Chungcheonbuk-do, Suanbo-myeon - Suanbo Oncheon (Hot Spring)

Suanbo is a large tourist spot in North Chungcheong province known for it's hot spring bathing and skiing. There are many hotels and activities in this area, and it's restaurants specialize in rabbit, duck, and pheasant meals. This is a beautiful place to be during the cherry blossom season in springtime or of course in fall or winter when you're looking for a nice outdoor warm-up. With fall coming soon, I thought I'd introduce you to the Suanbo Hot Spring area.

In fact, I'm just in time to tell you about the annual Hot Spring Festival! It's held each year in the fall, while the weather is perfect for both enjoying time outdoors and warming up in the evening in a nice hot bath.

• Event Name: 2010 Korea Great Hot Spring Festival
• Event Dates: October 6th (Wed) ~ 10th (Sun), 2010 (5 days)
• Ceremony locations: 
• First event space - Suanbo Mul-tang Park 
• Second event space - Angseong Hot Spring (Oncheon) Plaza

• 축제명 : 2010 대한민국온천대축제
• 축제일정 : 2010.10.6일(수)~10.10일(일) 5일간
• 개최장소：
• 제 1 행사장-수안보 물탕공원 
• 제 2 행사장 - 앙성온천광장

Click here for more information on the festival.


The only problem is that Suanbo is a bit tricky to get to if you aren't driving. It's not near any of the rail lines I would say the best way to get here would be to reach Daejeon (from the west/south-west), Jochiwon (from the north), or even Andong (from the south-east) by train, then get a bus to Suanbo. This is because I'm just not sure how often a more direct bus route may be available from many parts of the country. If you're coming from Gyeonggi Province or near Seoul, it's possible there is a bus directly to Suanbo.

I'll be visiting this spa area for the first time during the Hot Spring Festival. Hope to see you there!

충북 충주시 수안보면 온천리 191-1번지
043-846-3605

Wikimapia of Suanbo Hot Spring Area

Click title below for large map

Large map of detailed Suanbo area, showing many hotels and hot springs, as well as the Multang Park (English & Korean labels)

The Lingo

It occurred to me during the radio show I did recently that I could do to provide you all with a list of words and phrases commonly used in the sauna. I will put the English meaning first, then the Korean characters, lastly my best spelling in Roman characters for pronunciation.

Please keep in mind that there are standard romanizations but not everyone sticks to them and they may be different from what I provide, so if you see rominized Korean printed somewhere it may be slightly different. (Such as the spelling of jjimjilbang/zzimzilbang, jeon/jun, Busan/Pusan, and so on. A special note is that "u" really shouldn't be used since it could sould like either "eo" or "oo" but it's often used anyway.)



         English term           Korean term-Hangul         Pronunciation
GENERAL

bath	탕	tang
room	방, 실	bang, shil
men / men's~	남자 / 남~	nam-ja / nam~
women / women's~	여자 / 여~	yeo-ja / yeo~
bathing area	사우나	sa-oo-na
resting/clothed area (room)	찜질(방)	jjim-jil (bang)
hot (bath)	열(탕)	yeol (tang)
warm (bath)	온(탕)	ohn (long /o/) (tang)
cold (bath)	냉(탕)	neng (tang)
bathroom	화장실	hwa-jang-shil
resting area	휴게실	hyoo-gae-shil
traditional kiln sweating cave/room	불가마	bool-ga-ma
sleeping room	수면실	soo-myeon-shil
entrance	입구	ip goo
the way to the~	~가는 길	~ga neun gil

ITEMS

towel	수건	soo-geon
outfit for resting area	찜질복	jjim-jil-bok
key / locker key	열쇠 / 로커 키	yeol-sway / lo-kuh kee
shampoo	샴푸, 세발	sham-puh, sae-bal
conditioner	린스	rin-suh
soap	비누	bee-noo
toothpaste	치약	chee-yahk

SERVICES

body scrub	세신	sae-shin
cucumber*	오이	o-ee
massage	마사지	ma-sa-jee
oil massage	오일마사지	o-eel ma-sa-jee
aromatherapy massage	아로마마사지	a-ro-ma ma-sa-jee
foot / back massage	발 / 등 마사지	bal / deung ma-sa-jee

*Cucumber facial often accompanies the body scrub service for a small additional charge. It's totally worth it!




SPECIFIC ROOMS / BATHS

yellow soil (loess) room	황토방	hwang-to-bang
charcoal room	숯방 / 참숯방	soot-bang / cham-soot-bang
salt room	소금방	so-geum bang
jewelry room	보석방	bo-seok bang
ice room	아이스방 / 어름방	i-ee-suh bang / uh-reum-bang
forest room	산림욕방	san-lim-yok bang
pine room	소나무방	so-na-moo bang
oxygen room	산소방	san-so bang
artemesia (mugwort) bath	쑥 탕	sook tang
waterfall (massaging) bath	폭포 탕	pok-po tang
event* bath	이벤트 탕	ee-ben-tuh tang

*Event baths often feature a special herbal or mineral additive in the water.

Here's a link for some basic Korean phrases if you want more.


As always, if you have a request for further information or know something I've left out, please leave a comment below. Finally, I'm not perfect~ if I've made any mistakes in the above info, feel free to help me out!^^

Onyang Oncheon, Asan - Shinchuntang

During my visit to Asan, I also visited this lovely little sauna just up the street from the Hot Spring/ Tourist Hotel. There is no jjimjilbang here, and the sauna is limited to 5 baths and one dry sauna room. The baths are cool, hot, hotter, event, and massage. The event bath was unfortunately not filled when I visited, and I was disappointed by the temperature - I like hot water, but this place is just too hot to spend any amount of time in. I guess I should have expected it, the Onyang Oncheon area is well-known to be the hottest natural hot spring in Korea!

On the other hand, the massage bath was great. It's a waterfall style area with a shallow wading pool and small stools to perch on while your muscles are being pounded by the downpour. I waited in a short queue to get my time in this tub, and it was worth it. Also, the whole place smells AMAZING!

충남 아산시 온천1동 221-2
Chungcheongnam-do, Asan, Oncheon-1-dong 221-2
041-545-777

HOURS:
Open daily 5AM - 12AM (midnight)

RATES:
Enter from 5am-8pm (use from 5am til 12midnight that day)
Sauna: Adults 5,500   Students 8-18 years old 4,000   Children 1-7 years old 2,500

Wikimapia of Shinchungtang, Asan (if the building's not tagged, it's the one at the center cross-hairs.)
Shinchuntang website (I've been having trouble loading this page in the past~ good luck!)

My Recent Radio Guest Appearance

On Sunday June 6th, I was a guest on Let's Talk Busan, an evening talk program on Busan's 90.5 eFM. Luckily for me it was pre-recorded, but I was still nervous for my first on-air appearance. It went pretty well, as the show's new host Jeff Lebow is well-organized and comfortable on the air. He happens to be an acquaintance of mine as well, so that helped me to relax a bit more. The other guest was a woman I had just met, Val Hamer, who offered her interesting perspective from having lived in Japan for 7 years.

You can visit the Busan eFM website to view other shows and download the file, or listen to my Let's Talk Busan jjimjilbang show now!