By Honorary Reporter Theresia Kurniawan from Indonesia 

Photos = Theresia Kurniawan

Ever dream of visiting an ice kingdom like that shown in the Disney blockbuster "Frozen?" If so, I highly recommend the Chilgapsan Ice Fountain Festival in Cheongyang-gun County, Chungcheongnam-do Province. Organized by the Alps Village Committee, the festival opened on Jan. 1 and runs through Feb. 12.

 
On Jan. 18, I rode a tourist bus for two hours from Seoul to get to Alps Village, the venue of the festival. Before going there, the bus stopped by Cheonjangho Lake, which is famous for its giant chili pepper statue on a suspension bridge. It was so tranquil that winter morning.

The suspension bridge of Cheonjangho Lake (left) and the iconic giant chili pepper statue were highlights of my trip.

After a relaxing walk around the lake, I arrived at my destination. Entering the ice gate made me feel as if I was entering a kingdom of ice. Inside were ice sculptures of varying themes such as Hollywood movies or animation waiting for me to snap photos, plus ice caves.

Visitors pose for a photo in front of the festival's largest ice sculpture.

Besides the ice sculptures, a variety of winter activities were offered like snow tubing, ice sledding, can train, barehand fishing and even a zip-line. The snow tubing grounds had slopes of varying lengths and heights.

Snow tubing was my favorite activity.

The Korea Tourism Organization's official website said visitors to the festival "can recharge their energy while releasing stress." I couldn't agree more as I cleared my mind with unlimited snow tubing. Speeding down the highest slope on my tube was thrilling.

The festival also offers Korean street food such as hotteok (sweet pancakes with filling), roasted chestnuts and baked sweet potatoes. I bought a bag of the chestnuts because visitors can directly roast them. I needed to keep shaking the basket over a campfire to evenly roast my snack, and this reminded me of "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire). About 15 minutes later, my chestnuts were ready to eat.

Visitors also roasted their own chestnuts and made dalgona (honeycomb candy).

In addition to roasting chestnuts, people can also make injeolmi (sticky rice cake made with powdered soybean). A station there also allows visitors to make dalgona (honeycomb candy), a snack made famous by the smash Netflix series "Squid Game."

Finally, I concluded my trip by visiting a nearby cafe, from where I could see a bridge overlooking the lake and a picturesque silver grass garden.

The cafe I stopped by at had a view of a silver grass garden.

kalhong617@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.