Celebrate Korean spicy chicken and buckwheat noodles in Chuncheon

The Chuncheon Makguksu and Dakgalbi Festival will run for six days from Aug. 26 to 31.

Makguksu, a Korean buckwheat noodle and dakgalbi, a Korean style chicken dish, are two typical dishes of the Chuncheon area, highlighted through this annual festival each summer.

The festival will have a main performance stage, exhibitions, and free food sampling at Subyeon Park, Samcheong-dong, and will also feature other local specialties from around the world. There will be cookery classes as well as Asian food promotion to showcase similar dishes from China and Japan, together with fusion dishes. A singing contest will be open to the participation of adults, children and foreigners alike. Children can also enjoy themselves at Maemil (buckwheat) Playground, playing with a traditional buckwheat mallet, trying tuho (arrow throwing) and other activities. Other events for the kids will include balloon art, a quiz and characters. Makguksu (guksu means noodles in Korean) is one of the most simple noodle dishes that can be made at home, simply by kneading basic buckwheat flour dough and forcing it through a noodle press and then boiling it immediately. Simply add water from kimchi or dongchimi (watery radish kimchi) for flavoring. It would taste even better if you add vinegar, mustard and beef stock together with a mixture of vegetables and some seasoning.

Makguksu, or Mak-noodles In Chuncheon especially, buckwheat flour is kneaded with hot water to be pressed out from the noodle press. The noodles are then boiled and cooled down with cold water three or four times. Kimchi, usually the white, watery kind, is added, together with sliced and salted cucumber. A bit of powdered sesame and hot pepper is sprinkled on the top. Another added bonus to makguksu is that, thanks to the nutritious buckwheat, it is good for blood circulation and strengthens capillaries, among other health benefits. While at the festival, you can visit the Makguksu Experience Museum nearby. Dakgalbi, meaning “chicken ribs” is chicken meat immersed in hot sauce and fried on a large frying pan or skillet, together with vegetables. Back in the 1960s, thanks to Chuncheon being rich in chicken farms, the dish quickly became popular among college students and others that prefer a good hearty, meal that is relatively cheap in price. Also, most people are quite familiar with the nutrition of white meat, which is relatively high in Vitamin A and protein, and less in fat and salt than other meat. Nowadays you can also see such restaurants in any area in Korea.

Dakgalbi dishContests to be held at the festival are a makguksu eating contest, a dakgalbi slicing contest, rooster call impression, tossing eggs between couples and makguksu noodle measuring contest. Visitors will get to purchase frozen chicken products and other agricultural specialties of Chuncheon at reasonable prices. All the while music will continue to resound from the main stage. The Chuncheon City Choir, Taegeuk percussion group, a cappella performance, belly dancing, guitar and saxophone soloists, electronic orchestra and more will come on stage to show their best. Foreign performers will also be at the festival. A day for Japanese traditional performances is scheduled for Aug. 28 and Chinese performances on Aug. 29. The festival, which is in its second year, is expected to be much bigger in scale than last year, thanks to extra funding from the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in accordance with the government plan to globalize Korean food. The project aims to develop 100 brand names for Korean food to make local cuisine one of the top five foods in the world.Visit the homepage: Chuncheon Makguksu and Dakgalbi Festival (Korean) or Chuncheon English Website. For more details, contact 033-250-4347~8 (Korean). For free interpretation service call Korea Travel Phone: 1330 (Korean, English, Chinese, Japanese). By Kim Hee-sung Korea.net Staff Writer

Fair & Festival in Incheon: 80 days of future-themed fun

It's a global city festival, a conference on green growth, a multimedia show, a world robot display, a global wine festival, a collection of traditional cuisine, a giant concert, a kite flying competition and more, all combined into one.

The Incheon Global Fair & Festival (Aug. 7 – Oct. 25) has just kicked off, and will present the vision of future cities for the next 80 days.With the participation of a total of 137 cities -- 105 from abroad and 32 from home -- the grand fair seeks to provide a desirable model of a future city, filled with diverse culture and state-of-the-art technology under the theme “Lightening Tomorrow.” This festival, the first of its kind, has prepared a total of 68 programs made up of exhibitions, events and conferences, and hopes to attract about 7 million tourists from around Korea and overseas.

The festivities will take place at Incheon's Songdo City, which was designated the first Economic Free Zone in Korea in 2003. The area includes Songdo's Central Park, Tomorrow City and Songdo Convensia.

Planning of new city types

As the whole theme of the festival revolves around “City,” corporate displays and business fairs are another big part of the general event. In the exhibition sector, the Urban Planning Pavilion will present the history and development of well-known cities around the world. The Corporate Pavilion will showcase the work of some of the major construction groups in Korea including Hyundai, Daewoo and POSCO. This will include displays of their designs of a future city. The Robot Science Pavilion will update visitors on the latest in robotics technology, and related companies will have booths nearby. The Green Growth Pavilion will present ways to counter climate change. The World Culture Street will be adorned with symbolic sculptures, cultural heritage and other paraphernalia that represents the respective countries.

