Festivals in Gangwon

Gangwon, the mountainous east, is at its busiest in winter. In January visitors fish for trout through the ice of frozen rivers at Hwacheon, Pyeongchang and Hongcheon, and between mid-January and mid-February snow sculptures fill the Daegwallyeong snow festival in Pyeongchang and the Taebaeksan snow festival in Taebaek. On the coast, Gangneung greets the New Year's first sunrise at Jeongdongjin and holds the UNESCO-listed Danoje in early summer and the coffee festival in late October. Chuncheon's mime festival fills the city in the last week of May, Hwacheon holds a tomato festival in late July or early August, and the buckwheat fields of Bongpyeong in Pyeongchang flower for the Hyoseok Culture Festival in early to mid September. Jeongseon sings Arirang for four days in late September or early October, Yangyang hunts pine mushrooms and catches returning salmon in mid-October, and Wonju fills its old downtown with dumpling stalls on the fourth weekend of October. Gangneung is two hours from Seoul by KTX.