GLOBAL SELLING NEWS KOREA

A Seoul Bike Rental Place Seoul Bike? Seoul Bike also called Ddareugi is a bicycle sharing system in Seoul. The rental places are mainly near subway entrances, bus stops, residential areas, government offices, schools, banks, etc. I highly recommend you to take Seoul bike to explore downtown Seoul If you are traveling to Korea someday. You can save lots of time through using this bike. Also, it will be much more comfortable and fun! You can see the rental places everywhere in Seoul. How to purchase the voucher for tourists Seoul Bike Website Seoul Bike operates a special rate system for foreign tourists. You can visit the Seoul Bike website to buy the voucher. The website supports English, Chinese, Japanese. After choosing the language, click the 'Buy ticket' and then 'purchase a pass' You can choose the classification of vouchers. Day voucher (one hour) – 1,000 won Premium day voucher (two hours) – 2,000 won Day voucher (one day)- 5,000 won Be careful if you do...

Image credit_ Dongsuh_Maxim, Universal Recently, collaboration marketing between unexpected brands is gaining popularity in South Korea. Among the numerous collaborations, this time, Maxim, instant coffee brand in Korea, and Universal Studios, famous film production company in the United States, have released the ‘Maxim x Universal Special Package’. Why? What is the correlation between those two brands? I think that it’s a collaboration to attract customer attention in a fun and interesting way. Image credit_ Dongsuh_Maxim, Universal Maxim X Universal Special Package is a unique concept that utilized classic movies such as movie Jaws, Back to the future, Jurassic Park.  As you can see from the picture, Each movie's title is printed on maxim coffee stick. In addition, there are various goods which are very unique and attractive such as blankets, popcorn tins, tumblers, color changing mugs, and tin cases. One of those things I would like to show you is a color changing mug. ...

  Budae-jjigae Budae-jjigae is a type of Korean stew made with ham, sausage, tofu, kimchi, gochujang (Korean red chilli paste), baked beans. You can also add some noodles or glass noodles even cheese if you want. It's one of the popular Korean dishes for foreigners. Budae-jjigae is really tasty, but has a sad background story. Back in 1950s, Korea was very poor and many people also died due to difficulty of obtaining food during the Korean War. So at that time, right after the end of the Korean War, Budae-jjigae was made by boiling with ham, sausages and bacons that obtained from US army with kimchi on Sot ddu-kung that is a Korean traditional cast iron pot with lid. The beginning place of Budae-jjigae is Uijeongbu, South Korea, where the US military unit was located. It's so famous that there is a street called 'Uijeongbu Budaejjigae Street' where there are lots of restaurants for Budaejjigae. Despite its poor and sad background, today Budaejjigae is one of the best Ko...

  Ramen is one of the various hangover helpers in Korea. Then, what if the ramen contains hangover drinks’ ingredients? Will it be more effective in relieving your hangovers? I can’t imagine to be honest. It seems a little weird. Anyways, December is here. 2020 is almost over and end of the year is coming! E-mart 24, a convenience store in Korea, has launched a unique ramen for the end of the year when there are lots of party and gatherings. It’s a collaboration between E-mart 24 and Condition which is a famous hangover drink brand in Korea. It’s characterized by the addition of hangover drinks’ concentrate to the E-mart 24’s private label ramen. Ramen seasoning includes a concentrated extract of hovenia dulcis which is well-known for hangover cure and turmeric which is good for hangover prevention is added to the noodles. Also, the package of this ramen looks so funny. He seems really need this ramen for relieving hangover. Overall, concept of the collaboration itself is very uniq...

  Image credit_Hyundai Camping and Chabak (Sleep in the car) Due to COVID-19 pandemic this year, camping is booming in South Korea. Camping, where you can enjoy outdoor activities in your own place, has gained popularity while being restricted from domestic and overseas travel due to social distancing rules. Also, there is a new trend called ‘chabak’ which refers to sleep in the car. Chabak is a new word that mixes Korean word ‘Cha’ (car) and ‘bak’ (stay and sleep). You don’t have to carry any tent or book some accommodation. With your car, you can go everywhere and then sleep in the car during your  journey . In fact, not only has the sales volume of SUV vehicles which is used for chabak, but demand of camping supplies has also increased sharply this year. Solo Camping Camping culture has also changed a lot in Korea. In the past, people used to go to camping with family or friends like a group. Nowadays, however, small-scale of camping such as couples or even alone gets mor...

