Go Ice-Fishing Like Kim Soo Hyun In This Part Of Korea

Taebaek City’s Hanbo Coal Mine is an abandoned coal mine-turned-tourist-attraction, thanks to monster K-drama hit Descendants of the Sun that was partially shot here. The well-publicised restoration of the set — including two churches and a replica of the famous shipwrecked vessel featured in the show — will be completed by end-2018. But for now, there’s still plenty that’s Snapchattable in the show’s fictitious country of Urk. Check out the ruins of the old miners’ bath house that was the thrilling earthquake scene in the drama. Re-create the drama leads’ iconic shoelace-tying scene at the exact spot. Slip into Hye Kyo’s doctor gown at the Medi Cube container box or roll about on Joong Ki’s bed (okay, fine, a replica of it) at the soldiers’ bunk. There’s also a helicopter featured in the drama on display, as well as a pick-up truck where Joong Ki and Hye Kyo’s characters sealed their love with a kiss. Awww…

Up your DoTS dosage at the Samtan Art Mine in Jeongseon, another mine-turned-art museum. Of the 13 themed rooms in the sprawling four-storey complex, be sure to check out the puppet-themed Eco Marionette Art Gallery Room, aka Joong Ki’s waiting room. You can still find traces of him here (sorta) by way of a replica of the military garb and beret he wore in the drama hanging on the wall. For Hye Kyo fans, amble along to what used to be the miners’ shower room. The spot where a lone chair sits in the middle of the room was where Hye Kyo’s kidnapped doctor-slash-damsel-in-distress character was tied to.

If it’s a different kind of art form you’re keen on, the Samtan Art Mine will also please. Despite its artistic reboot, vestiges of the place’s mining past lives on. Outside the shower room, the walls are plastered with black-and-white photos of miners hard at work. An installation piece of a miner figurine hovers above a former washing machine room. Hipsters will love it here — the place is a mine of photo ops. Take, for instance, the Rail by Museum, a soot-blanketed marshalling yard with the whiff of desolation in the air that would make it the perfect backdrop for Train to Busan 2. A coal wagon stands in its midst like time has stopped in its track. Equally photogenic is the former machine repair space-turned-restaurant where Joong Ki and co. dined (good luck trying to suss out the chair he sat on). Its industrial chic interiors means it’s hipster without even trying to be.

Get your retail therapy fix at the Jeongseon Five-Day Market, which opens on dates that end with ‘2’ or ‘7’. There are enough mountain herbs and freshly-plucked greens, seafood and various munchies on sale here to feed a small hanok village. Dig into cheap, hearty street food like tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), kkochi eomuk (fish cake skewers), sundae (Korean traditional blood sausage) and jeon (Korean pancakes). A must-try is the famed soft and springy buckwheat noodles, or kotdeungchigi (which translates literally to “hit the nose”).

Having only opened its doors to the public in 2014, the 42-year-old Daegwallyeong Sky Ranch remains largely untouched by tourism. The vast complex about 50 times the size of Sports Hub is home to horses, sheep, goats and cows. Its picturesque surrounds have also been the backdrop of several K-shows like Running Man and We Got Married. Over here, you can sled down snowy slopes, feed ponies or go horseback-riding. Hop on a tractor-pulled trailer to go on a round trip round the range. Or do like a mountaineer — a hike takes 50 minutes. At the mountain top, you’re treated to a stunning view of majestic-looking wind turbines. Drop by during spring or summer to see the animals out and about. Or mosey over to the sheep farm to mingle with freely-roaming residents on the meandering meadows anytime of the year. Feed hay to the fluffy ones or do like a real-life Dr Dolittle and take a wefie, or three.

Hands-on foodies, head on over to the Jeonggangwon, aka The Institute of Traditional Korean Cuisine, to have your own DIY kimchi or bibimbap experience. We tried our hand at making the latter, tossing rice with assorted veggies around a traditional giant stone bowl that serves up to ten. Our bibimbap was middling at best. But the experience of dining in the traditional surrounds of an old-school hanok? Priceless.

