A Gangneung travel book full of stories
A humanistic guide to everything that makes up today's Gangneung

A guide to Gangneung's cultural travels for discerning city travelers.
This provides an opportunity to delve deeper into Gangneung, a beautiful seaside city and a historical city filled with the scent of literature, art, and pine trees, from a humanistic perspective.
A professional curator who has been in charge of artifact management and exhibition planning at Gangneung Ojukheon/City Museum for a long time wrote about Gangneung's major historical and geographical environments, old folk customs and changing spaces, unique foods and festivals, language, and memorable people, using around 50 keywords.
If coffee, Gyeongpo, and the Independent Film Festival are keywords that attract travelers to Gangneung today, then Ojukheon, Gangneung Danoje Festival, and Hansongjeong are keywords that reveal the roots of the city of Gangneung.
This book meticulously illuminates and explains how the old and the new coexist in one city, creating a robust cultural landscape, through the eyes of a cultural observer and cultural heritage manager who was born and raised here.

Gangneung borders the East Sea to the east and the Baekdudaegan Mountains to the west.
Exchange between Yeongdong and Yeongseo had to pass through Daegwallyeong, which crosses the Baekdudaegan Mountain Range.
Perhaps that is why the people of Gangneung perceived the world in two ways.
‘Gangneung’ and ‘Beyond Yeong’ are examples.
Here, Young refers to Daegwallyeong.

--- p.19

In Gangneung, Gyeongpo is not simply a word that refers to a lake.
It includes Gyeongpo Beach, which Jeong Cheol sang about as a “white silk stretching ten li,” and Nujeong Gyeongpodae, known as Gangneung’s best scenic spot.
If someone asks you to meet them at Gyeongpo, you must specify the location clearly.
Otherwise, some people might go to the lake and some might go to the beach.

--- p.33

Gulsansa Temple is a temple from the Silla Dynasty located in Haksan-ri, Gujeong-myeon, and now only the site remains.
The towering stone pillars standing tall in the vast plains surrounded by the Baekdudaegan Mountain Range like a windbreak speak of the temple's majestic power.
This 5.4-meter-tall stone pillar, the largest in Korea, is engraved with rough, etched marks.

--- p.92

There are four prominent wooden structures from the Goryeo Dynasty that still exist in Korea.
These include the Geungnakjeon Hall of Bongjeongsa Temple, the Muryangsujeon Hall of Buseoksa Temple, the Daeungjeon Hall of Sudeoksa Temple, and the Sammun Gate of Imyeonggwan in Gangneung.
Unlike the three previous locations, which are temple buildings, Imyeonggwan Sammun is a government building.

--- p.100

A pavilion (樓亭, a building and a pavilion) is built in a place with good natural scenery, on a mountain or hill with a good view of the surrounding scenery, or on the shore of a lake or sea.
Therefore, the correct attitude toward a pavilion is not to look at the pavilion building from the outside, but to look at the outside scenery from inside the pavilion.
The eight scenic views of Gwandong are famous for their beautiful scenery, and there is always a pavilion there. However, what is more impressive is the view from there than the pavilion itself.

--- p.116

Hansongjeong is the oldest tea heritage site remaining in Korea.
It is said that there was a stone pond, a stone well, and a stone well where the Silla Hwarang Yeongrang made tea and drank it, and there are also records of envoys making tea and drinking it.
Now there are a stone well, a stone platform, and a restored stone monument.

--- p.124

In Hwalraejeong, there is a tea room between the room and the veranda.
If, in a good season, you can throw open the folding screen and be served a tea table with well-brewed tea and neatly arranged snacks, you can consider yourself to have enjoyed all the luxuries available at the missionary camp.
After passing Hwalraejeong, you will come across the tall gate, a symbol of upper-class houses during the Joseon Dynasty.
There is a signboard hanging here that reads, “Seongyoyugeo (仙嶠幽居),” meaning a secluded house where immortals reside, and it is in the handwriting of Lee Hee-su, a calligrapher from the late Joseon Dynasty.

