The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival along the riverside in Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon-do Province, takes place from Jan. 14 to Feb. 5. The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival was chosen by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as one of Korea’s major winter festivals. Over 1.5 million people attend this festival every year.

My wife Lilia and I went to this grand festival last Saturday, Jan. 14. The main event of this festival is ice fishing. Visitors try to catch sancheoneo, which is a type of landlocked salmon, fishing for them with a short fishing rod through a hole drilled into the ice. The limit is three fish per visitor. Lilia and I didn’t try to catch any fish, but we enjoyed walking around and watching everyone ice fishing. Visitors can also enjoy bare hand fishing and lure fishing. Visitors must register for these events in advance. There is also night fishing, which is free for people staying in Hwacheon. Visitors must show their hotel receipt for the free night fishing.





There are many other events, sights and snacks. While at the festival, you can try ice sledding and snow sledding. There is even an area to try sleds from around the world. Visitors can ride big wheel tricycles on the ice. Also, there's a zipline for people to zip over all the people ice fishing.





When you get hungry, there's a place for visitors to cook their fish. There are also a lot of places to buy many types of snacks. Lilia and I enjoyed the Multicultural Snack Corner that served different kinds of snacks from around the world. We tried kwekkwek, boiled eggs deep fried in seasoned flour, from the Philippines. We also tried some sancheoneo shaped bread filled with red bean paste. This was our way of fishing at the festival.



While visiting the ice festival, make sure to check out the giant snow sculptures. Don’t forget to check out the world’s largest ice sculpture plaza, too. This was my favorite part of the festival. There are many large ice sculptures with colorful lights inside them. I really enjoyed going down the giant ice slide. This was a joint project between the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival and the Harbin Ice Lantern Festival in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, in far northern China. These two festivals are part of the top four winter festivals in the world.







The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival runs until Jan. 29, so there's still time to attend. However, for visitors that can’t make it this year, they can always make plans to come next year.

By Vince Grindle
Korea.net Honorary Reporter
Photos: Ma. Lilia Pedellume
Video: Vince Grindle

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