On three nights in late April, forty people at a time sat in a Changdeokgung courtyard after dark and watched court musicians and dancers recreate a banquet that was never …
Joon-ho Baek
Joon-ho Baek
Covers travel, heritage, and language for KoreaUpClose. ISFP. Has a favorite alley in basically every neighborhood.
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Tradition & Heritage
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K-Content Filming-Location Tourism
A 600-Year-Old Exile Site Just Became Korea’s Hottest Long-Weekend Drive — Because of One Movie
by Joon-ho Baekby Joon-ho BaekFor most of the last six centuries, Cheongnyeongpo — a river bend in Yeongwol County, Gangwon Province — drew the kind of visitor who already knew Korean history cold: the …
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Neighborhood Guides
This Seoul Street Used to Mean BMWs and Designer Bags. Now It Means Brunch and Eco-Bags.
by Joon-ho Baekby Joon-ho BaekAn elderly woman stopped Seoul-based travel writer Ji-Hoon Park outside Apgujeong-Rodeo Station’s Exit 4 with a question that says everything about this street’s history: “Is Rodeo Street still crowded these …
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Korean Language Learning
An American Influencer Just Charted a Song Entirely in Korean. The Real Story Is 2,777 Classrooms Behind It.
by Joon-ho Baekby Joon-ho BaekTrisha Paytas has no Korean heritage and no prior reputation as a K-pop act, which is part of why it was news at all when the American singer and influencer …
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Korean Literature & Publishing
A 90-Year-Old German Novel Just Became a Bestseller in Korea. A YouTube Channel and ‘Hip Buddhism’ Are Why.
by Joon-ho Baekby Joon-ho BaekWalk into a Kyobo Book Centre in Seoul this month and the crowd looks different from a few years ago: more people in their 20s, fewer of them just browsing …
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Tradition & Heritage
Korea Has Never Hosted This UNESCO Meeting. In Three Weeks, 3,000 Delegates Land in Busan.
by Joon-ho Baekby Joon-ho BaekOn the morning of June 23, ambassadors from 13 countries filed into a briefing room at Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul, there for an update on a meeting …
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K-Content Filming-Location Tourism
A K-Drama Filming Location Is Causing Overtourism. The Neighborhood Isn’t in Korea — It’s in Japan.
by Joon-ho Baekby Joon-ho BaekThe railway crossing sits on an ordinary residential street in Kamakura, Japan — barely wide enough for a single car. Lately it’s rarely empty. Tourists from Korea, Indonesia and Myanmar …
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Neighborhood Guides
One Seoul Shopping Street Is 45% Empty. Three Minutes Away, You Can’t Get a Table.
by Joon-ho Baekby Joon-ho BaekOn a weekday afternoon in Sinsa-dong’s Garosugil, the street that spent two decades as one of Seoul’s defining shopping destinations is quiet enough to notice. “For lease” notices start near …
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Travel & K-Content Tourism
Korea Is Now Mapping Travel Routes Before a Single Scene of a K-Drama Gets Filmed
by Joon-ho Baekby Joon-ho BaekKorean tourism has long worked the same way: a drama becomes a global hit, fans recognize a café or a sea wall from a scene they watched on a streaming …
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Korean Language Learning
Korean Just Became a University Entrance Exam Subject in Eight Countries. Here’s How That Happened.
by Joon-ho Baekby Joon-ho BaekA Korean language class is no longer just a K-pop fan’s weekend hobby. In a growing number of countries, it’s a subject students can take to satisfy a foreign-language requirement …
