Kitty Mak
HomePage
Going Here and There in S. Korea
Gangneung City (江陵市/강릉시) - Jul 18, 2003
before leaving
donghae station
breakfast
chuam beach
mureung valley
homestay
breakfast again
GANGNEUNG
From Donghae
Train Station
Tourist Office
O Juk Heon
GyeongPoDae
Gangneung Tofu
CHUNCHEON
before leaving
gapyeong bus
nami island
so yang dam
famous food
BUSAN &
KYEONGJU
pictures only
The train from Donghae to Gangneung takes about 45 minutes. There are numerous trains running this route. Therefore, anytime you reach the Donghae train station, you will be able to take on a train to Gangneung without waiting for too long. However, the train fare is quite different all through the day. We were told the cheapest one was the 7:30am and 10:30am train which costs KRW1,200 only. [You can check with the officers in the office there for the price range] We took the 11:30am train, the train fare was KRW4,900.
GANGNEUNG STATION
When we arrived Gangneung Train Station (江陵/강릉), it was around 12:30pm of Jul 18, 2003. It was still raining a lot. We were thinking of going back to Seoul directly considering the weather was so bad.
As we had already bought the Express Bus tickets. We took a taxi to the Gangneung Express Bus Station to check the schedule of the Express Bus to Seoul. The taxi fare was around KRW3000. We found out that the Express Bus to Seoul ran every 30 minutes and we were free to change our tickets. The weather turned better by then, instead of going back to Seoul right away, we decided to travel a bit of Gangneung.
GANGNEUNG TOURIST OFFICE
The Tourist Office Building is next to the Express Bus Station. The office is well eqipped. We were allowed to keep our luggage there. The officers there could speak Japanese and English very well. We sought their advice of where we should visit and how we could get to the place within our short staying hours. Far beyond by imagination, we were told that the Tourist Office opens until midnight.
O JUK HEON (烏竹軒 / 오죽헌)
With the instruction given by the officer in the Gangneung Tourist Office, we took bus to O Juk Heon. The bus fare was KRW800. It took around 30 minutes to reach there. The bus stop is just across the entrance of O Juk Heon. You shall not miss it.
O Juk Heon is the birthplace of a famours thinker and scholar of the JoSeon Era (朝鮮時代 / 조선시대) A well-preserved historic sites. The entrance fees is discounted to KRW900 for foreigners.
If you love to see traditional building and scholars' life in the old days, it shall be a pretty nice place to visit. If not, you might find it boring. It's a nice place to stroll around with clean air.
GYEONG PO DAE (鏡浦臺 / 경포대)
Gyeong Po Dae Pavilion tops the list of eight scenic wonders of the GwanDong Area.
Honestly, there is not much to see here. It's just like another park with some traditional buildings. The entrance fee is KRW600. We went there by taking the same bus we came from the city. It's very close to O Juk Heon. It took us around 5 minutes only to reach there.
GANGNEUNG CHO DANG SOFT TOFU 조당순두부 / 草堂水豆腐
The Gangneung Tofu is stated as a must-eat food in GangNeung. Based on the introduction from the tourist information materials. We took taxi from Gyeong Po Dae to one of the famous traditional Tofu restaurants. It cost us around KRW4000 to go there.
From my perspective, the Tofu was not that bad, but also not really that fascinating. The best part to me is that the tofu is served in a plain original way; unlike the one in Seoul where the tofu is always served with red pepper soup.
GANGNEUNG --> SEOUL
After having the tofu meal, we took bus back to the downtown of Gangneung. We took the 19:20 Express Bus back to Seoul. The train took us 7 hours to reach Donghae. For the bus, it took us 2 hours and 50 minutes only for reaching Seoul from Gangneung! We arrived Seoul at around 22:15. I guessed the driver rode at around 120km/hour at minimum. In addition, there was no traffic at all on this Friday night.
Although our trip was ended in the rain, it was pretty enjoyable.
Gangneung Station
Gangneung Tourist Info
Office
O Juk Heon
Gyeong Po Dae
Gangneung ToFu
