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Sokcho-si in Gangwon province on the north east coast of South Korea has a population of 86,000. Main industries are tourism and fishing. Tourism revolves around beaches and its location close to the Seoraksan National Park. The latter can be reached by a local bus. |
If an area has a beach it will be the first place I will visit after checking into accomodation.
Sokcho Beach's sand sometimes appears orange because of reflected sunlight. In this, the off season, not many people were present. However in summer, it can be very busy.
The beach is divided by a small pier popular for fishing.
About 800m inland from the beach is a squarish inlet know as Cheongchoho Lake. Though called a lake it is used as a harbour for Sokcho's fishing fleet.
Sokcho has a number of museums. The only one I visited was the Seokbong Ceramic Museum. In the vicinity of Chenongchoho Lake it was established in 1997. Sone of the ceramics are shown in the image below. They are not to scale.
One exhibit is a 1m 10cm ceramic plate weighing 33kg. It was the largest ceramic plate in the world.
To move across Cheongchoho Lake you can use a human powered ferry.
Sometimes passengers drag the cable which pulls the ferry. Contributing muscular energy does not exempt you from ferry fees.
Near the north-east corner of Cheongchoho Lake, a few hundered meters north of Sokcho Beach, close to the blue arched Seorak Bridge, is Abai Village. This village houses people, and their descendants, who fled from North Korea during the Korean War.
Unsurprisingly, people here make a living selling seafoods such as fish, crabs, octopus both in markets and resturants.
Returning to my hotel I passed a set of life sized bronze statues near Jungang Market. It is a monument to fishermen. I present it with distracting street clutter removed.
Note that some of the fish appear to be suspended, nicely representing swimming fish.
The Sokcho Expo Tower, near Cheongchoho Lake, is fifteen stories high. It is topped by an observation tower giving excellent views of Sokcho and out to the Seoraksan Mountains. During my first visit, in day time, I instinctly felt it would look more interesting at night.
The night view did not disappoint.
Another site I thought would look better at night was one of the entrances to the Sokcho Tourist and Fishery Market, formely Jungang Market. This was because of its coloured lights.
Not many peoplle were there when I visited around 9pm. Most of the markets and resturants were closed or closing.
Eventually I found an open eatery in the large underground area. My last meal in Sokcho was an expensive crab.