Experience the best of Pyeongchang

Pyeongchang lies high in the Taebaek mountains, a long range that runs down the east of the Korean peninsula. The county's valleys and plateaus are cold in winter, with heavy snowfall, and cool in summer. Farming villages grow buckwheat and mountain vegetables on the slopes.

The venues of the 2018 Winter Games are spread through the county, in the Alpensia resort area and the nearby mountains, and the area is still a centre for winter sport. The Yongpyong ski resort is one of the best-known in the country. Odaesan National Park has forested mountains and Woljeongsa, a Buddhist temple complex with old halls among the trees.

Buckwheat is the speciality here, and memil-guksu, cold buckwheat noodles, and memil-jeon, buckwheat pancakes, appear on many menus. In early autumn the buckwheat fields around Bongpyeong flower white, the setting of a well-known short story by Lee Hyo-seok. Hwangtae, wind-dried pollock from the Daegwallyeong pass, is another local product. Winter is cold and dry, with the ski season running from December to March, and autumn colour is at its best in October.