By Korea.net Honorary Reporter Andrea Benavides from Colombia
Photos = Andrea Benavides

Fishing has been an integral part of Korean culture for centuries. Wherever you go in the country, many of the most popular dishes are seafood. Gangwon-do Province alone has more than a dozen fishing villages. Add the icy winter from December to March where, in addition to strong winds and a negative mercury, rivers, lakes and even the pipes of apartments freeze over to create the perfect conditions for ice fishing, a favorite pastime among locals.

To mark this cultural tradition, the Sancheoneo Ice Festival is held every January for three weeks in Hwacheon-gun County, Gangwon-do Province. Launched in 2003, this event has grown so popular that CNN calls it one of the world's seven winter wonders.

Of all the cultural festivals I've attended in Korea, I've found this one to be the best organized and most hospitable to foreigners. An exclusive fishing area is reserved just for non-Koreans, where several ajeossi (middle-aged Korean men) walk by and help those who are clueless over what they're doing.

The river's frozen surface is dotted with hundreds of holes dug out using a fancy machine, not by hand like in the movies. Each hole is supposed to be for one person to prevent hooking your partner reeling in your catch. Upon entering the designated fishing area and flashing my ticket, I received a fishing rod with a shiny fishing lure inside a drawstring bag to store the trout I (hopefully) would catch. Without knowing exactly what I was doing, I nervously lowered my fishing line into the ice-cold water below. A few minutes later, an ajeossi came over, picked up the rod and gave me a tutorial through hand signals. The secret, he showed, is to drop and pull the rod to one side every three to five seconds. Soon after, I caught my first fish. Beginner's luck, perhaps?





The county's famous trout known as sancheoneo, for which the event is named for, lives exclusively in high quality fresh water. Each participant is allowed to catch up to three fish, which are later deposited in a bucket near the exit to be cooked on the massive outdoor barbeque nearby. The fish are wrapped in foil and marinated with butter -- lots and lots of it – to make it delicious. While showing up as early as possible is highly recommended, the river is refilled with trout throughout the day so that even latecomers can expect to catch and savor fish.

In addition to ice fishing, one of the festival's most entertaining side activities is hand fishing. Every hour on the hour, groups of Koreans (and maybe even a few foreigners) swap winter coats and pants for T-shirts and shorts, get into a freezing pool of water and compete for five minutes to see who can catch the most trout with their bare hands. The trick is to tuck in your shirt and pack every catch inside while continuing to walk around the ice pool hunting and competing for more. I don't know what gave me more chills, thinking about the bone-chilling frozen water making me feel as if I had hundreds of needles pricking my body or having slippery sea creatures moving about my belly. In any case, this is an unusual but highly entertaining activity.

While the focus of the festival is fishing, other winter activities are available such as ice skating, sledding, zip-lines and tubing. I'm a little chicken to try these but if little kids are doing it, why shouldn't I? These are also included in the foreigner ticket I got. In the end, tubing turned out to be a little scary but exhilarating and really fun.

This year's festival is slated to run from January 5-27 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Hwacheon-gun County, which is a 2.5-hour drive from Seoul. For more information, click the event's official site.





wisdom117@korea.kr

* This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.