Chuncheon

Last week we took a afternoon trip to the city of Chuncheon. The city is located east of Seoul and is the capital of Gangwon province. It is easily accessible by train and bus, about 1.5-2 hours from Seoul.

Thankfully our friend Binah has a friend who was willing to drive us instead. Assah!

We had planned to visit Lake Soyang which was created by daming the Soyang River. It is a huge dam that reminded me of the Hoover Dam (but probably half the size).

We were also in the mood for Chuncheon's most famous dishes. Chuncheon Dalk-galbi (a chicken dish that is either served grilled, or stir-fried with cabbage, rice cake (tteok) and other vegetables). It's one of my favorite dishes in Korea, and I had high expectations. Unfortunately, the restaurant we chose served us basically grilled chicken that we wrapped in lettuce leaf. Not what I'm used to, and not as delicious in my opinion.

The other dish Chuncheon is known for is makguksu. This is a cold soup of buckwheat noodles, similar to naengmyeon. I've had this in Gunpo as well, and I wasn't a huge fan of the noodles. I found them difficult to swallow and was suffering the begining of the flu when I was forced to eat them with teachers. This time around, I actually enjoyed them a little more. I found that the noodles were lighter and easier to swallow this time around. It's still not something I would crave for like dalkgalbi, but it was decent.


After lunch we visited Lake Soyang. You have to ferry across the lake to reach the mountain hiking area popular with tourists. It isn't too far of a hike to the buddhist temple that most people frequent.

The mountainous views are splendid, there are plenty of small restaurants along the way to grab some pajeon (scallion pancake) and makkoli (rice wine) as well. Along the way up, you will pass a beautiful waterfall, and can enjoy the clean mountain air.  If you plan on visiting make sure you note the time the last ferry departs, as the line can get really long. It departs early as well. The last ferry out was listed as 5:30pm, which is realtively early in my opinion. But hey, this isn't Seoul...


We planned on visiting the Jade Garden and forest near the city, but ran out of time as they are not open too late....maybe next time (but there are just too many places to see still). Instead we kicked back with some more makguksu and pajeon for dinner along with a couple bottles of makkoli. All in all, a pretty good day.



Here are some photos I took: