Masan Chrysanthemum Festival and Sunchang Soybean Festival

Tags

Korea Autumn Festival, Masan Chrysanthemum Festival, photography, Sunchang Soybean Festival, travel

Finally I wrote again after several years hibernating from this blog 😀 I traveled to many different amazing places all over Korea this past two years.. I even got a chance to traveled San Francisco last August! I’ll write about it soon.. hope I still remember what to write from those trip haha.. and now.. still fresh in my mind.. my latest trip to Masan and Sunchang last weekend! Yay!! I still remember how happy I was to get a chance to join the global group on cultural and tourism from KTO. It was a two day tour to a whole new place that I had never visited before.

On the first day of the tour, we headed to Masan. It took around 4 hours to get there by bus from Seoul. After we had delicious spicy and soy sauce marinated crab for lunch, we visited Masan Gagopa Chrysanthemum Festival. This festival is held every October at Masan Port, Changwon. This year, it was held from October 24 to November 2. As soon as we arrived at the venue, we saw massive twin horses made from chrysanthemum flower with colorful chrysanthemum flower decorated the ground. Chrysanthemum flower were everywhere with a very unique and distinctive feature. I even saw dinosaurs in the middle of Chrysanthemum flower field. That was not all, there was a hall where you could find all kind of products made from chrysanthemum flower that you could taste for free! I bought a bag of beautiful chrysanthemum tea. There was also another traditional Korean product such as fresh Ginseng. The seller were so friendly and warm.. they let you tasted the samples with a big smile on their face ^^ After we finished wandering around between beautiful chrysanthemum flower, we headed to second venue, Changdong Art Village.

I really like Changdong Art Village with it’s bright painted walls, small alleys with many art shops along the way. This place is unlike any other places that I had visited in Korea. It’s so unique, artsy and attractive at the same time. There are three themed streets, Moon Shin Art Street, Traces of Masan Art Street and Ecole de Changdong Street where you may find the nostalgic Masan of the 50-60s as a center of culture and art. After we finished the tour and coming back from the past :D, we had another delicious dinner of steamed monkfish smothered in spicy sauce. I really like this dish and I think the dinner was specially design for me who love spicy food 😀

We stayed at Masan Hotel with a great window view.. Masan Beach! The next morning, we could see a gorgeous sunrise at Masan Beach from our balcony. The breakfast they provided was made my day. Delicious korean dishes were served from bulgogi, egg rolls, tofu, and various vegetables. with a full tummy and a happy face, we headed to the next venue, Oceanic Drama Film Set.

Oceanic Drama Film Set are popular because several Korean drama including The Princess’ Man, Soldier and Faith were filmed in this place. There are 25 buildings made based on Gaya Dinasty along with its sailing ships! The place is so picturesque since it lies in a beautiful coastline of Masan Beach. If I’m not mistaken, the tour guide said that it required 8 billion won to build this place. Come to this place and you would see that those money are worth to spend.

Masan is a beautiful city. I was surprise that this city is not well known as Busan. I would recommend Masan as a must see tourist destination. The city left only good memories.. warm weather, beautiful chrysanthemum flower field, unique art village, a picturesque oceanic drama set, friendly local people and delicious meal!

The last venue of our tour is Sunchang Soy bean Festival. Of course, before heading to the venue, we had the delicious han-sik lunch first 😀 I like spicy food and most of korean spicy food are cooked using gochu-jang (korean red chilli paste). So, coming to this festival was really interesting since I get to know how gochu jang was made. We can also learn how to make fermented soy bean pastes, bibimbap, rice cakes and cooking tteok-bokki! For those who loves those korean food, this festival should be included on your list. This last venue end our two days tour. It was an awesome experience with wonderful people joined in the group ^^