A trip to golden fields in Icheon

By Yun Suh-young

One may feel dizzy looking at golden rice paddies stretching to the horizon in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, at this time of the year.

Undulating in the direction the wind happens to prevail in at any given moment, the rice plants have their heads bowed under the weight of the ripe grains.

An odd feeling of being aboard a ship catches you off guard — the sound of the wind meandering through the paddies also plays tricks on your ears as the sirens did to sailors.

It doesn’t take long for you to get your “sea legs” and confirm you are standing on the ground.

This is only the start of your trip to the “rice town.”

Everywhere in Icheon is surrounded by rice paddies. Anywhere you go, you see them — even from the main street in downtown. The scene may be unfamiliar to outsiders but this is something very natural to the region.

The quietness is strange, though. Because the region is specialized in growing rice, the villages where the farmers live are quiet, almost as if no one actually inhabits them. From time to time only the elderly are visible, hardly any students are in sight. Dogs, tied to their kennels outside empty residences, bark at strangers.

When the sun fell and the warehouses that stored farming equipment were hid in the darkness, the village looked ghostly. The site was sad and lonely — a consequence of everything being focused on big cities in the metropolitan region.

Icheon is just 75 kilometers from Seoul but the remoteness can be severely felt.

The 14th Icheon Rice Culture Festival will be held from Oct. 25 to 28. Hopefully, many urban dwellers and foreign residents will visit the city to blow vibrant energy into the land and enjoy the beautiful rice fields.

So hurry, if you don’t want to miss the golden scenery.