This week in South Korea...

It's the start of summer! Busan is celebrating with a Sand Festival from 3rd to 6th June:
http://www.10mag.com/2011/05/haeundae-sand-festival/

and festivities across Korea celebrate Dano, one of the biggest celebrations of the calendar, when people traditionally came together to pray for a good harvest, and
http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=1031209

The Joongang Daily had this lovely photo of children having their hair washed for Dano!

With the start of summer comes the start also of the R-16 B-Boy Championships - one of my favourite events, where people come together from all over the world to dance some of the most incredible moves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8Ob8Rc9ZIU

I've just started following this blog where there's more info:

http://ellacino.blogspot.com/

In news of interest to travellers, Korean Air had the first flight of its superjumbo Airbus A380 which starts flying to Japan and Hong Kong in June, Bangkok in July, New York in August and Paris in September! It has 12 luxury first class seat and a whole upper deck of Prestige Business with lie-flat seats - and there's inflight shopping and a cocktail lounge! Asiana are also planning to introduce the A380 for European routes.

CNNGo.com had news of the 50 Reasons why Seoul is Asia's favourite city - not surprisingly, this is a popular hit!
http://www.cnngo.com/seoul/life/50-reasons-why-seoul-worlds-greatest-city-534720

And the Korean Cultural Centre in London embraced popular culture by hosting on 3rd June a second K-pop (Korean pop) event with free drinks and music, and crowds dancing late into the evening...

http://karmaent.co.uk/category/kpop-team/

It's not surprising that there is also news of the Korean Wave hitting European shores, then...
http://korea.net/news.do?mode=detail&guid=55755

With all this happening, it's a shame that what hits the mainstream press is North Korea's claim that it's the happiest place in the world. If you haven't already, read Barbara Demick's wonderful book 'Nothing to Envy' for a truer picture.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1393478/North-Korea-rated-the-happiest-places-Earth-survey--North-Korea.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Finally, I'd just like to say: CoolstuffKorea is here to spread the news that South Korea is an amazing country and you need to discover it! It’s nice that we have so many Korean friends too, but we want to reach out to British travellers in particular and introduce them to the wonders of South Korea. British travellers go everywhere – it’s time more of them explored South Korea! We want anyone who offers something of interest to British tourists – a tour, a place to stay, an event – to get in touch so we can share the information.

Thanks for reading! Have a great day.
CoolstuffKorea (aka Jennifer Barclay)