South Korea's best detour

The Thai flags flapping in the breeze alongside South Korea’s emblem on the ferry taking tourists to Nami is a clear indication of how popular this small island known as Namiseom locally has become among Thais. As you board there’s a “welcome” sign in Thai and at the destination a board where Thai visitors to write comments.

Thais, perhaps more than any other tourists, get the red-carpet treatment on Nami, which served as the setting for the hit TV series “Winter Love Song” that Thais swooned over a decade ago.

Meanwhile Chuncheon, the capital of northeastern Gangwon province, where the island is located, goes largely unnoticed among tourists. They want to see only the privately owned island because they were fans of the TV show.

Tourism officials are thrilled that the number of visitors to Nami has spiralled from a few thousand a decade ago to many millions today. But they’d like to see Chuncheon acquire a similar cachet, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be a popular destination with its beautiful river and lakes.

It is in fact called “the City of Lakes” – three of them that keep Chuncheong picturesque all year round, whether blanketed on snow or wearing a mantle of colourful autumn leaves. And it’s far more peaceful than chaotic Seoul, 63 kilometres away, whose residents the government has urged to move to Chuncheong. 

Few have taken up the offer, though, so hopes rest on tourism, and a lot of local and Thai travellers do make day trips, encouraged by the good transportation links. Chuncheon is now trying to get them to stay a little longer rather than skipping through on their way to Nami. The city-sanctuary’s natural attractions and excellent northeastern dishes make the tourism authority’s job much easier. 

And it’s worth keeping in mind that Nami Island sometimes gets just too crowded nowadays. You might well be disappointed that you can’t enjoy the beauty, particularly if you visited before, a few years back.

You can easily pass several pleasant days in Chuncheon, not least among the shops on Myeongdong Street and in an underground mall, though it can’t quite match Seoul. Among the other things to see and do, apart from soaking up the natural wonders:

 

_ Gobble down some dak galbi and makguksu – The first is spicy grilled chicken and the city’s most famous dish. Diners crowd around a big pan searing the marinated bite-sized pieces with assorted vegetables on a hot iron plate. You can have dak galbi elsewhere in the country, but it’s never as good as in Chuncheon.

Makguksu is noodles made with healthy buckwheat dough, best served with a chilled watery kimchi called mulgimchi or donchimi, a cold radish-kimchi broth. Again, they mix in vegetables and seasonings like vinegar and mustard. Once the noodles are gone, you pour hot soup into the bowl and drink it. The dish is so popular that there’s an annual Chuncheon Makguksu Festival every August.

 

_ Gander at the Animation Museum – Travellers with youngsters and anyone young at heart will love this treasury of animated films. You’ll find all your favourite characters, like Tiger-mask from Japan, Twitty from Warner Brothers and famous South Korean characters like Cloud Factory. The museum houses one of the world’s biggest archives of animation-related products, and the displays are interactive. You can even make an animated movie of your own. Tour guides explain everything in English.

367 Hyunam Ri Seo Myeon Chuncheon 

Open daily from 10am to 6pm

 

_ Gape at the Jade Garden – The local soil produces a lot of precious jade, and this botanical treat with 3,000 plant species has as its overall theme “Small Europe in the Forest”, but 24 separate areas have their own distinctive themes as well. The Tuscan-style visitor centre is nevertheless the main attraction. You’ve seen it on TV in three different series – “Love Rain”, “Full House 2” and “That Winter, the Wind Blows”. Thais invariably have their picture taken out front. 

You can visit the Jade Garden anytime of year, but winter is the most popular because of the undeniable appeal of the snow-covered landscape.

San 111, Seocheon-ri, Namsan-myeon, Chuncheon-si, Gangwon-do 

Call centre in English, Japanese and Chinese: (+82) 2 1330 

 

_ Enjoy Songkran, Chuncheon-style – This isn’t exactly the kind of water festival Thais are used to, but the annual Chuncheon International Mime Festival each May earmarks one day for tossing water around and “playing Songkran”. Everyone wears raincoats and there are no power-pistols – the water comes directly from municipal trucks – but it’s a lovely, vibrant scene. 

The city comes alive during the festival with lots of street performances and entertainers striking poses, playing music, dancing and screening short films.

 

_ Use those lakes – Visitors are well advised to sample the aquatic sports in the lake area, even if it’s just paddling a canoe, and there’s also a bicycle route around the lakes. The scenery is priceless and the two-way route is exceptionally tidy.