Eastern shore attracts holidaymakers
Many beaches along the East Sea of Korea are busy preparing for the opening of their annual summer vacation season.
A total of 91 beaches in the region will run from this July until August 29, providing services for youths, camping lovers, children, people with disabilities and overseas tourists. These beaches are also equipped with more facilities than before to boost convenience for visitors and attract travelers with various events and performances.
Sokcho Beach in Sokcho City, Gangwon-do (Gangwon Province), attracted more than 6,000 visitors on its opening day on July 1. The beach will feature performances and cultural events for tourists every weekend between its opening and the end of August. Some of the events include ssireum, traditional Korean wrestling, contests on the beach and canoeing programs at nearby lakes such as Yeongnangho and Cheongchoho. The beach provides life guards and assistants around the clock to better provide help to the disabled. It offers wheelchairs and resting areas. The beach also provides interpreters to provide language services in English, Chinese and Japanese to meet the needs of overseas tourists.
Sokcho Beach (photo courtesy of Sokcho City)
The largest beach on the eastern shore, Gyeongpo Beach in Gangneung City, will open to the public on July 10. Gyeongpo Beach will feature a variety of cultural events and performances for the youth. One such event is its annual Summer Beach Art Festival scheduled to take place from July 25 to August 3. Visitors to Gyeongpo Beach can also enjoy water sports like jet skiing, water skiing and riding banana-shaped boats.
Gyeongpo Beach in Gangneung City (courtesy of Gangneung City)
Most of the beaches along the eastern coast will open on July 11. For those who want to enjoy both camping and beach activities, Mangsang and Naksan beaches are good choices. Mangsang Beach in Donghae City expects to see a total of 1,345 units of caravans and camping spots. This beach has well-equipped camping sites and related facilities and is surrounded by a naturally grown fine tree forest. Its fine tree forest creates particularly good conditions for camping, which attracts camping lovers from all over the country.
Naksan Beach in Yangyang County has also prepared a total of 115 units of campgrounds, 15 units of auto camps and 30 campgrounds in the fine tree forest. This beach will host the Naksan Beach Busker’s Festival from July 30 to August 3. More than 30 teams of musicians will be featured in the festival and will present their performances at an outdoor stage and on the streets to amuse beach-goers.
Naksan Beach of Yangyang County. (photo courtesy of Yangyang County)
Mangsang Beach of Donghae City (photo courtesy of Donghae City)
Auto camp sites in Naksan Beach (courtesy of Donghae City)
Jangho Beach in Samcheok City is known for the scenic view created by its port, a fishing village and the rugged rocks on its seashore. This beach will hail visitors with unique water sports and a fishing village experience program at its adjacent village. A fishing village near the beach will run a fishing village experience program to attract tourists who travel with their family members. This program includes water sports such as transparent canoeing, snorkeling, scuba diving, ocean rafting, and fishing experiences like catching fish by hand, fishing on a boat, fishing with a net and so on.
People on Jangho Beach try catching fish with a net. (photo courtesy of Samcheok City)
People enjoy transparent canoeing on Jangho Beach. (photo courtesy of Samcheok City)
Visitors to Jangho Beach enjoy boat riding, swimming and other activities. (photo courtesy of Samcheok City)
To know more about the beaches along the eastern coast, visit the homepages of Gangneung(https://tour.gangneung.go.kr/eng/main.jsp), Donghae (https://english.dh.go.kr/english_new), Samcheok (https://eng.samcheok.go.kr), Sokcho (https://sokcho.gangwon.kr/hb/eng) cities and Yangyang County (https://eng.yangyang.go.kr/page/foreign/eng/index.jsp). These homepages all provide language services in English, Chinese and Japanese. More information about tourism in Korea is also available on the homepage of the Korea Tourism Organization (https://english.visitkorea.or.kr), which provides tourist information and language services in 9 languages. Call Korea Travel Phone 82-2-1330 for a 24-hour interpreting service in English, Chinese and Japanese.
By Yoon Sojung
Korea.net Staff Writer
arete@korea.kr