Korean mud fest

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For the Geo Quiz, we’re visiting a mud fest. This week, a beach in South Korea is holding its 12th annual mud festival.

It attracts people from all around Korea — locals and foreigners alike. The only requirement is a willingness to get… well… covered in mud.

“Its quite smooth and soft and slippery, and once you get dirty, you just want to get more dirty you know, haha”

We want you to name the Korean beach that hosts this muddy summer ritual. It’s in the city of Boryeong on the shores of the Yellow Sea.

Our Geo Quiz today asked you to name a beach in South Korea that hosts an annual mud festival. Reporter Jason Strother visited the seaside city of Boryeong just in time for the festival.

“So I’m standing here on Daecheon beach, on South Korea’s west coast. I am surrounded by hundreds of people all caked in grey mud. But I’m going to try to not get too dirty myself.”

The mud doesn’t actually come from Daeceheon Beach. It’s dredged up from marshes an hour away and trucked to Boryeong where its put to some unique uses. There’s a mud slide, a mud obstacle marathon, and later this week one lucky man will be named Mr. Mud.

Under banners reading self-massage, there are several large mud-filled tubs where tourists apply the mud themselves or have a close friend do it for them.

Couple, both are in Korean:

“F: We really enjoy putting mud on our bodies.
M: Yeah, its good”

And perhaps because you can consume alcohol on the beach in South Korea, the mud festival at times seems to resemble something like a big dirty frat party.

A co-ed group of mud lovers is practicing take-downs in a big puddle. Judith Glancy stumbles to her feet after getting body slammed.

Jason: “How do feel, you just got rolled around in the mud, you’re covered in mud and sand and really filthy?”
Judith: “I feel like I am 8 years old again, playing with my brothers and sisters, you know I feel like I am home again.”
Jason: (sounding a bit snarky) And where was home exactly?”

Turns out, Ontario, Canada.

Its not that only foreigners are getting in on the action here, there are plenty of Koreans all caked up with mud too. The foreigners just seems to be a bit more boisterous about it.

As for 42 year old Pyun Jun Tae, who grew up not far from Boryeong, the mud festival is a great occasion to bring his wife and two young children out to the beach.

He says he’s been plastering himself with mud since he was a kid. And says it’s good for his skin. Because of these alleged health benefits, mud has put Boryeong on the map. That’s according to the city’s tourism manager Oh Mu Hyun.

Boryeoung’s mud is rich with magnesium, minerals and bentonite. Oh says. If you compare it with mud from the Red Sea in Israel, it’s is just as good.

Boryeong produces its own brand of mud-based cosmetics and promotes them abroad. Later this month, mud will be packed up and brought to China, where another mud festival will be held.

Tourism manager Oh Mu Hyun says there are also plans to put on their mud show in California someday.

For the World, I’m Jason Strother at the Boryeong Mud Festival, South Korea