All posts tagged: day trips from seoul

The Princess Temple | chuncheon

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If you’ve spent any amount of time in Korea, you’ve seen your fair share of Buddhist temples. Sometimes it feels like you can’t throw an empty bottle of BB cream without hitting one. (Don’t throw bottles, folks. Recycle!) But, every so often, you get to see one that is just wonderful and unique enough that you feel like an innocent young girl seeing her first Korean temple. Cheongpyeong-sa is one such temple for me. I visited in possibly the hottest of summers I’ve lived through in Seoul. The air was thick with humidity, smog and just millions of people’s breath. It was the perfect time to escape to Chuncheon in Gangwon-do. The area is gorgeous and full of greenery. The temple sits at the basin of Obongsan Mountain.  It was misty walking up to the entrance due to the heat and I began to fear that maybe I too would dissolve into sweaty mist. But, in the luckiest of circumstances, I saw just what I needed: an older couple soaking their feet in the crisp, streaming …

Daytripping | Chinatown

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  The only official “Chinatown” in Korea is located in Incheon and takes a long, boring ride on the subway to get out there. It’s a full on tourist destination and it has a quintessential selfie tourist trap, the barf-worthy Fairytale Village. But, as much as those things irk me, and they do, don’t let it stop you from heading out there just once. It’s an interesting and quirky place. There is a different feel to the area, in no small part due to the different smells and different building styles. There are many restaurants and spots to buy a snack. We found a dim sum restaurant that squelched some cravings I’d been having for weeks. It’s also the birthplace of the ridiculously popular Chinese-Korean dish, Jjajangmyeong. After eating, you can wander around and find a beautiful cafe, like one we found that doubled as a gallery. TLDR: A Brief History The history of the area is…interesting. When Incheon Port opened in 1883 a small settlement of Chinese people grew.  The population has remained small for …