It's Snowing Cherry Blossoms in Jinhae....Not...Yet?

Is Nature playing an April Fool's trick on people hoping to see the cherry blossoms out in full force at the naval base of Jinhae? According to a report from the Chosun Ilbo, the KMO's predictions about the appearance of the cherry blossom is off by a week or so, no thanks to a cold snap. Pity, considering the town is celebrating its 50th anniversary of the cherry blossom festival this year. Anyone who's in Jinhae,or been there recently, please correct me if I'm wrong and tell me if  the place is chockful of cherry blossoms right now.

Regions 2012 Blooming Dates ( from the KTO webpage) but read ahead for the latest amendments for the cherry blossoms' ETA.
Seogwipo 3.24 /  Busan 3.30  / Yeosu 4.4  / Tongyeong 4.1  / Gwangju 4.3 / Jeonju 4.7  / Daegu 3.31 / Pohang 4.2 / Daejeon 4.4 / Cheongju 4.7 / Seoul 4.10 / Incheon 4.13 / Gangneung 4.8 / Chuncheon 4.11
Jinhae Yeojwacheon Stream 3.29 / Hadong Ssanggyesa Temple Simni Cherry Blossom Path 4.1 / Jeonju-Gunsan Beonyeong-ro 4.8 / Cheongju musimcheonbyeon 4.2 / Seoul Yeoui-do Yunjung-ro 4.9

from the Chousn Ilbo:
Cold Snap Delays Cherry Blossom

The last cold spell in April has delayed the arrival of Korea's famous seasonal cherry blossom. The Korea Meteorological Administration on Thursday revised its prediction that the cherries would blossom in early April in most of the southern region. Blossoming will be delayed by three to six days in the south and by one or two days in central Korea, it added. The KMA officially declares the arrival of the cherry blossom when at least three blossoms appear in a tree in weather observatories nationwide. A KMA official said, "Normally, cherry blossoms bloom fully about one week after the first blossom is observed. Cherry blossom season will peak before mid-April in the southern region, and after mid-April in the central region."

sources:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/04/06/2012040601181.html
http://www.12fly.com.my/2012/03/korea-cherry-blossom-forecast-2012/
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/FU/FU_EN_15.jsp?nCategoryID=1&SearchType=&keyword=&gotoPage=4&cid=1566923&cCode=&nCategoryID=1&searchType=&searchKeyword=

On Air In Jinhae Midst Cherry Blossoms

Aside from Romance, On Air was the other K drama that got me drooling over cherry blossoms in Jinhae. In episode 12, Lee Gyeong-Min ( played by Park Yong-ha) and his entire production team take a break from their hectic schedules to admire the springtime blossoms. There's another scene in which Seo Yeong-Eun ( Song Yoon-ah ) goes off for a solo walk to admire the cherry blossoms at night, but she is soon joined by Lee Gyeong-Min.

Wonder if Song Yoon-ah looks up at the cherry blossoms and feels a pang for her co-star who committed suicide last year.

Shooting location for On Air

sources:
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/CU/CU_EN_8_5_1_40.jsp
http://www.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=261560
http://koreanfanscommunity.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-air-2008.html

Cherry Blossoms Schedule for 2011

As I'm typing this, the cherry blossoms are supposed to be blooming in Jeju already. Guess I have to be satisfied with recollections of my visits to Jinhae, Hadong and Namhae during the spring of 2007 and remind myself that spring isn't really my favourite season. Sour grapes, huh?

Anyway the cherry blossom schedule is already out on the KTO website for those of you who are planning to catch the sights in Korea this season.  Happy planning for your itinerary!

Click here for the full details for where and when the cherry blossoms are expected to make their appearance and click here for the predictions for forsythia and azaleas.


sources:
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/FU/FU_EN_15.jsp?nCategoryID=1&SearchType=&keyword=&gotoPage=1&cid=1224040&cCode=&nCategoryID=&searchType=&searchKeyword=
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/FU/FU_EN_15.jsp?cid=1223280

A Stroll Along Anmin Road

Thanks to a kind ajumma who gave me a ride to the start of Anmin Road in Jinhae, I was able to realise another modest dream of mine. Eversince I saw the road lined with cherry blossoms in the drama series, Romance, I was set on seeing the place for myself.

