Dae Jang Geum

The most powerful wave will recede once it has crashed on the beach, and the Korean Wave is no exception. Having flattened most of Asia before it, Korean pop culture is being replaced in the affections of what were mostly TV audiences. Japan, first to fall to an unprecedented craze for Korean soap operas, is also first to recover.

A local travel agency reports that tours for Japanese people offering a chance to meet Korean TV star Kwon Sang-woo sold 1,000 tickets last June. Tickets went on sale three months ahead of the trip and sold out in three days.

But in October, a similar event for Japanese fans of Lee Young-ae, who had earlier wowed them with her role in the soap opera “Daejanggeum (The Jewel in the Palace)” only found 200 takers, instead of the 700 the agency had expected.

As of this year, Korean Wave tourism is in deep recession. The reason is twofold, industry insiders say. For one thing, Korean stars and the tours that dog their steps are pricing themselves out of business as the yen falls against the won. For another, Korean soap stars have become all too familiar to Japanese who sighed and fainted, it seems only yesterday, at the bespectacled appearance of Bae Yong-joon in “Winter Sonata.”

The figures tell a harsh story: according to the Korean Tourism Organization, the number of Japanese tourists visiting Korea stood at 145,788 this January, the lowest for two years and 100,000 less than the crest of 248,435 in October 2004. Numbers receded to 193,690 in December 2005 and 145,788 in January this year. Monthly figures for tourists from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and other Asian countries have also peaked, sinking to 236,142 in January, the lowest since March 2004. In the halcyon days of October 2004, the figure was as high as 345,985.

Travel packages are not keeping up, with costs for star guarantees in some cases more than twice what they were in 2004. The top stars get paid W300 million (US$300,000) -400 million for a couple of hours meeting their fans, up from W100-150 million up until mid-2004. “When the performance fees rise, the financial burden is passed on to tourists,” a travel agency staffer says. “Four-day Korean Wave travel products with fan meetings included have been priced at between 160,000-170,000 yen since the end of last year, up from 130,000-140,000 yen.”

Another problem is that nothing has ever quite managed to match the stellar success of “Winter Sonata.” Dongseo Tour, a local travel agency, shipped over 1,000-1,500 Japanese tourists a month between mid-2004 and mid-2005 by selling “Winter Sonata” locations such as Namisum Island and Yongpyeong Resort. That number is down to a mere 50, and the agency says it may stop the tours altogether. “Daejanggeum” tours launched last year only attract 100 Japanese or so a month. In short, the well is dry, the staffer says. The KTO says the number of Japanese tourists visiting Namisum Island declined from 15,000 in January 2005 to 4,600 in December.

Japanese TV channels, in turn, have cut the number of Korean soaps in their programming. A report on the prospects for Korean Dramas on Japanese TV published by the Korean Broadcasting Institute says the number of Japanese terrestrial broadcasters who aired Korean soaps declined to 36 in February, from 64 a year ago. Kim Yung-duk, who conducted the research, says the “Winter Sonata” craze will not come again.

Source: Digital Chosunilbo 22 Mar 2006

I felt invisible strings tugging me towards a world of fantasy and fun as I got closer to the entrance of Lotte World’s Adventure Indoor Park in Seoul, South Korea.

The 11.54ha Lotte World, which opened in 1989, was built at the cost of $600bil won (around RM2.3bil) and features a one-stop leisure centre which offers sightseeing, shopping, accommodation etc.

There are more than 15 kinds of rides here. I was eyeing the Giant Loop, but time did not allow, so all 15 people in our group decided to just jump into a hot air balloon basket to have a bird’s eye view of the whole place.

Have loopy fun on the Giant Loop.

The following day was quite exciting because we were to visit the Korean Film Council’s (Kofic) studio complex, located 45km out of Seoul, in Namyangju. A government-affiliated body, Kofic was founded by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to improve the quality of Korean films and to promote the Korean film industry.

As our bus approached the studio, which is located on a snow-capped mountain, I found the idiom: “As white as snow”, popping into my mind as I gazed at the whiteness all around me.

At the site, we were taken to a beautiful studio set of a traditional Korean village and also the one that replicated the Panmunjom, or Joint Security Area, where South and North Korea are parted.

There were blinding flashes everywhere as everyone tried to capture the moment on camera, silently thanking the Korea Foundation for Asia Cultural Exchange (Koface) for organising the trip for us.

Eventually, our camera batteries ran out of energy and so did we.

PDA guides keep visitors enthralled.

Next morning, we were bursting with energy again in anticipation of even more excitement. Our bubbly tour guide and interpreter Sharon Park led the way to the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, where we experienced a blast from the past by looking at all sorts of artefacts and art pieces.

Museums can sometimes be boring but this one was delightful and enlightening especially with the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) guide you can rent to give you information on the place. Triggered by sensors, the PDA informs the user about each exhibit he or she is looking at.

