Two Days of Sea-Wind-Dried Fish Wrapped in Seaweed: Pohang’s Guryongpo Gwamegi Festival and the Camellia Alley

Featured photo: Rows of gwamegi drying in the winter sea wind at a Guryongpo stall. Photo: david&alina / Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

On the first weekend of November, on Ara Plaza in front of Guryongpo Harbor in Pohang, people wrap this season’s first gwamegi, chewy fish dried in the winter sea wind, in napa cabbage and seaweed and eat it in one bite. When they’re full, they climb the alley stairs where the drama “When the Camellia Blooms” was filmed and look down over the East Sea.

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Guryongpo Gwamegi Festival 2026 at a glance

Dates	Saturday, November 7 to Sunday, November 8, 2026 (the 27th festival)
Venue	Guryongpo Ara Plaza and surroundings, Guryongpo-eup, Nam-gu, Pohang
Opening	5 p.m. on Saturday, November 7
Shows	Trot concerts with Na Sang-do on the 7th and Jeon Min-jeong and Hyeon-song on the 8th, plus a local singing contest
Hands-on	Gwamegi wraps, gwamegi gimbap, peeling gwamegi skin, guess-the-weight, a gwamegi quiz, a prize wheel
For kids	A picture-fishing zone, face painting, balloon art, a kids’ area
Food	Discounted fresh gwamegi and free tastings, a seaside gwamegi pocha, food trucks, a flea market
Admission	Past editions were free outdoor events; no ticketing has been announced for 2026
Organizer	Pohang Guryongpo Gwamegi Business Cooperative, sponsored by Pohang City and the city council

Also read: That Golden "Forest" Is a Single Tree: Wonju's 1,300-Year-Old Bangyeri Ginkgo and the Sogeumsan Suspension Bridge

Top 10 ways to enjoy the Guryongpo Gwamegi Festival

1. Taste this season’s gwamegi at harbor prices and take some home

Gwamegi is Pohang’s winter delicacy: Pacific saury (herring in the old days) dried in the cold sea wind, freezing and thawing again and again until it turns chewy and rich. Guryongpo alone has 156 registered producers, and last season they made 3,206 tons (Dae Han Economy, October 16, 2026). At the festival you taste the year’s first gwamegi and buy it for less than in shops. It’s chewy, with a glossy layer of fat.

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2. Make a “gwamegi ssam” with cabbage, seaweed and scallions

There’s a set way to eat it. Lay napa cabbage on fresh sea mustard or dried seaweed, add a piece of gwamegi with scallion, garlic and chili, and dip it in chogochujang, a sweet-sour chili sauce. At the wrap-making booth, just copy the locals’ hands.

3. The drying racks and peeling gwamegi skin

Along the Guryongpo shore, racks hung with long rows of drying gwamegi line the waterfront. At the festival you peel the silver skin off dried gwamegi yourself and try to guess its weight.

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4. The costume contest at 3:30 p.m. on the 7th

Ten to fifteen teams dressed as snow crabs, gwamegi, Homigot’s “Hand of Harmony” and the Guryongpo lighthouse take the Ara Plaza stage. First prize is a two-night stay at a Guryongpo pension (worth 1 million won, about $755), and every entrant gets a set of gwamegi. Sign up through the QR code on the poster.

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5. Trot concerts and the singing contest

Na Sang-do of “Mr. Trot 2” headlines the opening stage on the 7th, and Jeon Min-jeong and Hyeon-song take the stage on the 8th, with a residents’ singing contest and the gwamegi quiz in between. If you want to see the joy of a Korean small-town festival, don’t miss the evening stage.

6. A drink by the sea at the gwamegi pocha

Pohang City says it’s opening a gwamegi pocha (a tented street bar) with the feel of a seaside night market this year. It’s the place for gwamegi with makgeolli or soju while you watch the harbor lights. Food trucks and a food market set up alongside.

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7. The Guryongpo Japanese House Street and the Camellia stairs

Five minutes’ walk from the festival is an alley lined with wooden houses where Japanese fishermen lived in the 1920s and 30s. Camellia, Dong-baek’s bar in the drama “When the Camellia Blooms,” was filmed here, and the hillside stairs give you all of Guryongpo Harbor in one view. Many of the old shops are now cafes and gift shops.

