Korean Culture Explained: Life, History, Music & Language | NowHitz

Dec. 11, last public day (planned)

The pair were born on July 7, 2023 to Aibao and Lebao, the first twin pandas born in Korea. Each now weighs about 90 kg.

An international agreement requires pandas born abroad to go to China before they turn four. The last public day is only "scheduled", so it can shift with conditions on site.

Still on view during quarantine

From Nov. 13 they spend about a month in pre-departure wildlife quarantine at the Panda Second House. Unlike their older sister Fu Bao, who was quarantined out of sight, the twins will meet visitors in a limited way in the indoor yard of this fully separated facility.

Viewing hours and methods will follow the twins' health. No detailed timetable has been released yet.

Farewell programme

In November there is a keeper talk concert with keepers Kang Cheol-won and Song Young-gwan, built around growth videos that have never been shown. The date and how to apply will be announced.

On site there is also a screening of footage tracing the twins' growth, and keeper-shot film-camera clips will appear on social media one by one.

Before you go

The move to China is planned for the third week of December; the exact date and place will be set by temperature and local conditions. If you want to see them, plan for before Dec. 11.

The schedule can change, so check Everland's official notice again before you go.

10,000 won a table, 20,000 for charcoal

The self-BBQ zone is priced per table: 10,000 won for a gas-burner hotplate, 20,000 won for charcoal. Grill, reusable dishes, cooking tools, sauces and water come included.

Korean beef, pork and leaf vegetables are sold on site at special prices. Three sessions a day start at noon, 3 p.m. and 6 p.m., 2.5 hours each.

Booking is closed, walk-ins remain

Pre-booking ran twice, on Sept. 16 and Oct. 6, through Naver Reservation, and the city's page marks both as closed. Some seats are kept first-come, first-served for on-site visitors.

About 28,000 people came over two days last year. The city's tourism bureau chief said the event confirmed that K-BBQ can be "an attractive way for foreign tourists as well as citizens to experience Seoul."

Don't want to grill? Just eat

BBQ Village brings in seven Seoul meat restaurants, open 12:00 to 19:30. You pay at a kiosk and pick up your food.

BBQ Masters is a chef-led barbecue show, twice a day at 12:30 and 5:30 p.m. Herald Business reports that chefs from 'Culinary Class Wars' take part.

More than meat

The BBQ Stage runs gugak-meets-EDM sets, busking and a brass band from noon to 8 p.m. Seoro Market sells farm and regional products from 10 regions.

A Seoul-style kids cafe is free from 12:00 to 17:00. One report also mentions a meat discount for visitors with a receipt from nearby Mangwon Market.

Before you go

The official page lists no parking and recommends public transport. A shuttle (1,200 won a ride) leaves Digital Media City Station, Line 6, Exit 2; another route starts at Mangwon Hangang Park parking lot 1.

The organizers' office answers questions at 070-8789-5600 (10 a.m.-5 p.m., closed for lunch and holidays).

A line from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Twosome opened its first US store on Oct. 17 (local time) at 404 King Street in Old Town Alexandria. People were queuing before the 7 a.m. opening, and the line continued until the store closed at 8 p.m.

Some customers came from New York and Baltimore, Maryland, just for the cakes.

What sold best on day one

Among desserts, the spoon-eating 'Abak' and 'Seu-cho-saeng' cakes led the way. The black sesame latte and the Dalgona cream top were the top drinks.

Twosome says many customers paired a drink with dessert. Deli items such as the Brioche K-Toast and the Seoul Spicy Chicken Panini also did well.

80-plus items, whole cakes without a pre-order

The store is about 73 pyeong with 78 seats including an outdoor terrace, run as an all-day cafe with some 80 items across desserts, coffee, drinks and deli.

Korean flavors run through the menu: black sesame and injeolmi cakes, even a 'Korean Apple Cinnamon Tea' inspired by sujeonggwa. Whole cakes can be bought in store with no pre-order.

Next stop: the D.C. area

CEO Moon Young-joo said the queue that lasted until closing showed "more interest than expected," and that Twosome will use local feedback to refine the store.

The US stores are run by a local entity, with more planned across the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area.

Try them in Seoul first

Twosome started in Seoul, and its signature cakes are on sale in its Korean stores.

The day Hanjeongseon hit the shelves

Hanjeongseon is a chapssaltteok (sticky rice cake) dessert brand that made its name in Seongsu-dong. GS25 turned its signature yogurt-cream version into a frozen product on Sept. 3.

