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| Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival 2017 in Gangwon Province kicked off Saturday. / Yonhap |
By Hong Dam-young
It's the season for a winter getaway. And with that in mind, more than 110,000 visitors from around the world are expected at the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival that began Saturday.
The annual festival in Hwacheon County, Gangwon Province, features around 70 programs that include ice-fishing, bare-hand fishing, bobsleighing and ice-sledding. This year's event runs until Feb. 5.
About 32 tons of trout are put into the river each day to provide enough fish for anglers.The first day saw more than 6,000 foreign visitors despite sub-zero temperatures, according to a festival official. In the main ice-fishing event, anglers drill holes in the frozen Hwacheon River to catch as many "sancheoneos" -- mountain trout -- as possible using rods or their hands. People are allowed to cook the fish or eat them raw on site.
What is remarkable about this year's festival is that overnight visitors can enjoy night fishing.
"We give out free night-time fishing tickets to overnight visitors so they can enjoy the festival day and night," said Choi Moon-soon, the county head and the festival's lead organizer.
"They can also enjoy night-time ice-skating, street festivals and indoor ice-carving exhibitions."
Since it began in 2003, the event has become one of Korea's top winter festivals, drawing more than a million foreign visitors over the past 10 years. The event was chosen last year as one of the world's four major winter festivals, along with Japan's Sapporo Snow Festival, China's Ice and Snow World and Canada's Winter Festival.
"We hope to see many visitors as we have prepared a lot for the event," Choi said.
For more information, visit www.narafestival.com/ice_eng/.
