The Icheon Sansuyu Festival: A Guide

Getting into the spring flower madness that takes over Korea, a group of friends and I headed out to Icheon this past weekend to take advantage of the Icheon Baeksa Sansuyu Flower Festival (이천백사 산수유꽃축제). There are flower festivals throughout the spring in Korea and we were excited to head to one. Icheon is a city a bit south of Seoul and is a great spot to see sansuyu flowers in the spring. If you’re looking for a place to getaway from Seoul or where to see sansuyu flowers near Seoul, this is the spot for you.

There is a larger spring festival known for sanusyu flowers in Korea in Gurye, but this is a lovely townie get together if you don’t want to go all the way to the Gurye Sansuyu Festival. This is a great spring festival in Korea to check out if you like yellow flowers everywhere this spring in Korea!

Get ready to see the sanuyu this spring in Korea:

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How To Get There

Address: 17 Wonjeok-ro 775 Beon-gil, Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea (경기도 이천시 백사면 원적로775번길 17 (백사면))

By Car: The easiest way to get to Icheon is definitely by car but if that’s not possible, there is a public transport option.

By Public Transportation: To get around using the subways or buses or other public transportation options, you’ll need to get a T-Money card. Starting from the bus station outside of Seoul Station, take bus 9300, 9401, 9000, or 1150 to Pangyo Station Bus Stop (07492). From the bus stop, walk up the road to Pangyo Subway Station and take the subway to Icheon Subway Station. Outside of exit 1, the only exit there, fine the bus stop just in front and take the bus 35 minutes, 14 stations, to stop 32416, Provincial Hall Bus Stop. You’ll want to walk back the way the bus came just a bit to find the Sansuyu Village.

Where To Stay

Hotel Intrada Icheon

Want to make a weekend of it? Check out staying into a hotel in the area. Hotel Intrada Icheon has a restaurant in the hotel and a 24 hour front desk should you want to get in late after the festival. You can book a room on Booking.com or on Agoda.com if you want to stay in the area.

What To See

The Baeksa Village in Icheon has “thousands of Japanese cornel trees that are 100 to 500 years old” according to their brochure. Icheon is a perfect destination for a day trip from Seoul. According to The Revised and Augmented Version of the Survey of the National Geography of Korea published in 1531, Icheon got the name in 936 when King Wang Geon of Goryeo was headed to conquer the Hubaekje kingdom.

On the way, there was a flood and a fellow by the name of Seo Mok helped him cross the river at Bokhacheon. The king was quoted as saying “iseopdaecheon” meaning it did well to cross the river from the Book of Changes. Thus, the town took the first and last syllables from his proclamation and was named Icheon.

Icheon holds festivals centered on their large number of Japanese dogwood trees, as well as a ceramics festival in May, a peach festival in September and a rice festival in October. This festival isn’t the sort that I would recommend to just anyone. Set in a small village, it’s got the feeling of a townie get together. This spring are you looking for a cherry blossom festival? There are plenty of those too if that’s what you want to see.

The trees are the pull and amidst them sit the villagers who have come out to sell waffles, corndogs, sansuyu rice wine, sansuyu pancakes, sansuyu tea, and sansuyu noodle soup among other things. Activities include traditional Korean games such as nol-ttwigi or the Korean version of see-saw where you stand on the board, a huge swing set, a noise maker stand, and a trampoline. There were painters all over the place with their easels set up to capture the season in acrylics and parents getting their kids in front of the flowers for photos. We were the only foreigners to be seen the whole day, and it would have been easy to spot any others as the whole area was only a street leading into a grove leading onto a mountain.

As someone who enjoys a good themed event, this was perfect for me, but it would not be perfect for someone who had just come to Korea and wanted a big festival vibe. This is definitely an off the beaten path event that welcomes one and all… if you can figure out how to get there.

With trees so old, it is interesting to note this is only the 13th Sansuyu Festival in Icheon as of 2012. The ceramics and rice that come from Icheon seem to be more noteworthy and have more history being celebrated in the area than these trees, but the townie spirit was high and the food was delicious. There was plenty of food and drink to try for free and as there weren’t tons of people meandering around we could easily take advantage of all that was offered.

We had a lunch of sansuyu pancakes, sansuyu noodle soup and sansuyu rice wine before walking up into the mountain to find the fields of trees. Sansuyu flowers are the first to bloom each year but there are plenty more flowers to come each spring.

Icheon provides a great spot to hike into the Mt. Seolbong region with its 8 peaks, as well chances to make kimchi, milk cows and make ice cream and cheese, experience Korean culture and town life. Check out the Icheon City Website for more information and some activities in which to get involved.

What To Eat

There is plenty of food at the festival if you like local Korean specialties. There was some great kalguksu, handmade noodle, soups, pajeon, Korean veg pancakes, and lots of makkoli. If you like Korean dishes, you’ll have no problem here. They were very delicious and made by some friendly local women.

It’s pretty standard festival fare with some special dishes made with/ and to represent the sansuyu that were bursting into bloom in the area.

This was a great trip outside of Seoul to see flowers. Yellow is truly a spring color that I love to see. If you’re like me and want to check out some other flower spots, check out going to Seosan for a day trip. You can find a daffodil covered mountainside at Yoogibanggaok which is truly a fun off the beaten path getaway to take. I love visiting the off the beaten path spots and the townie finds and if you do too, don’t miss a stop into the Hamchang Art Road which is so hidden even the locals forgot it was there. Happy spring!

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