Fire Festival

• Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival, Saebyeol Oreum area on Route 95, Bongseong-ri, Aewol-eup, Bukjeju-gun, Jeju-do, [5]. This is Jeju's biggest tourist attraction. The Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival originates from the traditional harvesting of the grasses found in the local domestic farm animal pastures, which were annually set in fire each winter by the villagers as a way to exterminate harmful insects. The Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival has been held annually since 1997. It is held during the holiday of Daeboreum (which is the 15th day of the first lunar month of the year, typically February).  edit

Museums

• Folklore and Natural History Museum. The museum is divided into four exhibition halls: natural history, folklore, special resources, and an audio-visual room. It contains natural history of the island as well as relics, animals and plants that are found around the island. The stuffed animals are popular among children.  edit

• Jeju Education Museum. Shows the traditional culture and history of Jeju. There are several life-sized exhibits which can help picture the history better.  edit

• Jeju Independence Museum. Chronicles the struggles of Cheju-do residents against the Japanese during the 20th Century. The main building has 2 floors of exhibit halls, as well as a small movie screening room. Outside are several monuments.  edit

• Haenyeo Museum, 3204-1 Hado-ri Gujwa-eup, [6]. Museum dedicated to the Haenyeo (woman divers). Kw 1100.  edit

• Jeju Teddy Bear Museum - Millions of people around the world collect Teddy Bears and they seek out old, unique, and valuable teddy bears for their personal collections. The Jeju Teddy Bear Museum opened especially for the European collectors and is more exciting than ever with special "Teddy Bear" entertainment. Some scenes from the popular Korean Drama "Goong (궁)" was filmed in this museum.

• Visit the Green tea museum. The museum is located among the plantations of green tea and is built in the shape of a green tea cup. Here you can see tea collecting methods and take pictures in the middle of tea plantations. The O'Sulloc tea museum teaches you about Korean tea culture through a miniature of a green tea production line and many other interesting activities. There is a souvenir shop and of course a green tea-house with green tea and green tea ice cream. A very beautiful modern building, the museum is surrounded with summer-houses, stone towers and soft green grass lawns.

• Museum of African Art, [7]. Housed in a stunning full-size replica of the Grand Mosque of Djenne, this museum has what is almost certainly Asia's best collection of African art.  edit

By plane

Jeju international airport (IATA: CJU, [4]) has a total of 18 airlines providing direct flights (twelve local, six international). The vast majority of flights to Jeju are from Gimpo (Seoul's domestic airport) or Busan; there are also two direct fights per week to Incheon, six direct flights per week to Tokyo (from Haneda, not Narita), four to Osaka, two to Beijing, three Hong Kong, plus flights to Shanghai.

They take off and land 143,000 times in a year including Boeing 747's using the 3 km runway and Jeju Airport can handle 7.64 million passengers a year. Based on mid & long term airport expansion plans, 375.5 Mil. USD will be invested to expand the air port till 2020. During the first phase of the project up to 2010, they are going to expand the capacity of the taking off and landing to 177,000 times and enlarge major facilities so that they could handle 18.64 million passengers, a year.

Unfortunately, travel between Jeju and North America are not the most convenient. Most itineraries will require either changing airports (likely in Seoul between Gimpo and Incheon), or spending a night in some other city. Your best bet is to try to sandwich the flight to Jeju between time in other cities in Asia.

By boat

Ferry services from the mainland are also available. They are comparatively infrequent and slow however are reasonable value after factoring in accommodation savings made on overnight ferries. There are daily services from a number of ports:

• Busan Mon–Sat, 11 hours overnight, 7pm departure both to and from Jeju port. Third class (sleeping on the floor) W39,000, second class bed in a small shared room W53,000, and first class also available. For return journeys you must buy two single tickets (no discounts) and tickets can be brought at the ferry terminal up to the day of departure providing there is availability. The boat contains a restaurant, bar and small shop.
• Mokpo (5.5 hours, from W19,950)
• Incheon (12 hours).

Jeju port has six direct sailing routes employing twelve ships weighting 600 to 5,600 tons. They operate ships six times a week between major local ports including Busan and Incheon with a capacity of carrying 2,401,000 passengers a year. 6% of total travelers are coming in and out of Jeju by sea.

Buses and Taxis are the main method of public transportation. While taxis rate is reasonable, the island is large enough that the fares can add up.

Some locals prefer bicycles to cars especially in areas outside of the Jeju-shi metropolitan area. There are places that rent bikes.

Car hire is a good option to see the island's many sights. Hiring a taxi for the day costs about Kw 100 000, but the driver will likely not speak much English, so have the hotel write down the itinerary ahead. Alternatively, hiring an English-speaking tour guide costs about Kw 200 000, plus car expenses (about Kw 50 000 for up to 3 people so a private car can be used, more than that requires a van and a separate driver).

Jeju is also probably the only place in Korea that renting a car makes sense.

Most ATMs on Jeju do not accept foreign ATMs for cash withdrawls; most of the few that do are located in the city of Jeju. So get all the cash you can at the airport, especially if you are not staying in Jeju City.

• One Jeju specialty is brown colored clothing. These have been dyed via juice from the persimmon fruit, which is the traditional way of dying clothing.

• The stone statues, usually in pairs, are called grandfather statues and are for protection. Many places sell small stone replicas of them made of of Jeju volcanic stone.

• Shop at Jeju Folk Arts Complex. This place is practically a big gift shop of beautiful traditional art. Prices of items at the Jeju Folk Arts Complex are cheaper than those you find elsewhere.

The people of Jeju have evolved various lifestyles, depending on whether they live in fishing villages, farm villages, or mountain villages. Life in the farm villages was centered on farming, as it did around fishing or diving fishery in fishing villages, and did around dry-field farming or mushroom/mountain-green gathering in the mountain areas. As for agriculture, the production of rice is little. Instead, beans, barley, millets, buckwheat, and dry-field(upland) rice are the major items.

The most well known fruit is the mandarin orange. It has been grown here as early as the era of the Three Kingdoms. Mandarin orange, were offered as presents to kings along with abalone as special products of Jeju. Pork from black-haired pigs is also a local specialty.

Foods from Jeju mainly made with saltwater fish, vegetables, and seaweed, and are usually seasoned with soybean paste. Salt water fish is used to make soups and gruels, and pork and chicken are used to make pyeonyuk (sliced boiled meat). The number of dishes set on a table is small. And few seasoings are used. And usually, small numbers of ingredients are required to make dishes native to Jeju. The key to making Jeju-style foods is to keep the ingredient's natural flavor. The taste of the food is generally a bit salty, probably because foods are easily spoiled due to the warm temperature. In Jeju, there is no need to prepare Kimchi for the winter. It is quite warm during the winter and Chinese cabbages are left in the field. When they do prepare Kimchi for the winter, they tend to make few kinds and small amounts.