South Korea: Autumn in the Garden (videos)

There is no doubt that Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is a wonderful city. The city has many art museums, shopping centers, Instagrammable bakeries and cafes, delicious restaurants, and futuristic arcades (e.g., going to a VR (virtual reality) arcade was an absolutely mind-blowing experience for me). However, sometimes you have to get away from Seoul and venture out to the countryside to REALLY experience South Korea.

The video above: Established in 1856 by the painter Sochi Heo Ryeon (1809-1892), Ullim-san-bang Villa and Garden (which means “Mountain Studio of the Cloud Forest”) was carefully designed with trees, flowers, and other botanicals that were considered rare at the time. Sochi Heo Ryeon’s goal was to create a garden so beautiful that immortals (often depicted as old grandpa-like men living in the woods in East Asian Paintings…sometimes using tigers as means of transportation) would want to stay forever. Sochi Heo Ryeon was also a renowned poet and a calligrapher—thanks to his master Choui (1789-1866) a famous Buddhist monk of Daeheung Temple in Haenam.

This video (above) was taken on top of the Jin-do Island Tower, a popular tourist spot known for its stunning view out to the sea. Jin-do Island is also a historically significant battle site where the Battle of Myeongnyang (October of 1597) took place.

The photos above: One of the perks of traveling in South Korea is frequent random encounters with cats and dogs wearing various outfits. This particular kitty was in charge of a local convenience store.

*You can make the video bigger by clicking the far right icon (in white) at the bottom of the screen that looks like a square ◻.

The video above: This video was recorded at Busan Museum of Art. Due to the fact that Busan is located further down towards Japan, you may not see leaves changing colors fully until mid-November. Regardless, Spring and Autumn are the best times to go visit South Korea. This is because the summer and winter months can be pretty brutal.

The mini clip above: Once you venture outside of Seoul and go to the countryside, you will quickly learn that most restaurants there only serve Korean cuisine. Koreans seem to really love using various seafood to create spicy Korean fish soup known as mae-won-tang (literally translates to spicy boiling soup). Here you can see this version we had in Jin-do had various clams, crabs, and pre-cooked octopus tenticle.

The mini clip above: Busan (the second biggest city in South Korea…located on the southern tip of the country) is known for its version of bul-go-gi (sometimes known as soy-marinaded beef in North America). Unlike the Seoul version of bul-go-gi which cooks a bit submerged under beef broth over a stove, Busan version of bul-go-gi is cooked crispy over charcoal. Busan is also known for their pork guk-bap, a humble-looking pork soup that often includes pork innards accompanied by a bowl of rice, and wheat noodles (tastes more like a cross between somen and ultra-chewy sweet potato noodles), and the famed spicy stir-fried dish that contains octopus, shrimp, and beef intestines (known as nakgopsae).

**These videos are content curated for Advanced Leisure, LLC., and any unauthorized usage of our photos will be met with legal consequences. The rights to these footage/videos belong to Emily Choi.