Uncontrollably Fond | Gyeongpo Beach — Color Frames on the East Sea

Gangneung keeps the photograph on the sand. Not a still from the cut. A frame you walk into.

Gyeongpo Beach runs at 514 Changhae-ro in Gangmun-dong, a long pale shore with a pine belt behind it and the East Sea in front. Travel notes from the years after Uncontrollably Fond aired treat the colored picture frames on this beach as the local pilgrimage mark for Kim Woo-bin and Bae Suzy's drama. The frames have been rebuilt more than once. The waterline has not moved.

You do not need a ticket. You walk off Changhae-ro onto the sand and the sea fills the rectangle. A lighthouse sits on the horizon on a clear day. Behind you, Gyeongpo Lake and Gyeongpodae Pavilion hold the older Gangneung circuit. The drama used the beach the way Gangneung always uses it: as a place to stand and look east.

Put your face in the frame and let the swell do the rest. That is the shot the city kept after the crew left.

Photo: Gyeongpo Beach photo frame, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons