Cherry Blossom Festival, Jinhae, S.Korea
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Jinhae is the cherry blossom capital of Korea. Every year between late March to early April, tons of visitors will flock here to enjoy the spectacular cherry blossoms that blanket the whole town of Jinhae. The Jinhae Gunhangje Festival will mark the start and end of this beautiful sight. I was very lucky to be able to catch it on the last day of the festival.
There are many ways to get there. But for me, since I'm a foreigner and it was a day trip, I found the KORAIL foreigner day pass to be the cheapest and fastest option.
- Bought the KR pass for 1-day use, under SAVER category (for 2-5 people) for 60,300KRW per person on the internet. It is an unlimited pass for 1-day so you can book as many rides as you like later on. (Refer to KR website for more details)
- When you reach there (Seoul Station for me), exchange the print-out from the internet booking for the actual KR pass at the information counter.
- Proceed to book your train rides at the ticketing counter.
- Take the train to Jinhae, take note that there are no straight trains to Jinhae, you will need to make a transfer and there are many transfer stations available. Choose one that fits your timing.
For me, I took the SEOUL-CHANGWON train at 0910-1210, followed by CHANGWON-JINHAE train at 1232-1254. For the return trip, I took the JINHAE-MASAN train at 2022-2056, followed by the MASAN-SEOUL train at 2118-0017.
Be sure to visit Yeojwacheon Stream and Gyeonghwa Station here. The endless canopy of cherry blossoms over these two attractions earned spots on CNNGo’s list of “50 beautiful places to visit in Korea”, and they are the two most popular cherry blossom attractions in Jinhae.
I would personally recommend not doing it as a day-trip from Seoul, as it is really tiring. Instead, it can be stop-over or a visit from Busan or nearby cities.
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