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8. The Guryongpo Gwamegi Culture Center

Near the Japanese House Street, a culture center shows the history of gwamegi and how it’s made (4.3 on Google Maps). The festival also puts on a gwamegi history exhibit.

9. Morinaguksu and snow crab

The meal Guryongpo locals actually eat is morinaguksu: fish, seafood, bean sprouts and knife-cut noodles boiled in a big pot with chili powder until hot and spicy, shared by the table. From November, snow crab season also starts at Guryongpo Market.

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10. Sunrise at Homigot’s “Hand of Harmony”

About 20 minutes by car. At Homigot, the eastern tip of the Korean Peninsula, a giant bronze hand rises out of the sea, and people gather before dawn to watch the sun come up between its fingers. The National Lighthouse Museum is right next door.

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Getting there

Guryongpo is about 24 km southeast of downtown Pohang. A day trip from Seoul works, but to catch the evening stage and the Homigot sunrise the next morning, spend a night in Guryongpo or Pohang.

From Myeongdong (central Seoul hotels)

1. Subway Line 4 from Myeongdong Station to Seoul Station: about 5 minutes, about $1.
2. KTX from Seoul Station to Pohang Station: 15 to 17 trains a day, 2 hours 20 to 30 minutes, 53,200 won (about $40).
3. Pohang Station to Guryongpo: about 40 minutes by taxi, or a city bus bound for Guryongpo from the station or downtown.

From Incheon Airport

1. Airport bus from Terminal 1 or 2 to Pohang Intercity Bus Terminal: about 10 a day, about 5 hours, 50,300 won (about $38).
2. Pohang terminal to Guryongpo: city bus or about 35 minutes by taxi.
3. The KTX is faster: take the AREX airport railroad from Incheon Airport Station to Seoul Station (about an hour), then follow the Myeongdong route from step 2.

Where to eat (gwamegi, morinaguksu, snow crab; Google ratings checked November 2, 2026)

Restaurant	What	Google rating	Location
Moa Gwamegi	Gwamegi	5.0	18 Yongju-ro, Guryongpo-eup
Pohang Guryongpo Gwamegi	Gwamegi	4.5	401 Samjeong-ri, Guryongpo-eup
Malbong Morinaguksu	Morinaguksu	4.7	Guryongpo-eup
Yurim Sikdang	Morinaguksu	4.3	Guryongpo-eup
Suni-ne Morinaguksu	Morinaguksu	4.2	60 Guryongpo-gil
Jaeseong Hoe Daege Sikdang	Snow crab, sashimi	4.3	Guryongpo-eup
Daege Nara	Snow crab	4.2	162 Homi-ro, Guryongpo-eup
Bada Punggyeong Mulhoe Daege	Cold raw fish soup, snow crab	4.2	Guryongpo-eup

• Gwamegi is sold by the “durum” (20 pieces). If you’re worried about the fishy taste, wrap it with plenty of seaweed, cabbage and scallion.
• Snow crab prices change daily with weight and market rate. Ask the price per kilogram before you order.

Where to stay (Google Maps rates checked November 2, 2026; festival weekend runs higher)

Stay	Type, rating	From, per night	Area
Grami Hotel Guryongpo	Hotel, 5.0	from $51 (about 68,000 won)	Guryongpo
Hotel 701	3-star hotel, 4.7	from $66 (about 88,000 won)	Guryongpo
Beached Whale	Guesthouse, 4.4	from $67 (about 89,000 won)	Guryongpo
Starscape Pool Villa	Pool villa, 4.7	from $96 (about 127,000 won)	Guryongpo
Querencia Pool Villa	Pool villa, 4.7	from $145 (about 192,000 won)	Guryongpo

• If Guryongpo fills up, stay in downtown Pohang (30 to 40 minutes by car).

Pohang hosts its International Fireworks Festival on November 19–21, and the next winter festival in this series follows as soon as it’s announced.

Sources

• 2026 dates, venue, opening and programs: Straight News, Pohang City official Instagram @pohang_official (November 2026)
• Guryongpo Market clean-up: Daekyung Ilbo
• Production and producer numbers: Dae Han Economy, Gyeongbuk briefing, October 16, 2026
• KTX and airport bus: Korail and Incheon Airport bus timetables (checked November 2, 2026)
• Ratings and room rates: Google Maps (November 2, 2026)
• Photos: Wikimedia Commons (licenses on each photo); Instagram official embeds
• Currency conversion: about 1,325 won per dollar, rounded.