Yongin's Korean Folk Village (K-Drama Site, Traditional Dance, and More)
Last weekend I took a bus outside of Seoul to the Korean Folk Village where I pet a cow, watched a man jump on a tight rope backwards, and more. If you're looking for the best tourist experience for traditional Korean culture, this is it!
Watch my Saturday at the Korean Folk Village below:
I arrived at the village very early, since I knew it would be one of the hottest days of the week and I didn't want to be caught in the afternoon sun! They let us into the park a few minutes early (it opens at 9:30am) so I was able to walk around almost completely alone which was so fun!
The village is separated into small sections that highlight various activities that would be normally happening in a traditional Korean town. The cloth dyeing area was magical and it was so funny to walk around and have chickens or cows suddenly start making noise. It really felt like you were time traveling!
At 10:30am the first batch of performances start! First up were the traditional dancers and drummers. They were such fun! It looked as if there was no rhyme or reason to the dancing until suddenly the leaders would start running and everyone would know what to do and join in. They even dragged a member of the audience into the dance to participate!
At 11:00 the tight rope walker started and he was a crack up! Even if you can't speak Korean, his body language had the crowd roaring! The older women sitting next to me were totally fan girling over him too which made it that much funnier.
I was rather hungry at this point so instead of watching the traditional wedding ceremony, I went to the closest food court and got some bibimbap to hold me over. The food court had a wide variety of Korean foods and the menu was all in English as well. It's a bit priceyer than what you'd find at places outside the park, but only by a dollar or two and it tasted great!
At noon the horse back riding started and that was incredible! There was archery, vaulting, and lots of comedy. The riders and horses are really talented and even when they made mistakes they turned it into a really funny part of the show. I even got to sit next to a really kind old woman who shared her candy and shady spot on the bench with me (yes, I took candy from a stranger, sue me!)
Afterwards I continued to explore the huge village and stopped at a tea house to cool off. The grounds of this place are massive so I highly suggest setting aside an entire day to enjoy it. It was getting quite hot and I was still recovering from dehydration from last week so I decided to play it safe and head home around 2pm, not even seeing half of the village.
If you're looking for a glimpse into traditional Korean culture with amazing performances that you can't see in Seoul, I can't suggest this spot enough!! For 18,000won for adults, its honestly worth it!
Address: 90 Minsokchon-ro, Bora-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do
Website: http://www.koreanfolk.co.kr/multi/english/