There are a lot of things that people do at the beach in Korea that are a little bit different than you'd see at home. Firstly, 95% of the people wear their clothes in the water. By clothes, we don't mean just a t-shirt and shorts. People wear jeans, hoodies, pullovers, visors, bandanas over their faces, protective arm sleeves, dress shirts and dress pants into the water! You'd feel like an idiot in your swimming trunks.


Busan Haeundae Beach, South Korea

A typical picture of a friends on a Korean beach looks like this: everyone is wearing long shorts, a t-shirt, a big fat hat and sunglasses. A few hot chicks wear a bikini and a few hot guys go in a Speedo, but it is very rare.

Koreans don’t want to get tanned. They’re afraid of skin cancer, but they also just don’t want their skin to get darker. A lot of Koreans, especially women, don’t feel comfortable showing their body in public.

Two men can totally share a sweet moment together, having a snack under a parasol without even being gay. Back home they'd be chasing women to prove their masculinity but here, they even rub lotion on each other and it's perfectly normal.


Enjoy this video from Haeundae beach in Pusan where most of the people keep their clothes on while playing in the sea. During the public holidays in South Korea, the beaches can get overwhelmingly overcrowded.

This annual event takes place around mid July in Boryeong, South Korea. The first Mud Festival was staged in 1998 and by 2010 attracted over a million visitors.

The mud is dug up near Boryeong, trucked to Daecheon beach, and dumped at the "Mud Experience Land". It is considered rich in minerals and used to manufacture cosmetics.

Some of the final weekend participants are foreign tourists, and especially American Soldiers, but most of the participants during the week are Koreans, attracted by clever marketing by the town.

The town council discovered that the mud is more lucrative as a tourist attraction than using the muddy fields for agriculture.

The economy generated from the festival supports the many hotels and restaurants along the waterway and several blocks inland. There is also a great deal to see and do in the vicinity and a free tourist bus takes visitors to local sites, including an impressive coal mine and a famous Buddhist shrine.

History of the Festival

In 1996, scientists invented 16 different kinds of cosmetics made of mud from the Boryeong mud flats. Boryeong mud cosmetics were full of minerals, bentonites, and germaniums compared with other foreign products. These elements in the Boryeong mud cosmetics were officially announced to be useful to the skin. By 2004, the products were also acknowledged by the FDA.

In order to promote this product worldwide, the people of Boryeong area created the Boryeong Mud Festival. This way people would learn more about the mud and the cosmetics while having a lot of fun. As the festival attracted many tourists, the Boryeong Mud Festival was chosen as one of the major festivals by the South Korean government in 2010.

Main Attractions

Various activities and events are always prepared for the Boryeong Mud Festival that provide fun and excitement for the visitors. There is a huge mud pool, a wild mud wrestling competition, mud sliding, mud dungeon, mud training, and a mud skiing competition Coloured mud is available for body painting, and there are games for couples to play. You may want to go to the health care center, where you can have different kinds of mud massage and acupuncture.

Also, 78 small and big islands cover the shore along the mud flat, making the scenery more romantic and beautiful. Lovers and families can come to play and enjoy, but also have a romantic night at the sea shore.

Benefit to the local economy

Boryeong city has gained much tourist and attention from this mud festival. The city has been promoting this festival globally, and the people of the city have been helping out too, by working as a tour guide around the city. It is unbelievable how the Boryeong Mud Festival uplifted the local economy.