Gwangbok-dong & The PIFF Plaza: The coastal city of Busan is now growing internationally. The very first place we visited was the crowded Gwangbok-dong and the PIFF Plaza. There were many movie posters and handprints of popular stars at the PIFF Plaza. If you think about movies, you think Busan. And if you think about Busan, you think movies.

Haeundae Beach: This is the first place that comes to mind for most when you mention Busan. Escape from the sweltering heat of the summer and take a visit to see the refreshing blue ocean waters! This is Haeundae Beach. The Haeundae Beach is Busan’s most popular summer spot, and it seems like waves of vacationers have already started showing up.

The ocean waters blow away the summer heat and the smiles on the faces of summer vacationer seem exceptionally brighter than ever while playing in the refreshingly cool waters. This is also true for foreign tourists as well.

Leisure Experiences: Let’s go~!! Wouldn’t you like to experience what it feels like to take a ride on a motorboat and speed your way around Haeundae’s ocean waters? Not only that, but you can also cut through the cool ocean winds on Haeundae’s oceans while surfing, Or take a cruise on a luxury yacht tour, along with other various unique leisure experiences that are prepared for you.

Taejongdae: Among all the venues that are available here, I chose to take a ride on the ferry to take a closer look at the jade colored waters of the ocean while touring the Taejongdae regions.

Jagalchi Market: A great place to satisfy your hunger after working up an appetite while on vacation! We are at the Jagalchi Market! Fresh seafood is offered here as crowds of customers fill the elaborate streets of the marketplace.

The Jagalchi Market is known to be also very popular amongst foreign tourists who visit Busan. The scales are alive! The fish scales are so alive!! Wow~ it looks so fresh! Just take a look at the fish and you will be able to see how fresh they really are.

If you are travelling long distances by air on Korean Air flights, it helps to know a few health tips to make your flight more comfortable. The temperature inside the cabin of Koran Air flights is maintained at 22 to 24 ?which is a very comfortable temperature. It is still best to wear comfortable clothes that are not too thick but always have a light sweater or jacket in your carry-on luggage just in case it gets chilly.

The humidity inside the cabin of Korean Air flights is kept at a level of 15 percent. The comfortable level of humidity for the average person is at 50 to 60 percent. The 15 percent level on Korean Air flights is already considered to be dry. In dry humidity the body moisture tends to evaporate. The skin as well as the membranes on your eyes and nose also begins to dry out through the course of the flight and it can get quite uncomfortable when that happens. The best thing to do during Korean Air flights is to keep yourself hydrated by drinking plenty of water, fruit juices or any kind of liquid beverages. Avoid drinking coffee and tea because these beverages can only cause further dehydration. Passengers with contact lens should remove them during Korean Air flights to avoid dryness of the eyes which could cause the eyes to get inflamed.

The atmospheric pressure inside Korean Air flights is set at the altitude of 5,000~8,000 feet. There is the tendency that the deafening of the ears may occur. This is caused by the change in the pressure inside the Korean Air flights as they land or take off. To avoid the deafening of your ears chew some gum or just move your jaw up and down as if you are chewing gum. You can also try closing your mouth and then pinching your nose while you blow out some air slowly.

Years after, the indigenous Korean art forms barely survived in the original and there is little in terms of archives that one can refer to. The lack of documentation makes it difficult to pinpoint the original art forms of Korea. Purists argue that it was in Korea that several martial art forms originated and then traveled to China, from where they went to Japan and then came back to Korea.

After their liberation in 1945, Korean martial artists made conscious efforts to re-establish Korean martial arts and cleanse themselves of the influence of Japanese occupation. In this revival the martial artists did not have much to rely on in terms of written records.

Muyedobotongji is perhaps the only surviving ancient text on Korean martial arts, the only authentic reference manual for Koreans keen to discover their old traditions. As a result this revival phase saw recompilation or reorganization of techniques that are not wholly traditional but also imported by Koreans studying the arts of the neighboring regions. It is only in the 20th century when Taekwondo, the form synonymous with Korean martial arts, was organized into its present form.