--- p.127

In Gangneung, octopus is used not only for ancestral rites and ancestral rites, but also for important events such as weddings and funerals.
If octopus is not included in the table setting, it is considered as a lack of sincerity towards the guests or mourners.
It is said that because Gangneung is a nobleman's town, the octopus with the character for fish (魚) is used, but it seems to be widely used because it is a representative fish species caught in Gangneung.

--- p.137

When it comes to local foods that can be enjoyed in Gangneung, you can't leave out potato-based dishes and Chodang Tofu.
Potato pancakes and potato pancakes are foods that can be enjoyed as a meal without the burden of making them with crops grown in local soil.
The same goes for tofu.
Soybeans are processed in the Gangneung style and used as the main ingredient in preparing healthy side dishes.

--- p.143

Gangneung Subo is an embroidered wrapping cloth produced and collected in the Gwandong region centered around Gangneung.
It is called Gangneung Subo because it has unique formative characteristics that distinguish it from other local embroidered bojagi.
The Gangneung Subo pattern is expressive and colorful.
… When you look at the water droplets, you can feel the freshness even in the leaves, which is why Gangneung water droplets are also called ‘flower droplets.’

--- p.151

It's not often you get the chance to watch a movie in total comfort, with a cool drink in a mosquito net tent.
The Jeongdongjin Independent Film Festival, which allows you to enjoy the same fun as playing in the water at the beach while floating through a movie, offers freedom in viewing methods as well as themes and formats.

--- p.160 [Jeongdongjin Independent Film Festival]

Gangneung is a city with 'fragrance'.
From the scent of pine trees to the scent of tea from the oldest tea heritage site in Korea (Hansongjeong) and the scent of coffee that suits the global era, the scent of fragrance (香) has been added to the scent of hometown (鄕), which was called literary and artistic, creating another code that defines Gangneung.

--- p.162

There is a song that begins with the lyrics, 'The spring flowers of Hwabusan Mountain are blooming, so beautiful.'
This is the school song of Gangneung Girls' High School.
Gangneung Girls' High School opened in 1940 at Gangneung Hyanggyo at the foot of Mt. Hwabusan and moved to Okcheon-dong shortly thereafter.
Once you know the school's history, the lyrics "Hwabusan" in one of the school songs are not out of the blue.

--- p.177

It is said that Gyeongpo Lake was originally much larger than it is now.
The scale can be estimated through surrounding place names such as Jibyeon-dong and Seongyojang.
However, it appears that there was a major change in the ecosystem of Gyeongpo Lake as some of it was reclaimed and expanded into farmland.
It is said that thorny azaleas lived here about 50 years ago, but disappeared long ago, and then bloomed again as if by magic when a wetland was created.

--- p.183

In Gangneung, Dano is the biggest event of the year.
Just as people pay off their debts before the holidays, the people of Gangneung started paying off their debts as Dano approached.
And I drank makgeolli with friends, colleagues, and family at Dano Market with potato pancakes as an appetizer.
As everyone rushed to Dano Market, restaurant and bedding shop owners in Gangneung City grumbled that business was bad because of Dano.
--- p.205

The girl with the small face wears a mask with a smiling face and dances clumsily with the nobleman clown.
The dance moves of the bride wearing a yellow blouse and a crimson skirt with bright sleeves reveal a simple yet awkward charm.
Gwanno Mask Play is a Seonangje mask play performed during the Gangneung Danoje Festival.
In the past, it was performed by going around to various shrines, but now it is performed at the Dano Performance Hall during the Dano period.

--- p.208

The painting ceremony held in Wichon-ri, Seongsan-myeon has a history of over 350 years.
It started as a Daedonggye organized for all village residents in the mid-17th century and has continued to this day.
Until a few decades ago, when the village community was valued, it was common for people to bow to their elders on New Year's Day and then go from house to house to bow to the elders in the neighborhood.
On the other hand, Wichon-ri is a place where the tradition of villagers gathering in one place and exchanging New Year's greetings instead of going from house to house has been passed down for a long time.

--- p.220

Gangneung dialect is special.
Professor Lee Ik-seop, while introducing the characteristics of the Gangneung dialect, emphasized that it 'has long vowels and high tones.'
It was said that the only language in our country that has both of these characteristics is the Gangneung language.
Its major features include the presence of unique grammatical rules and a rich vocabulary.

--- p.259