Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival
One of the Spring festivals we were looking forward to was the Jinhae Cherry Blossom Festival. This is suppose to be the biggest and best cherry blossom festival in Korea for a number of reasons. First, the number of cherry blossom trees on display is quite large. The small city, Jinhae, is known throughout Korea for this specific festival and, as such, it draws an estimated three hundred thousand people per year. Lastly, it is very scenic, with multiple areas that are picture perfect including a stream and an old train station. So with high expectations, we made our way to Jinhae!
Mokpo -> Masan -> Jinhae
After a couple days of planning and trying to figure out the best route to get to the city, we opted for the train which took in total of 6 hours to get to Masan. From Masan we took a taxi into Jinhae. The taxi was about 10,000 won and took us right to the festival without any stops, aside from the traffic (a plus if you are comparing between taking the bus verses the taxi).
Yeojwacheon Stream
Yeojwacheon Stream was our first stop. If you google the name, you will find hundreds of pictures of the stream during the cherry blossom festival. Are the pictures a good reference you ask? Definitely! This place was gorgeous! As you can see, we took around a hundred pictures of just around this area. The stream itself was crystal clear and acted like a flowing mirror, while the pink and white cherry blossoms overhead looked like cotton candy. Speaking of food, there were also several food stalls set up along the stream so we got some corn dogs and potato chips on a stick.
Gyeonghwa Station
Our next stop was the Gyeonghwa Station. This train station is no longer operating, but it is one of the famous cherry blossom sites in Jinhae. Cherry blossoms line the whole track up and down. To get from Yeojwacheon Stream to Gyeonghwa Station, we decided to the walk the whole way and see the city on foot. That was sort a good and bad idea since it is a nice city especially with the flowers in bloom, but the station was a little further than we thought! In the end we made it there and took some awesome pictures. There was even a stage train that ran through the station!
After the station it was time to make our way back to Masan to catch our bus back to Mokpo. This was where the headache started! Being the first and main weekend of the festival, as the day went by the already bad traffic, was becoming horrible - like a slow moving parking lot. No taxis wanted to take us, or anyone else for that matter (we watched as groups of girls in short skirts and couples offering to pay over $100 were all equally turned away) so we were just walking around trying to figure out what to do. I spotted one of the buses at a stop light and Alan ran to the door and made sure it was the right one. We hopped on the bus before it stopped at the bus station and it was a good thing we did! The moment the doors opened, a flood of people rushed on to the bus, so much so that the bus driver had to push people out the door off the bus. Although we were crammed and it was standing room only, we were on our way to Masan! Anxiously checking our phone's GPS and watching the clock tick down, we made it to the bus terminal with ten minutes to spare. Another close call, but we had a great trip and it all worked out!
Tips and Recommendations:
* How to get to Jinhae - I would recommend taking a bus to Masan Bus Terminal. From Masan Bus, walk or take a taxi to the Masan train station. From there, take a direct train to Jinhae. With this route, you will not be stuck in traffic, crammed into a bus like sardines, or worst, miss your train/bus and not be able to get home! Make sure you get your tickets before hand so you can be on schedule. You can always take the bus route all the way, but keep in mind everyone will be doing the same thing, and it is a first come first board basis.
Express bus info www.kobus.co.kr
Intercity bus info www.bustago.or.kr
Korail website www.korail.com
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