The present set of Korean martial arts has a very strong visual resemblance to art forms of China. Influences of boxing as well as western martial arts are also visible. Taekyon, a dance-like martial art features kicks, sweeps, and strikes while Ssireum (Korean wrestling) resembles Mongolian wrestling. Yudo, Kumdoo, Tang Soo Do, Mudokkwan Subakdo have all be reconstructed with considerable Japanese and Chinese influence. On the other hand Gukgung, Sonmudo and Bulmudo more or less survive in their pure forms.

The closest Korea has to its own religion is Chondogyo, combining various aspects of the Buddhist, Confucian and Tao beliefs. Buddhism in Korea stems from the Mahayana line, having first arrived about 1700 years ago.

In South Korea Christianity is the dominant religion, despite being a late arrival to the peninsula. Over 200 years ago Jesuit missionaries working in China crossed into Korea, bringing their version of Catholicism to the people. Koreans enthusiasm for the faith made the Yi Dynasty feel so threatened that a campaign of persecution was launched against the Jesuits. Protestant missionaries arrived in the 1800s, spreading their faith by practical methods such as establishing schools and hospitals.

Officially, North Korea has no religion as it is considered contrary to to communist ideology. However, as was seen in other communist countries this is no barrier to people retaining their faith. Buddhism, which can be practised individually and in private is the strongest religion in the North.

The people of both North and South Korea are overwhelmingly of a homogeneous Korean background. The evolution of the Korean people goes back more 9000 year with little input from other racial and cultural groupings. The strongest influence came from the Chinese and the Mongols, both of whom held sway over the Korean peninsula at various times over centuries. While there was a strong ethnic Japanese population in Korea during Japan´s occupation from 1910 to 1945, this had minimal effect on Korean culture.

Nobody knows for certain how the Korean language, which is unique to the Korean peninsula, evolved. Spoken Korean is most closely related to Japanese, although even then is has many distinct differences. The syntax is similar to Chinese: however, it does not use tones to discern meanings a Chinese does. Korean writings began 13000 years ago, but initially used Chinese rather than a distinctive Korean style. Hangul, the Korean phonetic alphabet, was devised around 500 years ago. For an outside observer Korean script tends to be less complicated than that of Japan or China.

Daily life varies enormously for Koreans depending on which side of the 38th parallel they live. The average North Korean lives a fairly bleak life under an unrelenting communist dictatorship. Where once North Korea was fairly self-sufficient, today it is widespread starvation and malnutrition. Agricultural workers live in communities of collectivised farms. Everyone works to produce food for the rest of the population. Non agricultural work centres primarily on heavy industry, mineral extraction and military service. The state controls all aspects of life. South Korea is vastly different, having a private-enterprise economy, although with some state intervention at various levels. The average South Korean works a full day Monday to Friday and half day on Saturday.

South Korean food can be very spicy and most of the side dishes and soups are known to have red peppers in them. The banchan and the main meal are served together and the food is eaten with chopsticks, while soups can be eaten with a spoon. The table settings in a typical South Korean meal follow a fixed pattern depending on the kind of food that is served.

Some of the most popular dishes in South Korean cuisine include the Bibimbap, which is a kind of boiled rice that is mixed with various vegetables and peppers, Bulgogi, a marinated beef barbecue dish that is charcoal-broiled and served with onions and mushrooms and Grilled Gal bi, a speciality dish consisting of seasoned short ribs. Another dish that is very popular throughout South Korea is the Haemultang which is a kind of seafood stew. All these dishes are common throughout the region but there are some regional specialties like Dakgalbi, a spicy chicken dish that is part of Chuncheon city cuisine.

The most famous dish of all in South Korea is Kimchi (also sometimes spelt Kimchee). This side dish in effect is pickled cabbage and which also comes with spices, garlic and a few other ingredients. It can perhaps be compares to a roast dinner for British people, or to pasta for Italian. Mention the word Kimchi to just about any Korean person and see their face light up.

In general, Korea food is very often spicy and often involves a lot of garlic and rice. It can take a little while to get used to, but once you do, it can be very addictive and offers some great tastes.

The folk music of Korea, which makes such thorough use of drums, is quite varied. However, its songs are generally simple and bright, although those of certain regions are more complex than those of others. Folk music is still popular in Korea today, posing a striking contrast to the classical court music, which has nearly died out. Today, it can usually only be heard through performances associated with government-sponsored organizations.