Before the official launch, 200 units each went on sale at a Gangnam store and Incheon Airport on Aug. 28. All 400 vanished early, and foreign shoppers at the airport bought some too.

A first-come race on the app

On GS25's 'Uri-dongne GS' app it keeps selling out, turning into a first-come online scramble. In under a month it was No. 1 in GS25's ice cream category.

Cumulative sales passed 500,000 units as of Sept. 20.

The freezer is on fire

It is not just rice cakes. GS25's sales of rice-cake products rose 312.6% from Jan. 1 to Sept. 20.

Emart24's frozen dessert sales rose 72% in the same stretch, and its 'Ice Sweet Potato Matang' hit No. 1 in frozen food right after launch.

Ice cream shaped like a carrot

CU's 'hyper-realism' ice creams that look like carrots, triangle kimbap and potatoes saw sales jump 107.7% in January to September. 7-Eleven's Japanese dessert 'Ohayo Brulee Milk' sold 350,000 units in 40 days.

7-Eleven's ice dessert sales are up 86% this year.

Why frozen?

An Emart24 official said, "As more customers look for new textures and unusual desserts, convenience-store desserts are expanding from chilled to frozen."

Longer shelf life also means stores throw away less, which helps explain the boom.

The No. 1 comeback request

Bokkeum Neoguri launched in 2017 and was discontinued in 2024. Fans did not let it go quietly.

Of all the relaunch requests Nongshim received over the past two years, this noodle drew the biggest share. Online searches rose from about 63,000 in 2024 to about 100,000 in January-August this year, according to AI analytics firm NuenAI.

What changed

The thick, chewy Neoguri noodles stay. The mussel and squid seafood flavor is stronger, and so is the heat.

It comes as bag noodles and cup noodles, and the cup version is designed for microwave cooking.

3,000 pre-order spots

Regular sales start on the 27th, but Nongshim Mall has taken pre-orders since the 14th, limited to 3,000 sets of 16 bags each.

The regular run is also limited in quantity.

Before you buy

If you want to be sure to get some, the Nongshim Mall pre-order is the surest route.

From the 27th, both the bag and cup versions go on sale in limited numbers for about a month through retail channels online and offline across the country. The cup version is cooked in the microwave rather than with poured-in hot water.

228,800 won, 1,700 bottles

Stores began selling it on Friday the 16th. The mobile app opened at 10 a.m. the same day. When the stock is gone, the sale is over.

The price is 228,800 won a bottle. Emart24 says it is the largest volume of Kimchangsoo Whisky it has secured for a single channel.

Four sherry casks, one bottle

Amontillado, Oloroso, Moscatel, Pedro Ximenez. The whisky was matured in four sherry casks with very different characters and blended, running from dry and deep to sweet and rich, over Kimchangsoo's signature soft peat.

It is bottled at cask strength, with no water added to bring the proof down: 52.2% ABV.

The two-minute precedent

In June Emart24 released 296 bottles of the single-cask 'Celestial Series Moon (Eclipse)' through the 'Bottle Order' function of its app. They sold out in under two minutes.

The 1,700-bottle run was sized on that reaction. The Gimpo series has come out once a year since 2023.

Before you buy

Store stock varies by branch. The app opened at 10 a.m. on launch day and sales stop when stock runs out, so check your nearest store or the app first.

Emart24 liquor MD Kim Si-hun said whisky buyers now care about story and scarcity as much as taste and quality.

A drink you inject

The drink riffs on Tomie, the character who keeps dividing. Syrup comes in a syringe-shaped container, and guests squeeze it into the ade themselves. Lotte World says the look and the hands-on bit have made it a hit.

The dessert is the 'Soichi Sundae': the nail-shaped chocolate that prankster Soichi always keeps in his mouth, stuck into ice cream. A cookie set printed with a key visual drawn by Ito himself is sold in limited quantities.

Uniform on, keyring clipped

Goods include a random sound-keycap keyring (one of four), a Tomie doll keyring and a school bag with a Tomie charm, all designed to pair with a school-uniform look.

You can borrow the outfit, too. The 1F Magic School costume room rents Tomie school uniforms, and the 2F Magic School makeup rooms run a character tattoo experience.

Where to take the photo

The third floor of Magic Castle has photo zones recreating signature episodes such as 'The Painter', open daily from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Behind the castle, the 'Ito Junji Photo Street' stitches original characters into a collage.

