[Around the Hotels] Promotions and packages

Mayfield Seoul offers ‘Car Camping in the Garden’package Mayfield Hotel in Seoul is offering “Chabak (car camping) in the Garden” package, which says it allows guests to enjoy car camping and glamping at the same time. Hotel rooms are included in the package although spots are saved for those who wish to camp outside at night. The package consists of a Superior Room, breakfast buffet, car park zone use, garden barbecue dinner and camping goods including a tumbler and

FoodSept. 17, 2021

[Travel Bits] Festivals, sights across Korea

Bupyeong Pungmul Festival The Bupyeong Pungmul Festival is scheduled to take place in Bupyeong, Incheon, from Oct. 13 to 17. This year’s festival will be held online and offline. The festival is taking place at Camp Market and Bupyeong Art Center in Bupyeong, and will broadcast via festival’s official YouTube channel. The event, started in 1997, seeks to promote traditional culture by reproducing scenes of Bupyeong farming culture. Visitors can enjoy the rhythms of pungmul, or far

TravelSept. 17, 2021

[Box Office] Movies in theaters this week

Miracle: Letters to the President (Korea) Opened Sept. 15 Drama Directed by Lee Jang-hoon In a small remote village in North Gyeongsang Province, there were no stations or pedestrian roads. People in the village had to walk on the railroad to get to the nearest town, which constantly exposed them to the danger of being hit by trains. Joon-kyeong (played by Park Jung-min), a high school student, starts writing to the president, asking him to build a train station at the foot of his village for

FilmSept. 17, 2021

[Herald Interview] T1 Teddy ready to compete at Worlds 2021

T1’s bot-laner Park “Teddy” Jin-sung is ready to give his all at the prestigious League of Legends’ world championship. After his latest appearance at the LoL Champions Korea summer season finals on Aug. 28, Teddy, 23, says he feels both mentally and physically prepared for the big stage. “After securing the spot in the group stage of Worlds 2021 as third seed, a short vacation was given to the players. With the extended COVID-19 pandemic, I was able to relax and

esportsSept. 16, 2021

tvN ‘Hometown’ to present orchestrated mystery with unique storyline

“Hometown,” directed by Park Hyun-seok, will premiere on Sept. 22 starring Han Ye-ri as Jo Jung-hyun, a woman searching for her kidnapped niece. Set in the imaginary town of Saju, South Gyeongsang Province, the upcoming tvN drama shows a detective (played by You Chae-myung) investigating a series of murders in 1999 and Jo’s search for her niece, which lead the characters to encounter the terrorist and serial killer Jo Kyoung-ho (played by Um Tae-goo). Widely recognized for d

TelevisionSept. 16, 2021

Walking through gateway to Korea: Incheon

For first-timers to Korea, Incheon might simply be thought of as an airport city. For those often on business trips to Korea, the city might be associated with Songdo, a rising global business district of high-tech skyscrapers. Aside from the images commonly pictured today, however, the city of Incheon boasts vibrant historical stories along with scenic beauties preserved in the once booming old town districts. For the fall season, the Korea Tourism Organization selected six different walkin

TravelSept. 16, 2021

Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ turns childhood games into bloody survival battles

For director Hwang Dong-hyuk, producing the upcoming mystery sci-fi series “Squid Game” brought about mixed emotions. “After debuting with ‘My Father,’ I read a lot of comics and was mesmerized by survival games. With an attempt to create a Korean version, I started planning out the work in 2008 and finished the scenario in 2009,” the director said in an online press conference Wednesday. “However, casting actors and getting investment were extremely d

FilmSept. 16, 2021

Park Seo-bo holds second solo exhibition at Kukje Gallery

Korea’s contemporary art master Park Seo-bo is showcasing 16 paintings of his recent Ecriture series inspired by nature at his solo exhibition at Kukje Gallery. Titled “PARK SEO-BO,“ the exhibition which runs through Oct. 31, shows how nature has become the artist’s core value and his belief that art should serve to heal people. The 91-year-old artist is a pioneer of Korea’s contemporary art, leading the dansaekhwa movement since the late 1960s. Translated as &ld

Arts & DesignSept. 15, 2021

Restored Goryeo Kingdom art showcased before returning to Belgium

The National Palace Museum of Korea, an affiliate of the Cultural Heritage Administration, is holding an exhibition titled “In Pursuit of the Aesthetic Legacy of the Goryeo Era” through Oct. 17. The museum is showcasing eight works of art from the Goryeo Kingdom, which are part of a collection at the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels. It is the first time the six celadon vessels and two metal items are being shown to the public since undergoing conservation and restora

CultureSept. 15, 2021

KBS Symphony Orchestra set for 4th season

Though the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to subside, the KBS Symphony Orchestra is set for the last season of the year with international artists to join in on the performances. Tickets for the orchestra’s fourth and final season of 2021 will go on sale this week, and leading conductors and performers from abroad are expected to join the show as the Korean government has waived the mandatory two-week quarantine for some individual artists in the past few months. The fou

