Cheongyang Ice Festival

Tucked away in the unassuming mountains of the Chungcheongnam-do province, there’s a frozen ice land. Cheongyang is a small, middle of nowhere town that even many Koreans are unaware of. But despite it’s small population, come winter the town puts on an ice festival full of ice displays, snow sculptures, sledding, and ice fishing. 

There are a few other locations in Korea that do similar work, but Cheongyang certainly built up their displays compared to the previous year. They had ice castles, igloos, walls full of carvings such as the Statue of Liberty and the Leaning Tower of Pisa–which is better to go closer to the opening as when we went it was the last day and the snow carvings were not as prominent. 

They also had Squid Games snow sculptures that were quite impressive in both design and size. Funny enough one of the kids we saw came was in a Squid Games outfit and they fit right in haha…though how it became such a popular subject amongst school age children I would really like to know. We didn’t have a time limit, so we had plenty of time to walk and enjoy all the sights multiple times. We went through once to enjoy the sight and then back again to take photos.

At the end of the day you could roast hazelnuts over a fire, which many visitors took the chance to partake in. It was cool to see and enjoy even without buying nuts to roast. Along with the sledding and ice fishing (where certain sections were roped off because it was melted) they had a truck with small carts that you could ride and they were flying through the road as well.

Even on the final day of the festival there were still many people, but there was plenty of space to see certain sculptures and take pictures without people in it. When we went there was a little girl and her mother who practiced English greetings with us and they took a picture, so that was quite a memorable moment of the trip. 

It’s easiest to access in a car, but traveling by bus is not impossible. When I went with my friend we stayed in Gongju, which was about a 30 minute taxi ride or 1 hour bus ride away. Though if you are using public transportation, be sure to get a number for a local taxi, as at the festival there is no way to get back to the bus station.

Location: Alps Village
223-35, Cheonjangho-gil, Jeongsan-myeon, Cheongyang-gun, Chungcheongnam-do http://kko.to/g0VgR9q40