Bare Hand Fishing at the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival

Northeast of Seoul, about 20 km from the border of North Korea, is the city of Hwacheon, where at the  Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival you can fish through a hole in the ice, catch fish with your bare hand, and grub on said fish with a side of Soju at the country’s largest ice festival.

"Unfrozen Hearts, Unforgettable Memories"

- Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival official festival slogan

The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival (얼음나라 화천산천어축제) is one of CNN’s seven winter wonders, and was selected by the ministry of culture, sports and tourism as the best festival in South Korea. More than 1.5 million people head up north during the 3 week festival.

Hwacheon is the first region in the country to freeze, and the festival is held on the frozen river that runs through the city. Beyond fishing, the festival has bobsledding, ice sledding, cultural exhibitions, singing and dancing performances, kid’s games, ice sculptures, food and drinks.

Here’s the best of the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival:

1. Ice Fishing

The main activity at the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival is ice fishing for sancheoneo, a type of landlocked salmon, through small holes drilled in the frozen river. There are hundreds of fisherpeople on the frozen river hoping to catch one or two of the fish swimming beneath.

In bazaar fashion, there is a foreigner-only fishing area and an adjacent Korean fishing area. The website advertises that they have “an exclusive section of ice for the use of international visitors to increase their chances of catching fish.”

It looks like you’re on your own in the Korean fishing area, but it looks a lot more lively. People have brought their own fishing poles and gear, they have chairs and barbecues, they have their crew, beer, snack and soju. They’re posted up there for the day. I think they can even take their catches home with them.

Meanwhile, in the foreigner fishing area, upon entering, a festival volunteer hands you a large ziplock bag with a small fishing pole for you to hopefully nab yourself a fish. Then you carefully walk on the ice to find yourself an available hole, and lower your fishing line in there. If you catch anything, you can’t take it with you. There’s a place to hand over your catch to get it cooked so you to grub on it.

We stayed for about 20 minutes. I didn’t catch anything, but my friend caught two fish!

Halfway through our fishing adventure(?), I look to my left and see some of the volunteers dumping buckets of fish into the water below the ice. This is what they meant about the "exclusive" area for foreigners. So… it’s kind of a sham, especially for the foreigner area, but it was still an experience, I guess…

2. Bare Hand Fishing

But what I really came for was the bare hand fishing. For those who dare, you can jump into knee high ice cold water and try to catch a sancheoneo by hand. Of course, I dared.

With two friends, we paid our 10,000 won and were handed our bare hand fishing shirt and shorts. Us ladies went to the ladies dressing room, and the gent went to his. Looking fly in our orange Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival shirt and black shorts, we met up with our fellow bare hand fishers in a warm holding area. The group was getting pumped, jumping, moving around in anticipation of the 50 meter walk to the ice pool. About 60 of us, all Korean except my crew of three, make our way, barefoot, along the path to the pool of water carved out of ice and snow.

The announcer says some things in Korean and the crowd encircling the ice pool cheers. We make our way around the pool and sit on the edge, our feet dangling in the icy water.

It is one degree Celsius outside and I am preparing to jump into even colder water to try and grab a fish with my bare hands.

We splash our feet in the water as an attempt to acclimate ourselves to the freezing cold water. Not possible for this native Californian, but I’m still doing it. I’ve come too far. The countdown begins, and everyone jumps into the freezing water, running after the fish swimming at our feet. I run immediately to the ladder to get the fuck out of there. It was unbearable!

My legs from the knee down were submerged in negative degree temperature and the pain was just to much for me to want to bear. I made a bee line to leave. As I’m walking out the pool, a man sticks a fish in front of my face. Not knowing what to do, I kiss it and run to the warming pools a few feet away, the first one there. I don’t know how these other people did it! But, technically, I did it too, technically.

 

Other people eventually started filling the warming pool, with fish in hand, reminiscencing about the experience. There were four other non-Koreans and of course they wanted us all to get together for an official picture. They made a Korean kid give me his fish for the picture. Totally undeserving of the fish honor, I took it nevertheless and posed for the photo.

We’ll probably be the face of next year’s Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival.

3. The Food

Even if you don’t catch anything, your entrance ticket entitles you to a cooked fish. And they’re pretty damn delicious. We collected our fish and enjoyed it with some beer and soju, a classic Korean drink combo.

Beyond the fish, they have all the traditional Korean winter foods available too. Most notably was Beondegi (번데기), boiled or steamed silkworm larvae, a winter staple street food in Korea. Koreans seem to love it, so I gave it a shot. Aaaand no thank you. It tasted like dirt and bugs. Not a good combo, but chasing it with some soju made it a tad more bearable.

4. World’s Largest Indoor Ice Sculpture Plaza

Not far from the ice festival, in the center of town, is the world’s largest indoor ice sculpture plaza. This is a joint project between the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival and the Harbin Ice Lantern Festival in Harbin, China. These two festivals are part of the top four winter festivals in the world.

And it’s pretty impressive. As you walk into the large, freezing building, you are met by massive replica ice sculptures of St. Peter’s Basillica and Korea’s Gwanghwamun Gate, along with other random ice sculptures with colorful back-lighting. It’s quite unique and beautiful.

5. Seondeung Street Festival

Also in the main town is the Seondeung Street Festival. There isn’t really too much to see here, but was worth checking out for the musical entertainment and people watching.

How to the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival

By Bus

From Dong Seoul Bus Terminal, take an intercity bus to Hwacheon. Hwacheon Stream, where the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival is held, are about 10-min walk from the bus terminal.

By travel agent

I recommend using a travel company, like Trazy.com, who offers all inclusive trips to the Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival and other events throughout Korea. The package includes transportation, entrance fee, ice fishing and a voucher for food. The bare hand catch isn’t included, but isn’t that much, and definitely worth it. Check out Trazy’s tour options here.

Interested in more Korean festivals? Check out the Holi Fest happening each year on Geoje Island!