Big name scholars for big conferences

Some top minds from around the world will gather at Songdo Convensia, including Ban Ki-moon, the General-Secretary of the United Nations, and the futurist scholar from France, Jacques Attali. Twenty conferences will take place, starting with the Urban Redevelopment Conference, then the Asia Pacific City Summit, Urban Recycling International Conference, RFID/USN Conference and more. Secretary-General Ban will also be a key speaker at the opening ceremony of the Global Environment Forum 2009 (Aug. 11 and 12), attended by some 1,000 officials from government, research centers and NGO groups. The conference will actively discuss strategies for low carbon green growth, for the sustainable development of the earth's environment. The World City Water forum 2009 (Aug. 18-21), which will look into the increase in water shortages due to climate change, will discuss the kinds of disasters that are likely to occur in the future and focus on preventive measures. Some 5,000 attendees from 50 nations are scheduled to attend this forum. The Asia Pacific Cities Summit (Sept. 15 to 17) will bring together leaders of 130 cities from the Asia Pacific region in one place to exchange their experience and wisdom regarding the creative development of cities. Other big conferences, such as the 2009 u-City International Conference (Aug. 27 to 28), International Telecommunications Energy Conference (Oct. 18 to 22) and other meetings are expected to attract just as many participants.

Fun and events galore

The opening ceremony for the global fair took place on the Bi-ryu performing stage at 10 a.m., with exactly 2,009 Narae kites flying, carrying the wishes of children around the world. Girls' Generation and other Korean pop idol singers roused the city with a special concert that night. Throughout the festival there will be music concerts held every weekend. Maestro Chung Myung-hoon and his orchestra will be the first to give a performance on August 8. Other top-rated local musicians will follow with their prowess in classics, hip hop, rock and ballad. The World Robot Game Festival, much anticipated by young children will take place over three days from August 7 to 9, followed by the World Robot Soccer Game from August 18 to 20. Other sports-related events are Korea Open-International Taekwondo Competition (Aug. 18 to 22), Incheon Bridge International Marathon 2009 (Oct. 11) and the Incheon Bridge 90-hour Walk (Oct. 17).

Things to see & eat

There is a giant outdoor screen in the plaza measuring 22 meters wide and 12 meters high that shows clear, high-quality 3-D images advertising the festival.Throughout the festival the Multimedia Water Show at Michuhol Fountain will shine high with its cutting-edge system composed of hollo-screen and sphere vision, shown for the first time in Korea. It includes audio, laser arts, videos and fireworks. The World's City Booth will showcase Asia's biggest diorama made of Lego and present a drama completely acted out by robots. A Gulliver Teddy Bear, 10 meters wide, 2 meters high and 2.3 meters wide will be at the World Culture Street together with a regular performance of a puppet show from Vietnam. Also at the main stadium there will a giant wooden horse as big as the Trojan Horse constructed in Turkey's northwestern city of Canakkale. The Tomorrow City will proudly present a zoo made up of robot animals and other future technology.

Getting to Incheon

The Incheon Global Fair and Festival will be open every day from 9:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. until Sept. 20. From Sept. 21 to the end of the festival on Oct. 25, the Fair will be opened till 8 p.m. except on weekends, when late closing will continue. For ticket reservations visit the homepage, Ticket Link (Korean), Interpark (Korean) or the nearest branch of Shinhan Bank. It's 15,000 won for adults, (Group discount: 12,000 won for 30 or more people), 11,000 won for youths aged 13 to 18 and 8,000 won for children aged 4 to 12. For those who plan to purchase tickets at the gate, it's 18,000 won for adults (group discount: 14,000 won), 13,000 won for youths and 10,000 won for children. For more details on Incheon Global Fair, call 1666-2009. Japanese and Spanish-speaking guides are available from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., English is available until from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Chinese from 3:30 to 10 p.m. For other free interpreting services, you can also dial Korea Travel Phone on 1330 (English, Japanese and Chinese). For transportation and other transport details, visit the visitors' information site. You can also try the website for Incheon City. (Some homepages may be a bit slow due to their heavy graphics content.) Pamphlets and maps written in English, Chinese and Japanese are available for visitors on the spot.

By Kim Hee-sung Korea.net Staff Writer

Jeju dialect proverb board

Jeju has a very unique, traditional dialect.
We can't know, especially guessing also difficult.
I thought it also kind of foreign language.
I need a translation. maybe everyone don't know except jeju citizen.

Let's smile.

One looks smile(right side), but the other looks serious.
I like smile face more it makes me comfortable.

'Sangumburi' Crater

Gate of 'Sangumburi'

'Sangumburi' is crater, and 'Dolharbang' is symbol of jeju island.
The weather was a little bit cloudy.

First day

First day, 10.25.
We arrived at jeju airport. It takes about 50 minutes. (very quick! -ㅁ-)

We ate lunch called 'Dombe gogi(meat)' and some fish (Okdom)

flavor was quite good. but actually I didn't like seafood but this tour gives me a chance to eat various things.

kimpo airport

Hi everyone, finally I went to jeju island.
At that time I wake up at 4 a.m and took the first bus.
The picture is kimpo airport's morning scene. :)
I was so excited by imagine traveling.