PerformanceSept. 15, 2021

[Newsmaker] Founder of Yoido Full Gospel Church Rev. Cho Yong-gi dies at 85

Pastor Cho Yong-gi, the founder of Yoido Full Gospel Church, died at the age of 85 at Seoul National University Hospital on Tuesday. He had been hospitalized since July 2020 after suffering a brain hemorrhage. The pastor emeritus of Yoido Full Gospel Church is known for establishing and developing Yoido Full Gospel Church as the world‘s largest church. Cho started a church in Bulgwang-dong, western Seoul, on May 18, 1958, with the late Rev. Choi Ja-sil, who died on Nov. 9, 1989. Throug

CultureSept. 14, 2021

K-Culture Festival to be held in November, headed by producer Kim Hyung-suk

Music producer and composer Kim Hyung-suk was named the executive producer of the K-Culture Festival, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Monday. The K-Culture Festival kicks off Nov. 13-14 at the country’s largest convention center, Kintex, northwest of Seoul in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. The K-Culture Festival is the leading global festival connecting Korean culture with the world, further expanding Hallyu, or the Korean Wave. The two-day festival aims to encourage visitor

CultureSept. 14, 2021

MBC ‘King of Mask Singer’ opens up competition to all

Local broadcaster MBC will air a pilot music program titled “The Masked Talent” during the Chuseok holidays, the company said in a press release Tuesday. “The Masked Talent,” a spin-off of MBC’s popular reality program “King of Mask Singer,” is jointly produced by MBC and French producer Herve Hubert. Unlike the original show, in which singers and celebrities compete wearing masks, “The Masked Talent” welcomes people of all ages who love to

TelevisionSept. 14, 2021

New types of digital archives on the rise to help broaden public access

Cho Myung-dae, CEO of Linked Data Center, demonstrated how a digital archive works by taking the Korean War records as an example. By clicking on the keyword, a number of search results instantly pop up in a well-arranged list of related subcategories such as specific battles, locations and people. This way, users don’t have to dig through piles of data without having a clue what they will get in the end. “Searching through string matches is essentially limited,” Cho said. &

CultureSept. 13, 2021

Spotify’s K-pop playlist reaches 3.1 million followers

Global music platform Spotify’s K-pop playlist “K-pop Daebak” recorded approximately 1.7 billion streams in the last seven years, the company said in a press release Monday. Celebrating the 7th anniversary of its launch, the company released a host of data on K-pop Daebak. The playlist has reached more than 3.1 million followers, introducing fans and new listeners across the globe to the latest hits in the genre and grew into one of Spotify’s most important flagship pl

PerformanceSept. 13, 2021

Exhibition of artifacts from King Muryeong ‘s tomb kicks off in Gongju

The Gongju National Museum is holding a special exhibition to showcase artifacts excavated from the tomb of King Muryeong, the 25th king of the Baekje Kingdom, from Tuesday. The museum in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, said the exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the tomb’s discovery. On July 5, 1971, a large earthen mound in Gongju was discovered by chance during work to fix a drainage system in the area. Two stone plaques engraved with epitaphs for the king and queen were

CultureSept. 13, 2021

Korean rock legend returns to radio with AI tech

Legendary rock star Shin Hae-chul is making a comeback on the radio waves, thanks to AI technology that was able to re-create the voice of the late singer-songwriter. An artificial-intelligence based technology called “Personalized Text to Speech” took data from episodes of “Shin Hae-chul’s Ghost Station,” a radio program starring Shin from 2001 to 2012 in order to bring his voice back to life, according to telecom company KT Sunday. Deep learning-based technolog

PerformanceSept. 13, 2021

Hair designer Cha Hong looks back on 10-year career

Different hairstyles give different impressions. Some people express their moods through hairstyles and refresh their mind with a bold chop or perm. While fashion is easily thought of as a way to express one’s persona, so do hairstyles as it represents one’s identity, mood, tastes. Korea’s leading hair designer Cha Hong showcased 80 hairstyles she has presented over the past decade at the exhibition “Narratives in Style” at Beacon Studio in Seongsu-dong, Seoul.

Arts & DesignSept. 13, 2021

Garden at Deoksugung vitalized with contemporary art

Gardens were a source of inspiration to the literati in the late Joseon dynasty, where a culture of paintings and writings on “uiwon” flourished. Uiwon is defined as the garden of one’s mind. Inspired by the culture of uiwon, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, and the Cultural Heritage Administration are showcasing “Deoksugung Project 2021: Garden of Imagination” at Deoksugung, one of five royal palaces in central Seoul. The project is

Arts & DesignSept. 13, 2021

Korea International Tourism Show 2021 prepares post-pandemic travels

The sixth Korea International Tourism Show, held Sept. 9. to 12 at the Kintex exhibition hall in Goyang, northwest Gyeonggi Province, finished with a vision for the potential of the tourism industry and its future both in and outside South Korea. The event, organized by the Korea Exhibition Industry Center, featured more than 300 booths from 181 organizations, including 97 local governments in Korea and 14 from overseas, in addition to various travel-related content companies. Themed “T

TravelSept. 12, 2021