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Freezing cold fails to deter visitors from joining ice fishing festival in Gangwon

Published: 27 Jan. 2026, 16:55

Visitors enjoy ice fishing at the 2026 Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival along the Hwacheon Stream in Hwacheon County, Gangwon on Jan. 25. [NEWS1]

Hundreds of visitors crowded onto the frozen Hwacheon Stream in Hwacheon County, Gangwon, for this year’s Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival, which kicked off on Jan. 10, unfazed by the temperatures that fell to minus 12 degrees Celsius (10 degrees Fahrenheit).

Visitors on Friday drilled holes through the thick ice covering the stream. Following instructions from festival fishing guides, tourists lowered short hand lines or fishing rods, each about 1 meter (3.3 feet) long, into the ice holes and moved them up and down to attract fish.

“You catch more fish when you keep the bait 10 to 20 centimeters [3.9 to 7.8 inches] above the riverbed and jig the line," Kye Jae-hong, who visited the festival from Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, said.

Kim Min-woo, another visitor from Seoul, said, "Fishing in open nature for the first time in a while felt refreshing and liberating."

This year’s Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival continues to draw crowds as prolonged cold weather has made the ice as thick as 38 centimeters (14.96 inches). The festival surpassed 1 million visitors just three weeks after opening.

On Saturday alone, 127,089 people visited the festival site, bringing the cumulative total to 1,072,997 since the opening, according to Hwacheon County.

Organizers designed this year’s festival so visitors remain on site even after fishing and enjoy a wider range of winter activities.

One of the main attractions, the indoor ice sculpture plaza, evokes comparisons to China’s Harbin Ice and Snow Festival. Large outdoor snow sculptures create an atmosphere reminiscent of Japan’s Sapporo Snow Festival.

The festival on Seondeung Street, which features a large display of handcrafted sancheoneo lanterns and LED lights, combines colorful lighting and street performances and draws comparisons to Canada’s Quebec Winter Carnival.

Snow sledding, ice sledding, zip-line experiences and the wide ice plaza in front of Eolgomi Castle — an ice-and-snow fortress built around the festival’s bear mascot — attract families throughout the week as well as on weekends.

"The affection and interest shown by Hwacheon residents and visitors have driven the festival’s growth," Hwacheon Mayor Choi Moon-soon said.

The Hwacheon Sancheoneo Ice Festival, which opened on Jan. 10, runs through Sunday. Since its launch in 2003, the festival has attracted more than 1 million visitors every year.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY PARK JIN-HO [[email protected]]