Sunday, June 2, 2013

The sights so far...: Incheon-China Culture Tourism Festival edition

I have now officially been in Korea for six whole weeks.  Happy week-a-versary to me!  I fully admit that while not all of it has been sunshine and rainbows (see previous post), I have had the chance to experience a few really nice sights and events with some really nice people!

I had originally intended to write a post to talk about the events and trips I've been a part of for the last few weeks, but became a giant, unreadable post, so I will break it up into smaller chunks for people to enjoy.  I should note that I am starting my counting from my first weekend living in Incheon.  So while I may have actually been in Korea for two weeks at the point of  "weekend 1" (in orientation), I'm considering it the first weekend of my Korean life.

WEEKEND 1

It seems to me that Koreans are big on festivals.  According to the Korean tourism website, there are dozens of festivals taking place across the country throughout the year (and I know that there are still some that aren't listed on that site).  In the few weeks that I've been here, I've "celebrated" 2 of them over 3 weeks.  I say "celebrated" because I don't really know what most of the festivals are actually about and therefore can't actually celebrate what's meant to be celebrated, but I go to check things out and I usually end up enjoying what I see.

My first weekend in Incheon, I went to the Incheon-China Culture Tourism Festival in the only official chinatown in Korea...located not far from my place here in Incheon.  I was looking forward to going to this event because I usually really enjoy chinatowns, what with their good food, lively entertainment and cultural exhibitions.  The Korean chinatown, while small, was certainly enjoyable.  We saw drummers, dancing dragons and jumping lions, not to mention we got to play dress up in traditional Korean and Chinese costumes.  I also got to have my chinese dumplings (always a highlight of any chinatown visit).  All in all, it was a very enjoyable sunny spring day.



Enjoying Chinese culture in the only official Chinatown of Korea!

I got my requisite dumpling; except the one I ate was considerably smaller and had pork filling, not Andrea filling.  Although, it did fill Andrea! ;-)

Tradition Korean Hanbok

Traditional Chinese hats...
Pretty spring blossoms!

The streets of Chinatown in Incheon, Korea


Yay for festivals!
**Note: many photos in this post are courtesy of Melissa S.**

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