Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha | Wolpo Beach — The Shoes the Tide Took First

Wolpo is a nine-hundred-metre shelf of pale sand on Pohang's northern shore. The name means moon-harbour. The water stays shallow a long way out. On a weekday the beach can hold three people and a lifeguard chair. Surfers come on days off the way Hong Du-sik does in the first episode, in a suit that does not belong to a village handyman.

Hye-jin loses a pair of expensive shoes to this tide. The meeting that follows is clumsy on purpose. VisitKorea and the Pohang tourism office both name Wolpo as Gongjin Beach and give the address as 2308 Haean-ro, Cheongha-myeon. A gold crescent now stands on the promenade with the characters for Wolpo cut into the stone beside it. The sculpture is newer than the drama. The sand is not.

Walk from the public lot down to the wet line. The East Sea here is the same colour in every season. You do not need the shoes. You need the stretch of beach the cameras could not invent.

Photo: public Wolpo Beach promenade sculpture, Pohang.