Anmin Road , perched on the shoulder of the small mountain range, gives one a pretty good view of the city below. There were plenty of Koreans and a few foreign tourists on the promenade and I remember an elderly gentleman enjoying the spring air with his dog. Turns out that's his daily walk. Lucky man, lucky pooch.

Jjimjilbang In Jinhae

Figured with the hordes of tourists descending on Jinhae for the cherry blossom festival, that the usual local BnBs would be full up and the prices jacked up. On that assumption, I decided I wouldn’t even bother to check out the yeogwans or minbaks and made straight for a 24 hour jjim - jil-bang ( 24 hour public bath cum sauna cum relaxation area where I could also sleep for a fee). This option had a few drawbacks though:

1. Location – it wasn’t central; in fact it was on the eastern side of the town. Had to take a twenty-minute bus ride from the town centre and get off near a shopping mall which housed the jjimjilbang. I’m sorry I didn’t note down the bus number or the name and exact location of the jjimjilbang. However it was within walking distance of the eastern end of the famous Anmin Road ( give or take 30 minutes)

2. The jjimjilbang was also quite crowded but I was mentally prepared to share sleeping floor space with seventy or so Koreans. What I didn’t expect was that we’d be woken up in the middle of the night ( or was it early morning?) by a pair of women arguing fiercely. It was a bit difficult going back to sleep after that.

3. Once I paid the entrance fee of 7000 won and entered the place, I had to be sure that my sightseeing activities were done for the day. Unless I was prepared to fork out another 7000 won, I couldn’t go out again. So it required a bit of planning and a lot of lugging of my backpack the first day I arrived in Jinhae because I was busy catching the sights before I took the bus to the jjimjilbang. Fortunately for me, some kind ajummas in the small restaurant inside the place kindly agreed to look after my bag on the second day so I was spared the trouble of hauling my load all over the town again.

The benefits?

First it only cost me 7000 won per night ( cheaper than a yeogwan or minbak which would have set me back anything between 30,000 and 150,000won a night and the entrance fee wasn’t not jacked up for the 2007 festival). For that modest sum, I had the opportunity to soak my weary carcass in tubs of hot water and to sweat some toxins in various sauna rooms with various temperatures and theme. I could also do my laundry and hang my washing on a line in the ladies’ bathing area, check and send emails in the ubiquitous mini-PC bang facilities, watch the latest TV drama sprawled out on the floor beside similarly-dressed Koreans and enjoy a bowl of bibimbap or naengmyeon in the in-house café.

Biggest plus? The nice lady who ran the eating joint even offered to give me a ride to the western end of Anmin Road the following day!

I wouldn’t recommend doing this if you’re not prepared for some inconvenience and some roughing it out ( no comfy mattresses!) but it is certainly something to consider for a more authentic local experience.
Sources:
http://www.jaunted.com/country/kp/2
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=626600
http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jjimjilbang

Information Brochure for Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival

I only learnt about the existence of this brochure when I made my way to Jinhae in 2007. There’s an electronic version which you can download the brochure for the Jinhae Festival at this website. Click here.

1. The 2010 schedule for the 48th Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival has yet to be uploaded. A great pity for the non-Korean visitors who want to visit Jinhae this year. Timing is everything and one hopes the person responsible for the Jinhae City webpage can put up the detailed schedule for this year’s festival VERY soon. It would also be useful for foreign visitors to know which activities or events are suitable for them because some of these events or exhibitions may only be accessible to those who understand or can read Korean.

2. A more detailed map would be useful particularly to highlight bus-stops or shuttle bus routes.

3. The brochure could also include the bus schedule for the locations which are further away from the town centre. It’s not exactly a small town where everything is within walking distance and though there are shuttle buses, there’s little information about these as well in the brochure.

Here then are the websites for transportation to and around Jinhae:
Local buses http://eng.jinhae.go.kr/02/08_05.asp
Intercity buses http://eng.jinhae.go.kr/02/08_06.asp
Express buses http://eng.jinhae.go.kr/02/08_07.asp
Trains  http://eng.jinhae.go.kr/02/08_04.asp

source:
http://eng.jinhae.go.kr/

Looking for "Romance" in Jinhae

It was love at first sight. No, I wasn't smitten by Kim Jae-won, the male lead in the 2002 MBC TV drama, "Romance" which also stars Kim Ha-neul. Instead, I fell in love with the array of cherry blossoms featured in the early part of the series. The moment I saw them, I just knew I HAD to visit the spot.