After dark, scenes from the works are projected onto the castle's outer wall.

An AR residence card instead of a charm

The AR quest 'Secret Invitation from a Strange World' has you collect map pieces around the park and finish a mission to earn a 'resident ID'. Scan the QR code across from the 1F carousel to start.

Before you go

The autumn festival 'Invitation to a Strange World' runs Sept. 12 to Nov. 15, and the Junji Ito collaboration runs Sept. 19 to Nov. 15 around Magic Island.

The ade and the cookie set are quantity-limited, so late afternoon may mean sold out. Photo zones close at 8:30 p.m., so get in earlier if you want the projection mapping.

It started at Busan port

Dosirac debuted in 1986 as Korea's first container noodle with a lid and a square tray. In the early 1990s, Russian sailors and traders traveling between Busan and Vladivostok began buying it by the crate.

It looked like their portable soup containers, its flat square base stayed put on a ship, and the spicy broth felt like Russian soup.

It stayed when everyone left

Paldo opened a Russian office in 1997. When Russia declared a moratorium the next year and most global companies pulled out, Paldo stayed and pushed into Siberia and the Urals.

Local factories followed in the 2000s. Dosirac now holds 60% of Russia's container-noodle market, according to Money Today.

A fork, and mayonnaise

Russians eat a lot of noodles on trains, so every product comes with a fork. That is a big reason it became a Trans-Siberian essential.

Russians' habit of stirring mayonnaise into the broth until it melts like cheese led to 'Dosirac Plus,' launched in 2012 with a mayo sachet.

Now it's a 'kingdom'

Paldo's Russian sales arm posted record revenue of KRW 500.9 billion for 2025 (Bizwatch). In February it set up a new entity, 'Dosirac CG,' with about KRW 10.6 billion (Asia Economy).

Now Nongshim is entering Russia too, pricing mid-range lines at around KRW 2,000 and premium from KRW 3,800.

Worth knowing

In 2014 Dosirac won Product of the Year from the Russian National Trade Association, a first for an instant noodle, and in 2021 it received 'well-known trademark' status from Russia's patent office, a first for a Korean company.

The Russian lineup differs from the Korean one, with chicken, pork, mushroom and shrimp flavors for local tastes.

A treasure box gone in a day

Lotte Chilsung launched Captain Q in 1980, a rum-based Korean liquor. It was discontinued in 2015 and is back after about a decade. The bottle, cap and label look exactly as before; the liquid has been improved.

The 'Captain Q Treasure Box' package released on Oct. 14 sold through its prepared stock in a day. Hankyung reports 12,000 limited sets, and 1,980 of them, a nod to 1980, include a 1.5-don pure-silver coin.

300,000 app searches

Between Oct. 9 and 16, Seven-Eleven app users searched for 'Captain Q' more than 300,000 times, 15% of all stock-finder searches. Not soju, not beer: one old bottle took over the search bar.

The folk saying that you stay hung over for two days has only added to the buzz, with parents' memories and young shoppers' curiosity meeting on the same shelf.

Taegeukdang bread rides the same wave

GS25 teamed up with Taegeukdang, the Seoul bakery founded in 1946. Its Butter Cream Bread, released on Oct. 14, ranked No. 1 in sales among about 70 chilled dessert breads. Oranda Bread and Mini Mammoth Bread followed on Oct. 16.

Seven-Eleven says its nurungji and yakgwa snacks (three kinds) and a hallabong-cream snack have sold more than 150,000 units since late September.

The 'newtro' numbers

Seven-Eleven's whisky and liquor sales rose 15% year on year from Jan. 1 to Oct. 16. Products under KRW 20,000 rose 25%, beating the overall growth rate.

Song Seung-bae, Seven-Eleven's beverage and liquor MD, said shoppers increasingly buy "the history and story of a product along with the product."

Before you buy

Regular sales start on Oct. 21: a 360ml, 35% ABV bottle at KRW 9,900. From Oct. 21 to 31, paying with Woori Card takes 20% off, a perk Seven-Eleven says only it offers among the three big chains.

The Treasure Box is already gone. The app's stock finder is the quickest way to check a nearby store.

Cabbage at 6,256 won, radish at +33%

As of Oct. 6, a head of cabbage retailed at 6,256 won, down 6.5% from a year earlier. Good weather is expected to lift fall cabbage output by more than 19%.

