All things bright and beautiful: (2019) 5 days in Korea --- Overview

Ever since the start of the Hallyu, or Korean Wave 韓流 in the early 2000's, South Korean has been a popular travel destination for Hong Kongers or people in Asia in general. People of diverse nations have embraced the Korean culture thanks to the influence of K-pops and TV dramas. There are superfans who would make regular trips to follow their K-pop idols. Even for those not having such extreme enthusiasm, numerous iconic filming locations in TV dramas have become essential selfie spots.

We belong to the probably minority who follow neither K-pop nor Korean dramas. This may be a reason why we did not make our first ever visit to Korea until autumn 2019. What moved us to make the visit in the end was not the Korean pop culture, but the beautiful scenery of various mountains in Korea that we saw in a TV travel programme. The aerial shots of the mountains in fall colours were stunning. And that was the reason why we chose to go in the autumn.

Naejangsan 內藏山

For this trip we teamed up with another couple with whom we had visited Taiwan previously. We were glad we traveled in a group of four, as it made it economically viable to share a cab on a number of occasions in the trip. Our 5 days in South Korean covered Jeonju 全州 and Seoul, with an emphasis on seeing the fall colours.

Here is an overview of our 5-day itinerary:

Day 1. Arrive at Incheon International Airport. Take bus ("Airport limousine") to Jeonju 全州.