Fall Travel Destinations With Ripening Fruits
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
October is the season of harvest _ everything ripens.
Along the theme of ``scenes of new fruits,'' the Korea Tourism Organization introduces four regions great for autumn trips _ Gongju for chestnuts, Miryang for persimmons, Euiseong for apples and Seogwipo for citruses.
Jeongan chestnut village
The nut that is the most representative of fall in Korea, is the chestnut.
Chestnuts are grown across the peninsula, but Gongju in South Chungcheong Province has been famous for this particular nut for a long time, producing more than 12 percent of the nation's total chestnuts. In Gongju, the Jeongan village has the largest chestnut farms with the highest quality chestnuts.
Every fall, a chestnut festival is held at several regions in Gongju.
Farms in the Jeongan villages start gathering chestnuts in late August, and September and October are the main months of harvest.
Visitors will be provided with a sack in which they can fill with about 3 kilograms of chestnuts for 10,000 won.
For the chestnut picking experience, it is better to wear long-sleeved shirts and bring gloves and pliers.
The Baekje Cultural Festival is also held in Gongju and the nearby Buyeo area from Oct. 11 through 15. Baekje is one of three ancient kingdoms on Korean Peninsula with Gongju being the capital.
Color of persimmon, scent of hubs
The Ggotsaemi village in Miryang of South Gyeongsang Province comes alive with colors and scent of fall.
Visitors can enjoy various agricultural experiences such as collecting persimmons and corn, digging for sweet potatoes and taste traditional foods including ``doenjang'' (soy bean paste), tofu and ``makgeolli'' (rice liquor).
Chamsaem Hub Farm there presents varied kinds of hubs. Visitors can taste the plants, making tea with them. They can also make soaps and candles with hubs. Rail bike, a four-wheel bicycle running on abandoned rail tracks, is a must-try on the farm.
Your own apple wine
In fall, apples are everywhere in Euiseong, North Gyeongsang Province.
Applease Korea Brewery is attracting both domestic and foreign visitors wanting to gather apples on the farm, make apple wine and apple pies.
Visitors can take part in wine making and take home a bottle of apple wine, personalized with their own picture instead of a label. The wine making is available in all seasons.
In the Binggyeri village near Euiseong, there is a small tunnel called ``Binghyol,'' meaning ``ice hole.'' The temperature in the tunnel goes down to minus 4 degrees Celsius in summer, and goes up to 3 degrees in winter, a good place for summering and wintering.
Sweet and sour citrus
Citrus is the representative agricultural product of Jeju Island, and farms and local authorities there continuously try to develop improved varieties of citrus and also modernize the distribution networks.
The Seogwipo Citrus Museum exhibits the history of citrus cultivation and other facts about the fruit. Visitors can also participate in making citrus juice, cookies and jam.
The Jeju Agriculture Ecological Park also displays various kinds of citruses and facts about the fruit's nutrition. The park also sells various food products made of citrus.