Nearly 130,000 locals and foreigners gathered to attend one of South Korea’s most popular winter festivities, the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival, that includes fishing on ice and catching fishes placed in an ice-cold pool with bare hands, which started on Saturday in Hwacheon county near Seoul.
The festival, that embraces the slogan “Never freezing warm-heartedness, never melting memories”, has been held every January Since 2003, in the isolated alpine county of around 25,000 people, however it did not take place in 2011, 2021, or 2022.
“When I was young, I followed my parents here. (And today) I came with my friends as it was resumed almost three years after the COVID-19 pandemic. The reason I came here is that I can experience new things,” said Lee Keun-Kyu, a tourist.