Buckwheat flower season at Hyoseok Cultural Festival | Travel Course | K-Travel Mate

This is the traditional market held in the village of Bongpyeong in Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon Province. An o-il-jang is a traditional market held every five days. Each market has its own market day, and Bongpyeong Market is held on days ending in 2 and 7. On market days, over 100 shops bustle with customers and travelers. Among the many o-il-jang markets nationwide, Bongpyeong O-il-jang is famous because it is the setting of Lee Hyo-seok's novel . This novel, featured in Korean textbooks, is about a merchant who wanders markets across the country but cannot forget the market in Bongpyeong, the place of love, and thus returns each time. At Bongpyeong O-il-jang, visitors can see a variety of items including agricultural and marine products, food, clothing, and sundries. The highlight of the market visit is tasting buckwheat dishes. In Bongpyeong, a mountain village in Gangwon Province, buckwheat was a staple food replacing wheat, so various buckwheat dishes have developed. This is why you will notice buckwheat noodles, buckwheat pancakes, buckwheat chicken gangjeong, buckwheat steamed buns, and dumplings made with buckwheat at the market.

Lee Hyo-seok is a representative novelist of modern Korean history. His pen name was 'Gasan,' and in 1936, he published one of Korea's masterpieces in short fiction, "When the Buckwheat Flowers Bloom." The place where Lee Hyo-seok was born and raised, and the setting of "When the Buckwheat Flowers Bloom" in Pyeongchang-gun, was restored in 2007 about 600 meters below the original site inside Lee Hyo-seok Village based on verification by local elders. The birthplace house lost its original form, but the restoration allows visitors to vividly experience the lifestyle of that time based on historical evidence.

남안교를 건너 물레방앗간 뒷산 중턱에 자리잡고 있으며, 생가터 가는 길목이기도 하다. 오랜 기다림 끝에 2002년 9월 7일 제4회 효석문화제 기간 중 문을 연 이효석 문학관에는 선생님의 작품 일대기와 육필원고 유품 등을 한눈에 볼수 있다. 전시되는 육필원고와 유품 등은 가산문학 선양회를 중심으로 이루어졌으며 지난 5월 25일 해마다있는 선생님 추모식에는 미국에 있는 장남(이우현)가족과 차녀가 참석하여 소장하고 있던 선생님의 육필원고와 훈장증을 기증하기도 했다.

Watermill is a place that recreates the setting of a novel located 300m from the Lee Hyo-seok Literature Museum in Bongpyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do. Established in 1991, Watermill recreates a scene from Lee Hyo-seok's novel "When Buckwheat Flowers Bloom," in which the main character Heo Saeng-won, after staying on the earthen floor of a hot inn, rises alone at night and goes down to the stream. There, he unexpectedly meets the daughter of Seong Seobang at Watermill and spends a dreamlike night together. The Watermill exudes a rustic charm, with a foot-operated mill and several jars inside, and a waterwheel turning on the right side. In front of the Watermill stands a monument carved with a woman who seems to be the Seong clan maiden. Visitors can enter Watermill free of charge. Every September, when the buckwheat flowers bloom in full, the Bongpyeong area bustles with the Hyoseok Cultural Festival. Visiting Watermill around this time allows visitors to enjoy the buckwheat flower fields featured in the novel and immerse themselves in the autumn atmosphere and literary appreciation. Additionally, it is recommended to visit the Lee Hyo-seok Literature Museum, which displays handwritten manuscripts and photos of the author, and Hyoseok Dalbit Hill, the birthplace of Lee Hyo-seok.