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| As anyone who has seen the festival’s posters
knows, the Boryeong Mud Festival is one of
Korea’s most popular events among the foreign
community: nine days of good, dirty fun in the
restorative black mud of Korea’s beautiful West
Sea coast. Boryeong’s Daecheon Beach plays host
every year to countless visitors who come to
experience its famous muds, praised the world
over for their cosmetic and health effects. Last
year, 2.17 million visitors came to the festival,
including 104,000 foreigners from 98 countries.
So popular is the festival, in fact, that it became
Korea’s first festival “export” last year, with a
sister mud festival opening at Jinshitan Beach in
the northern Chinese city of Dalian. The festival
is, quite possibly, the biggest summer party of
the year. |
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More Information
T. (041) 930-3820
Website: www.mudfestival.or.kr
Getting There
Take the bus toward Daecheon from Seoul
Nambu Terminal (travel time: 2 hours, 10
minutes). The bus stops in front of
Daecheon Station. From there, take a local
bus to Daecheon Beach. |
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 Understanding Boryeong Mud
Mud. Earth mixed with water. Usually liquid
or semi-liquid. Sure, you see mud all the time,
but not all muds are created equal. Muds have
different minerals and organic matter, and over
time, as salt and other elements are deposited,
geological, chemical and biological processes
take place. Globally speaking, some muds are
rather well known, for example the black mud of
the Dead Sea, Glacial Marine Clay from British
Columbia, mud from Lake Baikal, California
Clare Mud, and New Zealand volcanic mud. For
ages, mud has been used as a cosmetic and to
remedy skin ailments; Cleopatra used it, as have
the Chinese for centuries.
In days gone by, Korea had to import all its
medicinal and cosmetic muds from abroad. In
1996, however, mud extracted from the pristine
flats of Boryeong was confirmed to possess antiaging
and skin cleansing properties, and major
domestic cosmetics firms were brought in to
produce Boryeong mud-based soaps and
cosmetics. Boryeong’s wondrous mud is rich in
minerals that are known to help prevent aging
and give the skin bounce, as well as in colloids
and crystals that provide the same sort of
physical therapy effect as a sand sauna. With its
antibiotic qualities and far-infrared factors
beneficial to our bodies, Boryeong mud is now
exported to the United States, China, Japan and
elsewhere.
Fun and Games
When it was first launched in 1998, the
Boryeong Mud Festival was a four-day affair with
16 programs. It is now a nine-day event with a
total of 55 programs. Just two hours' drive from
Seoul, the beach is easy to reach from anywhere
in the country. It is also noted as having the
highest rate of foreign participation of any of
Korea's major festivals.
The star of the show, of course, is the mud,
and there will be plenty of it. Visitors can enjoy
mud massages, mud wrestling, a Marine-style
training course on Boryeong’s mud flats, and
much, much more. Buy mud packs, mud
cosmetics, and other mud products. At night,
there will be concerts, rave parties, and other fun
activities. |
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| - The article courtesy of Seoul magazine |
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