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THE WORLD'S GINSENG CAPITOL
PAGE 3 OF 5
A crowd gathers for the opening of the Kumsan Ginseng Festival |
As we drove into town we could see banners hanging from telephone poles and pockets of brightly dressed celebrants heading towards the main square for the Nonbyokkung or rain ceremony which open the festivities with a colorful parade and ritual invocations to the Gods for rain. While our group dispersed through the crowd, cameras clicking, a bevy of local beauties sweated under the hot country sun for the start of the Miss Ginseng Beauty Queen Contest.
I guess the Gods were listening because after lunch -- another ginseng infused meal called samgyet-ang, a soupy stew of chicken boiled so that the silky pieces of meat melt off the bone -- the clouds opened up and it started to rain cats and dogs. We ducked into an herbal medecinal market and spent the next hour sipping ginseng tea and ginseng wine while chatting with shopkeepers. After a while our collective heads were buzzing from the overdose of ginseng and since the muddy village streets were still flooding, everyone eventually followed me across the street to a dingy corner store where we bought chips and beer and watched "Lois and Clark" dubbed in Corean. While Mr. Park and his trio worried about our exposure to this unscripted scenario, the rest of us enjoyed the spontaneous break. I find that these odd unplanned moments are often the ones one remembers most vividly.
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Our afternoon stops were cancelled due to the rain and so when it finally cleared we were allowed 45 minutes of "free time" to check out the festival's music shows and street theatre, as well as the vast of array of Corean cuisine. To our hosts' dismay, however, most of our group ended up watching a fire eating drag queen whose act consisted of pyrotechnic stunts in between pulling his pants down and mooning the crowd. This was definitely not on the state-sponsored itinerary.
We drove to a rustic restaurant in the countryside for a dinner hosted by the Governor of Kumsan County who welcomed us with individual gift boxes of candied/honeyed ginseng. By now the group was very loose and cracking jokes like there was no tomorrow. After a hearty meal of bulghogi (barbecued beef) we rode back to Taejon (1+ hours) and crashed around 10:30pm.
The next morning we were back on the road to Kumsan, stopping by a ginseng farm to learn - surprise! - that "Korean ginseng is the best in the world. Red ginseng is better than white! Koreans have been growing ginseng for 1500 years!"
Our next stop was a brief photo op at Kaesan'to, the reputed residence of Kang, the farmer who originally discovered ginseng about 1,500 years ago. According to legend, Kang's mother fell deathly ill and, no matter what folk remedy he tried, only got worse. One night he had a dream in which a mountain God told him, "A plant with red berries grows on the rock face of the nearby mountain Kwa-num-bong Peak. Boil the root and offer the broth to your mother." Kang did, his mother recovered completely and the farmers of Kumsan have grown ginseng ever since. The Kumsan Ginseng Festival derives from the ceremony that the farmers held annually to celebrate the start of ginseng cultivation and to pray for a bumper harvest.
Girls push SK Telecom service in a very crowded PCS market |
Our next stop was the Korea Red Ginseng Plant. Described as the biggest ginseng factory in the Orient, it appeared to be just another dusty building whose entrance and foyer were devoid of people. After, yes, steps 1, 2 and 3, we were led on a tour of the "working" factory. We followed the blue - coated tour guide down the deserted halls until we paused by a glass window separating us from a table of fresh-faced young women with heavy make up quietly packing ginseng into boxes. The rest of the factory was empty. Gesturing to the twenty-something ginseng girls, our guide explained that they looked so young and had such beautiful skin because they took ginseng twice a day. Our group exchanged bemused glances -- our immediate thoughts being that they look young and have beautiful skin because they ARE young!
"Actually," quipped Thierry from Belgium, "They are 90 years old."
"Actually," replied someone else, "they are men!"
Before reboarding the bus, we were given copies of a book about ginseng titled Mysterious Korean Ginseng Has These Effects. We quickly skimmed past the first few chapters ("How to Overcome Cancer", "Now It Is High Time We Need Ginseng") and jumped right to Chapters 7 & 8 ("Is Ginseng A Sexual Stamina Medicine" and "Confirming Its Effects Of Boosting Sexual Stamina" respectively).
Chapter 7 opened with the following wisdom:
There are two main desires for men in life. One is appetite and another is sexual desire... So they say there are two traps to be watched in life and one is beneath nose and another is beneath belly button.PAGE 4
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"Boil the root and offer the broth to your mother." |