icicles, presenting a natural beauty that is truly stunning. There’s also the Ice Lantern plaza full of smaller, but equally impressive ice statues that children can climb on top of and slide down.

● Barehanded Sancheoneo Fishing
The slogan for the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival is “Hearts that Never Freeze, Memories that Never Melt Away”, and one experience that I will certainly never forget is “Barehanded Fishing”. We changed into shorts and t-shirts (specially provided by the festival) and stood apprehensively around the edge of a pool of icy water. When the whistle blew to start the fishing, we plunged into the water and had five minutes to catch sancheoneo using only our bare hands! The water was unbelievably cold, and I’m embarrassed to say that I only lasted 1 minute in the water, but it was great fun. This program was a particular hit with the many foreigners who visited the festival.

See the Festival Programs

Useful Information

The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival runs for approximately two to three weeks in January every year, with most events beginning at 9:00am and ending at around 6:00pm. (Festival Period: January 10 ~ January 27, 2009)
Entrance to the festival is free, but visitors will need to pay a small fee for some programs. (maximum fee of 12,000 won, discounts are available for foreigners)

☞ Directions to Hwacheon
- Bus: Take an express bus headed towards Hwacheon from the Dong Seoul Bus Terminal (est. travel time of 2hrs 40min one-way, fee 10,400 won)
- Train: Travel to Chuncheon or Wonju Stations from Cheongnyangni Station in Seoul, and then transfer to a bus headed to Hwacheon.
☞ Homepage Information (Korean)
☞ Tourist Information Telephone: +82-32-1330 (Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese)
☞ More Ways to Enjoy the Festival
- Refer to the English festival brochure (contains maps and program information)
- Bring warm winter clothes and shoes with thick soles
- Make reservations for accommodation in advance
(refer to the accommodation list: English)

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