We’re clad in a T-shirt and shorts, waddling in knee-deep waters in biting -17°C weather in Hwacheon, Gangwon province. We’re getting ready for bare hand ice fishing, where tourists plunge into the cold water brimming with mountain trout and race to grab as many fish as possible with their bare hands within five minutes. Stuff your catch into your tee... or your mouth. We watch as a staff member wades over to a fellow journo and offers to plonk a fish into her tee. She gingerly agrees. Seconds later, she’s yelling: “The fish is rubbing against my boobs!” She wrestles the wriggling trout away from her chest. Elsewhere, fellow contestants head for land, tees heaving with their catch. On the other hand, we are feeling like um, fish out of water, flailing desperately in the water. It doesn’t help that it starts to feel like we’re dragging a carcass around now that our feet have gone numb from the chilly waters. We finally give up, lumber out of the pool and schlep towards the toasty footbath indoors.

For the less adventurous, opt for ice fishing, a la the choice pastime of Kim Soo Hyun’s alien character in Man From Another Star. Thousands of anglers bend over 40cm-thick drilled holes dotting the giant frozen lake above the Hwacheon stream. We swish our reel up and down through one of the holes and try to lure what we hope would be lunch. After half an hour, zilch. In case you’re wondering, the bare hand ice fishing and ice fishing are all part of the three-week-long Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival, which takes place in January and draws over a million visitors every year. Family-friendly activities like snow sledding, snow-mobiling and ice-skating are also available here.

After ice fishing, we make our way to the cook-out area where you can grill your catch or buy some mountain trout. The fish is grilled, then slathered with curry and butter — its silky-soft flesh paired with heavenly buttery goodness. You can also opt to have it fried or eat it sashimi style.

Princess Elsa would feel right at home at the Ice Illumination Plaza at Hwacheon. The museum houses massive ice sculptures of anything from animals to Angkor Wat that glow in neon pinks, blues and greens.

Lining the Seon Deung Street at Hwacheon are 27,000 multi-coloured trout lanterns, the same number of people there are in the city. They are the handiworks of retirees in Hwacheon County to celebrate the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival.

The Taebaeksan Mountain Snow Festival in Jeongseon is a 10-day festival that happens every January. Over here, in the hometown of Won Bin, you can ogle at snow sculptures like Olaf, Pikachu and Ali Baba and his melting chin.

Jeongseon’s High 1 Resort prides itself on being the highest elevation ski resort in South Korea that boasts 18 slopes of varying difficulty. The leisure resort (there’s also a casino in here!) organizes the annual skiing competition GoGo Ski Festival. Visitors can take part in skiing lessons (S$270 for a half-day one-on-one class).

The picturesque Alpensia Resort in Pyeongchang is one of the venues in next year’s Winter Olympics. Take a gondola up to the Ski Jump Tower complex. At the ski jumping hill, you can check out the dizzying cold sweat-inducing view from where the Eddie the Eagles of the world will take the plunge during the ski jump competition. Be blown away by the panoramic scenic view of the resort from the observatory before touring the ski jumping venue at the Instagram-worthy Alpensia Sports Park.

Cultural buffs can get their fix at The Arari Village Theme Park in Jeongseon. No, there are no roller coasters or merry-go-rounds here. Rather, it’s an exhibition arena where visitors get to experience life as it was in a rural village during the Joseon Dynasty. Ogle at the ancient abodes, including a very Instagrammable cone-shaped log cabin. If you’re game enough, these homes are up for rent. Highly-realistic golden statues, like one of an ox pulling a water mill to grind the crops, also dot the area. Other notable blast-from-the-past features include a traditional outdoor cooking stove and antique farming tools. No matter where you go within the compound, you can’t escape the world-famous, UNESCO-registered Korean folk song Arirang blasting on loop. Yes, the Jeongseon folks are really, really proud of that ditty which originated from their city.

At the Byeongbangchi Skywalk in Jeongseon, you get more than a panoramic view — after all, you’re treading on a glass-bottomed observation deck hanging 583 metres over a U-shaped stream in the form of the Korean Peninsula. If that isn’t enough to entice you, it’s also the place where Lee Dong Wook rendezvous-ed with Lee Da Hae (in the Hotel King drama, lah).

GET TO GANGWON: Shuttle buses run from Incheon Airport and Seoul’s city centre. The journey is three hours long.

This trip was made possible by Korea Tourism Organization and Gangwon Province.

PHOTOS: KOREA TOURISM ORGANISATION/HWACHEON COUNTY OFFICE/CHERYL ONG