  A Pojangmacha street in Busan, South Korea Pojangmacha where you should definitely go in South Korea. This orange color tent bar is a tiny street restaurant which is based on small tents or street vendors. There are lots of street food such as tteokbokki, oden, gimbap, even anju which is Korean food consumed with Soju (Korean alcohol). Since long time ago, Korean workers go to pojangmacha to drink some alcohol with their co-workers or friends after getting off from work. Koreans feel that they can get release their stress as drinking soju with anju and talking honest stories that they couldn’t tell. If you like watching some K-drama, you might have seen pojangmacha scene at least once. One sad thing is that perception of pojangmacha seems a little different from the past. For instance, all the street food used to be really cheap like $1~5 per dish before, so people usually went to pojangmacha to enjoy their time without any burden of cost. However, these days some pojanmacha ar...

  Imagine your Korea "Feel the rhythm of Korea" "Feel the rhythm of Korea" Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has produced international promotional videos for South Korea under the title “Feel the rhythm of Korea!”. This project is to show main tourist attraction such as Seoul, Busan, Jeonju etc. through videos so that foreigners are indirectly able to see and enjoy Korea even in this COVID-19 situation. As a result, all the promotion videos from Youtube channel ‘Imagine your Korea’ got more than 300M views and getting more popular in abroad and also won the ‘Tourism Innovation Awards 2020’ as the best digital campaign award at the Tourism Innovation Summit 2020 hosted by Seville, Spain. Even though these videos are mainly for tourists, it has gained tremendous popularity in Korea as well with its addictive melody and interesting visual. LEENALCHI BAND X AMBIGUOUS DANCE COMPANY Leenalchi is a Korean alternative pop band that sings fusion pansori (Korean traditional m...

  A Korean bakery “I don’t know why bread is so pricey in Korea” “Bread seems like a fancy food.” These are what my foreign friends said to me. It’s actually true that the cost of bread is really expensive in South Korea compared to other countries. According to Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), generally Koreans have to pay $15.99 for a 1kg loaf of bread in Seoul. That’s a lot higher than New York where it has been second-ranked with $8.33. This is about twice as much. Usually, you can have some nice meal in a Korean restaurant for $6. Bakery in Korea, however, it has already exceeded $10 if you choose 3-4 breads. Then, what’s the reason? Why is the bread super pricey in South Korea? Among Koreans there are a lot of opinions about cost of bread. So first, Koreans rely on imported ingredients such as sugar, flour and butter which are main ingredients of bread. That means it can’t help that the price of bread is too high. Some Korean understand the reason of high price, but they s...

Early morning delivery service Can you imagine that food you ordered before 12 am to be delivered the next early morning? It’s possible in South Korea. Early morning delivery service is being actively carried out in South Korea, mainly for food. Fresh groceries such as vegetables, dairy, fruits and even frozen food are delivered to your home at dawn (Usually before 7am). You can even get free shipping if you exceed a certain amount. This service is definitely the best for busy workers and housewives taking care of children. How amazing it is! South Korea is the first country to start early morning delivery service in the world. 설명 추가 The process from order to delivery It’s 23:24 pm late night from the screenshot. As you can see from the red box below, it says “If you order within 35 minutes 12 seconds, guaranteed before 7 am delivery next morning.”   Is this for real?!   Early Morning Delivery Yes, it is! Early the next morning, I got my groceries that I ordered last night...

  A cafe in Seoul  “We thought COVID-19 is getting better now…”, but we were off guard again. Unfortunately, the third wave of COVID-19 pandemic has hit South Korea. At this point, as more than 300 confirmed cases are in a row, eventually the city of Seoul has declared ‘Emergency stop for 10 million citizens.’ by end of year. This is a stronger quarantine measure than government’s guidelines called ‘the second stage of social distancing that has started since November 24. Then, which measures Seoul citizens have to follow? In order to encourage refraining from year-end meetings, public transportation will be reduced by 20% after 10pm. Assembly of more than 10 people is prohibited throughout Seoul. It’s available to go to a café only for take-out and for any restaurants or pubs are only allowed to deliver and take out after 9pm. Facilities like karaoke have to close after 9pm. Limited to 100 people or less for weddings and funerals. Online worship service is strongl...

  Dalgona Coffee Dalgona Coffee Dalgona coffee is a whipped coffee made with instant coffee (or espresso powder), sugar, hot water and milk. As COVID-19 pandemic has been prolonged since beginning of this year, we’re stuck at home and get bored easily. So, many Korean have started to find something to do at home. As a result, making dalgona coffee became kind of a trend in South Korea. As many Koreans uploaded the recipe of dalgona coffee on thier youtube channe, making dalgona coffee challenge started to spread all over the world.  It was even featured on BBC as ' Gain worldwide popularity'  and also in the New York Times article in the US. Some people also called the dalgona coffee as Corona coffee...   Real dalgona What’s Dalgona? Dalgona is a Korean street food that is kind of caramel snack made by mixing sugar and baking soda and heating it over fire. When I was younger, I used to buy a piece of dalgona on a street or go to a stationery shop which sold rea...

