The 2023 Sancheong World Traditional Medicine and Anti-Aging Expo (“Sancheong Expo”) will be held in Donguibogam Village, Sancheong County, from 15 September to 19 October 2023. The theme of this healing expo is “Promise of the Future, Traditional Medicine in the World”. Visitors can enjoy health and healing through the experience of traditional medicine from … [Read More]
Travel and Tourism
Welcome to LKL’s travel pages. Here you can find our travel diaries and tourism tips. Find our most written-about places on the Korean peninsula here, and our experiences and ideas about cultural tourism here.
Jirisan – the landscape that inspired Hwang Jihae’s “Letter from a Million Years Past” garden at Chelsea
LKL goes on a field trip to the deep valleys of Jirisan, the landscape that inspired Hwang Jihae’s “Letter from a Million Years Past” garden at Chelsea Flower Show and talks about the designer’s aims for the garden itself, which advocates letting nature to its own devices so that the aboriginal plants can thrive. In Jirisan, that means plants that benefit human health. [Read More]
Michael Gibb’s Korean Odyssey: a great way to enjoy Korea without the the visa and quarantine
If I were to win an insane amount of money on the lottery, here’s how I might spend it. I’d charter a boat (and crew – I’m no sailor), and maybe a guide / interpreter, and go on a slow sea voyage for a couple of months from Busan to Mokpo, taking in some of … [Read More]
A review of the Korean cultural year 2020
It would be an understatement to say that the cultural year 2020 has been markedly different from previous years. The pandemic has had a huge impact on the cultural scene, with most live events cancelled and event promoters falling back on the internet to provide us with our cultural fixes. Some of these attempts have … [Read More]
Nine Confucian academies listed at UNESCO
For visitors to Korea (such as myself) who like to try to get round all the UNESCO-listed world heritage sites, the list just got longer. On Saturday 6 July, the World Heritage Committee included nine Seowon, or Neo-Confucian Academies, in the list. The nine seowon are dotted around the central and southern parts of the … [Read More]
2019 Travel Diary #4: Seosan – Haemi Eupseong and Gaesimsa
Sunday 5 May 2019. My leisurely weekend in Taean was coming to an end, but Chris and Eunok are always generous enough to take me the scenic route to Cheonan Asan station before I catch the KTX down south. We had a relatively early start to the day: we wanted plenty of time to get … [Read More]
2019 Travel Diary #3: Anmyeondo
Having enjoyed the peace of Mallipo and Chollipo beaches and the rich rewards of Chollipo arboretum on previous visits to Taean-gun, for LKL’s third visit to the county it was time to explore the coastline elsewhere. This time, we were to venture into Anmyeondo, Korea’s 6th-largest island, where the attractions include a recreational forest and … [Read More]
2019 Travel Diary #2: The Taean Tulip Festival
Every county has its hallmark festival. Taean’s is the Tulip Festival, located in Korea Flower Park just at the back of Ggotji beach on Anmyeondo. It has been an annual event since 2012, and as I write this in April 2020 I’m glad to see that it has survived the Covid-19 lockdown. What more is … [Read More]
2019 Travel Diary #1: Seoul
This year I decided to ease myself into the Korea trip gently: an evening plus a half-day in Seoul before heading off to visit friends elsewhere on the peninsula. I didn’t know how much energy I’d have when I landed, but had made tentative arrangements to meet up with London-based artist Bongsu Park, possibly with … [Read More]
2018 travel diary 4 – Gayasa and the tomb of Namyeon-gun
Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, 11 November 2018. In the first half of the 19th century, although the Yi family was on the throne, much of the power in the land was actually wielded by the Andong Kim family who had intermarried with the royal family. One member of the royal family, Yi Ha-eung, resorted to rather unusual … [Read More]
The 2019 LKL Korea trip – an introduction
Over the years, the reasons for my annual trips to Korea have changed. Originally I managed to tack a visit onto the back end of a business trip to Hong Kong and so the timing of my trips were determined by my job (which, as it happens, has nothing to do with Korea). But at … [Read More]
2018 travel diary 3 – The Smile of Baekje
10 – 11 November 2018. My trips to Korea are usually preceded by a hurried piece of research on the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) website trying to find out what notable items of tangible or intangible heritage, or what other historic or scenic sites there might be, to attract an inquisitive traveller to the places … [Read More]
An adoptee returns to her home town
Bella Frey, who recently reviewed The Return – the closing film of LKFF 2018 – tells us about her own personal return earlier this year. A tale of the unexpected… My head is still swimming from my recent trip to Korea. It was in part planned to be a personal pilgrimage to re-visit places from … [Read More]
2018 travel diary 2 – Chollipo revisited
10 November 2018. In Chollipo’s famous Arboretum the best of the Autumn colour had finished, but there were still some good reds, oranges and yellows to be found, and the grasses were particularly fine. In October last year this new statue of Carl Ferris Miller, Chollipo’s founder, was installed in this secluded area in the … [Read More]
2018 travel diary 1 – Mallipo out of season
9 – 10 November 2018. The first two nights of this year’s trip were spent on Mallipo beach, Taean-gun, because I liked the place so much when I visited last year. And I still like it. There’s not much more to say, other than it’s far preferable to Busan’s Haeundae beach. Next door to Mallipo … [Read More]
The LKL 2018 Korea trip – an introduction
Overview My annual visit to Korea this year for once really didn’t have an agenda. Originally planned as a late October / early November trip to see some Autumn leaves and catch the tail end of the Gwangju Biennale, everything changed when I heard that Ahn Sook-sun was coming to London at that precise time … [Read More]