Took me a while to figure out the location but eventually I got round to planning a spring trip to Korea specially  to catch the blossoms on the cherry trees in the naval port of Jinhae in the spring of 2007.

There were two scenes I wanted to check out in particular: first, Anmin Road where the star-crossed lovers take a stroll along a beautiful promenade.

The second is  Yeojwacheon Stream (여좌천)  where the main characters, Gwanu and Chaewon meet on a bridge flanked by rows of cherry trees in full bloom on both sides. It's become known since the drama series appeared as the ‘Romance Bridge’.




Both scenes can be found in this music video, Unfortunately though, the person decided to go in for a sepia like effect so the original colours can't be appreciated here. Thanks to chioyochan for posting this MV.

sources:
http://asiaenglish.visitkorea.or.kr/ena/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=827152
http://koreanfilm.org/tvdramas/index.htm#romance
http://www.arirang.co.kr/Blog/Arirang_Town.asp?code=Bl5&id=&page=11
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/iX6z6lmoaBu7CGbD9OHizw

Jinju in Spring - A floral tribute

Sorry, I'm botanically-challenged so I would be grateful if anyone out there could identify the following flowers for me. If my labels are wrong, please let me know. All these were taken within the grounds of the fortress in Jinju.

Pic above: Main gateway to the fortress in background; unidentified floral object in foreground; hard to imagine with such colourful pretty flowers that this was once a site of bloody battles.

Pic above: Petunias or pansies ??? Taken somewhere near the pavilion

Pic above: Camellias near a temple - I read that the falling flower evokes an image of decapitation to the Japanese samurai but what does it mean to the Koreans?

Pic above: Taken from the fortress ramparts; actually this was my first glimpse of cherry blossoms ever in real life before I suffered a surfeit of them in Jinhae.

Namhae - Part 2 Getting There and Getting Around

Photo above was taken from moving bus; on Namhae en route to Daraengi

Getting to Namhae

In my  2007 Spring tour of Korea, I took an express bus from Jinhae to Namhae. Those in the capital can board the bus from the Southern bus terminal in Seoul  OR If you are in Busan, board the bus at Sasang Bus Terminal for a 2-hour ride.


Details as follows:
Seoul  - Namhae 
Departure Times from Seoul - 08:30, 09:50, 11:30, 13:30, 15:10, 16:40, 18:00, 19:00
The bus ride takes 4.5 hours  and costs 22,200 won ( fares may need to be updated!)
Seoul Nambu Bus Terminal: Subway Line 3, Nambus Bus Terminal, Exit 5 / +82-2-521-8550 (Korean)
Namhae Bus Terminal: +82-055-864-7101 (Korean)

Crossing the 660 metre- Namhae Daegyo (bridge) by bus may be the more sensible and quick way to get from the mainland to the island but if I were to retrace my journey again, I would prefer to go across on foot to savour the sights from Asia’s first suspension bridge ( completed in 1973) at a more civilized pace.

One could also then have time to pay respects at the nearby shrine dedicated to the famed Admiral Yi Sun sik whose leadership helped to repel the Japanese navy at the end of the 16th century. Walking into Namhae from the mainland would enable visitors to enjoy the beauty of the cherry blossoms that flank the winding road from Namhae Bridge to the town centre in springtime.

After changing to a local bus at the bus terminal, I could sit back and enjoy the scenery as the bus driver negotiated the bends and turns of the local roads in a sedate fashion. There were panoramic vistas to enjoy and I wanted to ask him to stop at various points that were simply begging to be captured on film.

If you don’t have a car or bike, the local bus is probably the best way to explore the island. To get hold of bus schedules, just ask the staff at the main bus terminal in Namhae town. Along the route, you may decide on the spur of the moment to get off the bus to explore such villages as Pyeongsan, Sachon and Seongi.

sources:
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=262191
http://eng.namhae.go.kr/main/
http://eng.me.go.kr/content.do?method=moveContent&menuCode=res_tou_eco_namhae
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namhae