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]
Place: Jeollabuk-do
Selected publications
- Michael Gibb: A Korean Odyssey: Island Hopping in Choppy Waters, Camphor Press 2020
Lancashire Korea Festival comes to Preston
First Cardiff, now Preston. Lancashire Korea Festival Saturday 28 September 2019, 12:00 – 17:00 53 Degrees | Brook Street | Preston PR1 7HN Tickets £5 | Book via EventBrite The Lancashire Korea Festival is a day-long celebration of everything Korean that focuses upon sharing both traditional and modern aspects of K-culture. A selection of cultural … [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]
Exhibition: Taste of Korea — Jeonju
The KCC’s final exhibition of the year takes you on a trip to Korea’s culinary capital: Taste of Korea: Jeonju 22 Nov 2018 – 12 Jan 2019 | Mon-Fri: 10am – 6pm Sat: 11am – 5pm Korean Cultural Centre UK In partnership with the Korea Traditional Culture Center The Taste of Korea: Jeonju introduces this … [Read More]
South Korea: Earth’s Hidden Wilderness – BBC2 documentary
To complement their coverage of the winter Olympics, the BBC is screening what looks like an interesting documentary covering things you might not often see in coverage of the peninsula. With plenty of Korean experts advising and behind the camera, this should be well worth a watch. South Korea – Earth’s Hidden Wilderness BBC2, 8:00pm … [Read More]
2017 travel diary 7: A trip to Jeonju
Jeonju. Food capital of Korea. Slow City. Home to the famous Hanok Village. Ancestral seat of the Yi family, the royal house of the Joseon dynasty. Host of the Jeonju International Film Festival. Home to the hanji museum, the royal portrait museum… All this I knew about the capital of Jeonbuk province before my visit … [Read More]
2016 travel diary 11: Buyeo National Museum and the tombs at Neungsan-ri
Buyeo-eup, Chungcheongnam-do, 17 May 2016 10am. Buyeo National Museum Next stop was the Buyeo National Museum. Here, we were totally shameless in our visit. It was to be a precision strike: go and see the the famous Gilt Bronze Incense Burner of Baekje and get out quick: we had an appointment in Sancheong. But of … [Read More]
2016 travel diary 5: An introduction to the Baekje Historic Areas
Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do, 16 May 2016 The kingdom of Baekje had its beginnings as a small state founded on the south banks of the Han River in 18 BCE by King Onjo. The people were largely of Buyeo origins – an early kingdom absorbed into Goguryeo. The kingdom gradually grew, absorbing the small Mahan states to … [Read More]
The Guardian hikes the Baekdu-daegan
There’s a nice piece in The Guardian this week about hiking the Baekdu-daegan. The author starts at Cheonwangbong peak, Jirisan, in Sancheong County (Gyeongsangnam-do) and walks north, ending his hike in the Deogyusan national park in Muju County, Jeollabuk-do. Koreans have long believed that a current of life-energy, or gi, runs between [Jirisan in the … [Read More]
A trip to the historic city of Jeonju, home of the bibimbap
My visit to Korea in October 2012 was planned to attend the Jeonju International Fermented Food Expo. Well, when I arrived from Seoul, actually it was more like a busy city market day, with some fermented salted fish stalls and a local food exhibition. I felt slightly let down. But I had not visited this … [Read More]
Looking back at 2012: Culture, tourism and branding stories
The first of four articles in which we look back at some of the stories which caught our attention during the course of 2012. In this first article we look at cultural promotion, heritage, tourism and related topics. Heritage and Cultural Promotion Korea’s national folk song, Arirang, was listed as world Intangible Cultural Heritage by … [Read More]