  Are you looking for a K-drama, but don’t know what to watch? Then, here’s my recommendation for you. The drama ' Start-up' which has been running on Netflix is getting more popular in South Korea. K-drama Start-Up Summary Drama ‘Start-up’ is about young people who dream of success and are willing to start their own business in Sandbox which is Korean Sililcon Valley.  Cast Seo DalMi (Bae Suzy) She has a variety of careers with part-time jobs such as cafes, delivery services, golf courses, bookstores, and call centers. The English, Japanese, and Chinese skills acquired in that career are also at a high level. She starts to dream to be like Steve Jobs in Sandbox for some reasons. Nam DoSan (Nam JooHyuk) He is the founder of SamSanTech and also genius software enginner. He is literally ignorant of everything except coding. Since he has met DalMi, he has started to follow his dream in Sandbox. Han JiPyung (Kim Seonho) He is a successful man who owns a luxury ...

  Drone taxi We might have dreamt about taking a flying taxi at least once in our life…could it be really possible? Then, what if drones could become a next transportaion in the future? A drone taxi flew over Yeouido, Seoul, South Korea November 11, 2020. This is the first time that a drone taxi flies in the sky in South Korea.  Urban Air Mobility (UAM) means to carry people through flying over the city, drawing attention as a solution to the problem of traffic congestion in several metropolitan areas. The drone that were used is ‘EH216’, a two-person aircraft from Chinese pilotless air taxi company Ehang. Actually, This drone was supposed to have people on board, however, it has been tested with 4 bags of rice which are total about 80kg for safety reasons. As the result, the drone taxi successfully flew 1.8km around Yeouido Hangang Park, Sogang Bridge, Bamseom, and Mapo Bridge at an altitude of 50m for about 7 minutes without any problems.  According to Korean government...

Korean Traditional Food Kimchi As you might have heard of Kimchi before, Kimchi is one of the most important Korean foods. So, there is a traditional season called  ‘ gimjang-cheol ’  in which kimchi is made in large quantities in Korea. It ’ s usually between late autumn and early winter. In 2013, Gimjang culture was registered as a Human Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO. Gimjang is an important ritual in Korea, meaning that Koreans make a large amount of kimchi to spend a long, cold winter. It’s because it was difficult to get some fresh vegetables in winter. Anyway, You can never imagine how much kimchi Koreans make.. Making Kimchi It’s time to gather at grandma’s house to make kimchi together The traditional gimjang culture in Korea is for large families to gather at grandmother’s house. It usually takes about 2-3 days for making tons of kimchi, but It depends on the number of families. Some families make up to 300 cabbages. Steamed pork with freshly made Kimchi ...

Study Room #1 Korean Study Room The study room is a place where you can study alone if you pay for your seat. There are literally kind of private desks and chair. In the study room, you have to be really careful of making some noise such as talking, footsteps, even writing and flipping books. So people should keep making the room quiet. That's why it's so much easier to focus on studying than any other places. It's a typical Korean culture that students go to a study room to study extra hours after school. Probably you wouldn't believe it.. #2 Kind of weird Korean Age In Korea, basically we’re 1-year-old as soon as you are born. Also, the weird thing is that everyone goes up 1 year on January 1 st . So the funny thing is that the baby who is born December 31 will be turning 2 years old next day. What a ridiculous! They would feel so unfair...haha. Some Korean says that birthday is just for having a party and enjoying. That’s it. They don’t really care about going up 1-y...

Korean Winter Snack Bungeo-ppang When winter is coming, there’s a special food that Koreans look for. It’s Bungeo-ppang. Bungeo-ppang is a fish-shaped pastry with sweet red bean paste. Literally bungeo means fish and ppang means kind of bread or pastry in Korean. It’s the most popular Korean street food in winter. “ I gotta carry around $1 in my pocket to get Bungeo-ppang ..” This’s what Korean says like a habit in winter. Now in mid-November, Many of Bungeo-ppang are already starting to appear on the streets. Bungeo-ppang store Although red bean taste is the original, there are lots of flavors as well such as cream puff, pizza, even spicy flavor. So what is your taste? Personally, I like the original the most. By the way, when I was a little kid, Bungeo-ppang used to be $1 for 7, but nowdays it’s a dollar for 3. Application for Bungeo-ppang There is a new word 'Bung-segwon' refers to a residential area or district located near a store selling Bungeo-ppang. And also, this year...