Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Fishing Festival

During the majority of January, my beautiful town held a fantastic festival. From the name of the festival, many would think that there wasn't much to it. They would ask what there even was to do beyond ice fishing. But this three-week festival was so much more than just ice fishing (though that was a huge part of it).

I first read about this festival way back in July when I first learned I was being placed here. I was so excited. Festivals are a huge part of Korean culture, and to have one that belongs to my placement was such a great thing to me. 

Now, this isn't a small thing in Hwacheon. The county government goes all out. They started putting lights and fish decorations up in the trees and along streets way back in December. And these weren't small decorations. It was almost excessive. But it was so beautiful. As a girl who absolutely loves lights, I was in heaven looking at them. During the festival, they even closed down the main street (which was covered in lights), and you could walk down the street and listen to the entertainment and eat food from vendors. 

The first thing I got to experience was the Indoor Ice Sculpture Plaza. It advertised that it was the largest indoor ice sculpture plaza in the world. And it was pretty grand. I actually got to go early. Afterschool one day, just before the festival started, all the teachers at my school were given tickets to go visit the plaza. It was so cool, not only because it was so beautiful, and it was awesome to see the art, but it was just the teachers from my school (it wasn't open to the public), so I was able to get good pictures of the castles and the sculptures without a bunch of people in the way. The entire place was made of ice. Looking at it, it looked fake but once you are up close you realize it's all real. It's all ice. Amazing. You could actually go up in the buildings and everything. There was even a slide. 

The festival itself took place on the frozen river that goes through my town. Probably about three-quarters of it was used for ice fishing (as that is what the festival was all about) but there was a portion for other activities. What was neat about the ice fishing, is that since the festival was foreigner friendly, there was one section of the river portioned off just for foreigners. It was really nice because the Korean part was really crowded all the time. I actually went fishing on three separate occasions, and I didn't catch a fish a single time. I did, however, get the fish my friends caught off their hooks. A few of them were really squeamish. I felt really bad for the fish. I knew I was hurting it, but it had to be done. 

The other activities were a lot more fun, and a lot less violent. It's near impossible to write everything that I did, but here are a few highlights. There was a giant snow tubing slide that slid onto the frozen river and a 500-meter long zip line over the fishing areas. They had ice skating, traditional ice sleds, ice soccer, and curling courts. Even barehanded ice fishing (where you get into a pool in shorts and a t-shirt and try and grab as many fish as you can with your bare hands, I didn't do that). There was delicious food lined up along either side of the river and even little tent restaurants where you could take your freshly caught fish and cook them up and eat them. There were some activities for kids that I couldn't do. One section beside the river was Ethiopian themed. I didn't know this, but apparently, some Ethiopian soldiers fought in the Korean War actually in Hwacheon, so now they do an exchange scholarship program with the country to this day. They served Ethiopian coffee and had mock buildings that were created to look like they were from the time of the war. You could even dress up in costumes. 

It was such a wonderful experience and I am so lucky to have had this festival in the place that I am living in.