Another prominent type of drum in Korea is the janggu, sometimes called seyogo. This instrument, like the talking drum of Africa, is shaped like an hourglass and had heads on both sides. These heads produce sounds of different pitch, although unlike those of its African cousin, once the drum is made, these pitches cannot be altered. When the two sides and pitches are played simultaneously, it can often represent a harmony between opposing or different forces, such as man and woman. This instrument, like the buk, has existed in Korea for at least two thousand years. Historical records indicate that it was used both in the field, like the pungmul-buk, as well as in the royal court of ancient Korea. This variety of use is in keeping with the instrument’s flexible nature and potential for complex rhythm. The janggu can be played with sticks, bare hands or both at once.

As previously mentioned, there is a wide variety of drums in traditional Korean music, far beyond the buk and the janggu. The galgo for example, is similar in shape to the janggu, having two heads and mimicking an hourglass, but it is played with two sticks and its heads are thinner. There are also many different kinds of buk, ranging from the jingo, the largest of the barrel drums, to the yonggo, which has a dragon painted on its shell and is commonly used in traditional Korean military music, to the sakgo, a long barrel drum suspended from a wooden frame.

Officially, North Korea has no religion as it is considered contrary to to communist ideology. However, as was seen in other communist countries this is no barrier to people retaining their faith. Buddhism, which can be practised individually and in private is the strongest religion in the North.

The people of both North and South Korea are overwhelmingly of a homogeneous Korean background. The evolution of the Korean people goes back more 9000 year with little input from other racial and cultural groupings. The strongest influence came from the Chinese and the Mongols, both of whom held sway over the Korean peninsula at various times over centuries. While there was a strong ethnic Japanese population in Korea during Japan´s occupation from 1910 to 1945, this had minimal effect on Korean culture.

Nobody knows for certain how the Korean language, which is unique to the Korean peninsula, evolved. Spoken Korean is most closely related to Japanese, although even then is has many distinct differences. The syntax is similar to Chinese: however, it does not use tones to discern meanings a Chinese does. Korean writings began 13000 years ago, but initially used Chinese rather than a distinctive Korean style. Hangul, the Korean phonetic alphabet, was devised around 500 years ago. For an outside observer Korean script tends to be less complicated than that of Japan or China.

Daily life varies enormously for Koreans depending on which side of the 38th parallel they live. The average North Korean lives a fairly bleak life under an unrelenting communist dictatorship. Where once North Korea was fairly self-sufficient, today it is widespread starvation and malnutrition. Agricultural workers live in communities of collectivised farms. Everyone works to produce food for the rest of the population. Non agricultural work centres primarily on heavy industry, mineral extraction and military service. The state controls all aspects of life. South Korea is vastly different, having a private-enterprise economy, although with some state intervention at various levels. The average South Korean works a full day Monday to Friday and half day on Saturday.

Gangwon is said to be the most popular destination by the Korean government and it is located in the central region in South Korea. Nearly 3/4th of the land is mountainous, and it has two regions each with its own identity. The Eastern runs along the coast, while the western faces Seoul and southern part is the inlands. This is where one begins their climb on the Diamond Mountains and to the Mt Baekdusan which lies in North Korea. This place is beautiful in winter, with snow covering the mountains and there is white snow everywhere.

Seongnamsa is a temple that should be visited and it is regarded a masterpiece. A walk along the 800 meter stone path leads to the park entrance and thereon to the temple. Once you reach there, take a minute to admire the pagoda at the top of the temple, and the various bamboo trees around it.

The Korean folk village is situated on the banks of the river and is a quiet place where the locals go about their daily routine. This is a place that gives the visitors the chance to be part of the locals and learn their way of life. Cooking, gardening, local traditions are all displayed by those who live here. There are parades, dance performaces apart from all this, which makes it more fun for families, especially with kids.

Dodong Mineral Spring park is another popular tourist destination. To catch the beautiful sunset and become one with nature, it is best to come to this mineral spring park. The geysers and the park are a visual treat for anyone coming here. There are stories surrounding this park that if one where to drink the water from this mineral spring, it could cure their ailments, since it has medicinal benefits as well.