Eventful start to Year of the Snake

By Kim Rahn

To celebrate the Year of the Snake according to the Chinese zodiac, a variety of events and discount offers are available at theme parks, leisure facilities and department stores.

Everland, the nation’s largest theme park in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, is holding an exhibition of rare snakes through March 3.

Visitors can see an albino Burmese python, a yellow colored snake which is 2.5-meters long and weighs 20 kilograms. They can touch the snake and have it hung around their shoulders. A ball python is another species in the exhibition, which has dark brown markings and is often raised as a pet.

“For people to learn more about snakes, zookeepers will give explanations about the characteristics of the species,” an Everland official said.

Seoul Zoo in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, alsohas a snake exhibition until the end of February.

The zoo collected cast-off skins and is displaying them — an adult snake casts off its skin eight times a year, while an immature snake sheds it 15 times. In a specially designed glass enclosure, visitors can also watch snakes crawling above their heads.

The I’Park Department Store in central Seoul presents a chance to make snake-shaped toys, cushions and floor cushions through Jan. 27 for free.

Various discount options are also offered to people born in the year of the snake, for example 1953, 1965, 1977 and 1989.

In Everland, people born in those years can get a 60-percent discount for admission to the theme park and Caribbean Bay water park until the end of this month. Their companions can also have 30 percent off for Everland and 20 percent for Caribbean Bay for up to three people.

Another theme park in Gyeonggi Province, Seoul Land, offers tickets to such people at half price through March 3, with the discount available for one companion, too. To get the benefit, they are required to print a discount coupon from the park’s website and submit it to the ticket booth with an identification card that can prove they were born in a year of the snake.

Ski resorts are not an exception. Jisan Forest Resort in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, offers 40 percent off for ski lift and rental fees to people born not only in the year of the snake but also in the year of the dragon until Feb. 10, which is New Year’s Day according to the lunar calendar. The year 2012 was the Year of the Dragon.

“We’ve held such an event since 2011, and gained good feedback from skiers. We plan to continue the event every year,” a staffer of the resort said.

Pine Resort in Yongin, provides a 50-percent discount for ski lift and rental fees to those born in the year of the snake until the season ends.