We were then brought to the famous Daejanggeum Park, where I found myself quickly transformed into the beautiful historical figure, Suh Jang-geum. Just about everyone knows Suh’s story, thanks to the hit TV series Daejanggeum or Jewel In The Palace.

Suh was the first and only woman to have served as head physician to a king, during the male-dominated Joseon Dynasty.

For the privilege of dressing up like her, I paid $5,000 Won (around RM19) and had to shed the coats that were insulating me from the freezing weather. For a second, I stood virtually unprotected in the -5°C temperature before I was helped into a traditional Korean outfit.

While I was busy role-playing in the cold, the others were enjoying themselves snapping photos with life-size, cardboard cut-outs of Jang-geum (played by actress Lee Young-ae) and her love interest Ming Jung-ho (played by actor Hee Ji-Jin).

Dressed as Suh Jang-geum.

The mood was decidedly more solemn the next day when we visited the Korea War Museum, an impressive granite structure surrounded by old airplanes, tanks and canons. Inside, you will find an ode to the dead and towering tablets etched with the names of fallen soldiers in the Korean War.

The museum has six display rooms, all coming together to depict 5,000 years of foreign invasion, from before the Three Kingdoms period through to the Korean War.

The most moving and perhaps most widely photographed monument is the statue of two brothers (one from the North and one from the South) meeting on the battlefield – a poignant reminder of the plight of more than 10 million Korean families who were separated by the war.

Things were more cheerful at the Geongbok Palace which was rebuilt after it was destroyed during the Japanese invasion.

Geongbok means “Shining Happiness”, and was built as the primary palace of King Taejo, founder of the Chosun Kingdom, in 1395 during the fourth year of his reign.

The map near the front entrance shows the arrangement of the complex during the latter reign of King Kojong, and this includes the major halls, pavilions, offices, storerooms, gates and bridges within the 419,000 sq m grounds.

The palace and all the “gates” in it left us dumbfounded. The carvings were intricate and delicate, but what took my breath away was the Gyeonghoeru, the “floating” pavilion where official banquets used to be held and foreign envoys were entertained.

No travel would be complete without a spot of shopping!

You can literally shop till you drop in Doota! because it only closes at 5am.

We did our fair share, all right, going to several shopping locations such as in Insa-dong, a place lined with art and antique galleries.

We also went to Doota!, a multi-storey shopping complex which closes at the very late hour of 5am, Monday to Saturday, so that visitors can shop till they drop, literally!

It was an adrenaline rush for the guys when we visited Seoul’s Techno-mart, an electronic haven with over 264,000 sq m of the latest gadgets, computers, laptops and computer games.

All that shopping – and, oh yes, cultural experiences – made for a very contented group of reporters as the plane took us home.

Source: The Star Mar 2006

Ten Japanese visited Korea to participate in an oriental medicine health tour for foreigners offered by the Kyung Hee Medical Center.

They started their schedule in Korea with watching a 30-minute video on Sasang Compositional Medicine at 8:30 a.m. After that, they filled in a survey on physical composition, saw how herbal medicine was compounded, were diagnosed, told about their physical composition, and consulted a doctor.

By noon, they were served with foods that were good for their individual physical composition. When a nurse and a chef explained about each food, they took photos of their lunch table or wrote down what they heard.

Maki Hasegawa (32, female) said, “They advised me to keep my stomach warm because I have the Soeum constitution. As a Soeum type of person has weak digestive organs, I was served with digestible and soft foods like bulgogi (pan-grilled sliced beef with rice wine, soy sauce and vegetables) and radish shreds.

The Japanese tourists, ranging from those in their 30s to those in their 60s are all fans of the Korean drama “Dae Jang Geum.” They talked about “Jang Geum” all the time over the course of the program.

Kazko Watarino (61, female) said, “I joined this program because I became interested in herbal medicine after watching what Jang Geum did with herbs in the drama. I was surprised to see how clean and large oriental medicine hospitals in Korea were, compared to those in Japan.”

The Kyung Hee Medical Center set up a medical office for foreigners after Dae Jang Geum started airing on a satellite TV channel in Japan in March this year. The medical program offered by the medical center has drawn as many as 340 foreigners in only 8 months. The medical center provides the program two or three times a month with foreigners on group “Dae Jang Geum tours” in partnership with a travel agency.

The Oriental Medicine Hospital of Woo-suk University has opened an oriental medicine culture center in the city of Jeonju , Jeonbuk Province, located in the southern part of the country, in October and provides an oriental medicine program. The program includes a composition test, a foot spa, making oriental ointments and soap. About 20 to 30 foreign tourists a month come not only from Japan, but also from China, and southeast nations.

Professor Lee Su-kyung at the Sasang Composition division of the Oriental Medicine hospital of Kyung Hee Medical Center said, “As Dae Jang Geum enjoys great popularity across Asia, many people who developed interest in oriental medicine visit Korea to join our program. In some cases, people feel it worked for them and came back with their friends.”

Source: Donga 30 Nov 2005