Radish went the other way: 2,778 won each, up nearly 33%. Maeil Shinmun and YTN reported the same figures.

The seasoning aisle is the real test

Salted shrimp (saeujeot) rose over 23% to 18,973 won per kg, and peeled garlic climbed almost 25% to 11,789 won per kg. Cheaper cabbage does not offset a pricier filling.

The government discount is 20%, capped at 10,000 won per person per week; traditional markets get 30%.

More people buy their kimjang ready-salted

The share of households making kimchi at home fell 2.2 points to 62.3%. Among cabbage buyers, 58.9% pick pre-salted cabbage.

Lotte Mart's first pre-order round priced 20kg at 29,900 won for Haenam (event card), 35,900 won for Goesan and 59,900 won for Pyeongchang highland. E-Mart's contract-grown salted cabbage is 27,800 won with a card discount. Lotte Mart's first batch sold out early.

A UNESCO-listed day of making it together

Kimjang was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013. The listing recognises families and neighbours making large batches in late autumn to last through winter, and sharing them.

Which is why rising prices rarely empty the kimchi tubs.

Dates to mark before you buy

The second salted-cabbage pre-order round opens Oct. 23 at the three big marts. The government's kimchi-vegetable supply plan is due Oct. 25, and pickup of pre-orders starts Nov. 5.

Peak kimjang in the capital area and Chungcheong is mid-to-late November, when cabbage and radish discounts begin.

Even the name is a perfect fit

Anseongmatchum Market carries the idiom 'anseongmatchum' (a perfect fit) right in its name. The organisers say the phrase comes from Joseon-era Anseong brassware, made to match what the customer ordered.

The old book Anseong Giryak records that Anseong brassware was famous and well made, and that the word 'Anseongmachim' spread across the country (Kyeonggi Ilbo, 2021).

Six evenings, Fridays and Saturdays, from 5 p.m.

'Ohssak Night Market in Anseongmatchum Market' runs Oct. 23-24, 30-31 and Nov. 6-7, Fridays and Saturdays, 5-9 p.m. Halloween itself, Saturday Oct. 31, is included.

Project director Park Jin-seok says the aim is to add a Halloween twist to a market that used to go quiet after dark.

Eat, make, collect candy

There are five zones. The food zone serves signature dishes, the experience zone offers face painting and a Halloween photo zone, and in the handmade zone you make your own spooky bag to take home.

Kids have one mission: trick-or-treat. Photograph two photo spots in the market, shout the phrase and you get candy and jelly. Market association head Ko Se-young says the barbecue zone plans to sell Anseong hanbon pork at a very low price.

Costumed visitors take the stage

The night stage opens with a performance, moves on to busking and ends with the costume contest, where visitors in Halloween outfits go on stage themselves.

Ahead of the event, Anseong Fire Station and merchants held a joint fire drill, and an MOU with CESCO brought sanitation and pest control to every zone of the market.

Before you go

It runs only Fridays and Saturdays, 5-9 p.m. Event inquiries: 070-8015-6350.

If you're curious about the brassware behind the idiom, the city-run Anseongmatchum Museum (Daeduk-myeon, opened 2002) covers it. Museum by day, market by night works.

Start with the numbers

At CU, hot-pack sales for Oct. 1-7 rose 400.3% from the previous week. Hot bread was up 133.2% and roasted sweet potato up 56.1%.

Seven-Eleven saw hot packs rise 1,700%, fish cake 168% and roasted sweet potato 86%.

Who started how early

Seven-Eleven has sold roasted sweet potato and six fish-cake items since Sept. 14 and added hoppang on Oct. 7. CU brought in steamers on Oct. 6 for red bean, sweet potato, vegetable and pizza hoppang.

GS25 moved its instant fish cake up about two weeks from last year, with six items made with Busan's Goraesa Eomuk. Emart24 began roasted sweet potato in September and widened hoppang in October.

Not just fish cake: clothes too

CU is rolling out 19 winter apparel items in October, from thermal socks to fleece jackets and lightweight padded jackets. Emart24 has stretched its winter apparel and accessories to 20 items and added lightweight padding for the first time.

The industry points to shorter springs and autumns. The nearby convenience store now covers seasonal clothing, not just daily goods.

To keep warm

- Start dates and menus differ by store. Check the machines first. - CU's hoppang splits into meal types (vegetable, pizza) and snack types (red bean, sweet potato). - Cold-weather gear sells out first in an early cold snap. Buy early if you need it.