Hello, this is 속초어때 (Sokcho Eottae). As of 1 p.m. on Monday, September 14, Sokcho (속초) is 23°C under partly cloudy skies. Today's high is 24°C and the low is 20°C, with a 69% chance of rain, making it an awkward day to leave your umbrella behind entirely. At sea, the water temperature is 23.7°C and the wave height is 0.4 m — among the calmest days we have had recently.
But the first piece of news to catch up on in Sokcho today is neither the weather nor the sea. It is that, starting today, Sokcho City has launched a bonus thank-you gift event for Hometown Love donations. The period runs from September 14 to 30, and it is open to the first 500 people. And there is one slightly ironic condition attached: anyone whose resident registration is in Sokcho cannot take part. In other words, it is a benefit only for out-of-towners who love Sokcho and come often.
The math: you send 100,000 KRW and 150,000 KRW comes back
The Hometown Love donation system gives you both a tax credit and a thank-you gift when you donate to a local government other than the one where you are registered. Stacking the numbers up one by one, it works out like this.
- 100,000 KRW tax credit — donations up to 100,000 KRW are 100% tax-deductible. Since you get it back in full at year-end tax settlement, your money effectively never leaves your pocket.
- 30,000 KRW basic gift — you receive local specialty products worth up to 30% of your donation. Donate 100,000 KRW and that is 30,000 KRW worth.
- 20,000 KRW bonus gift — under this Chuseok event, from today through the 30th, the first 500 people who donate 100,000 KRW or more and also complete an order for an eligible gift get another 20,000 KRW worth on top.
So the gift alone grows from 30,000 KRW to 50,000 KRW, and once the tax credit is added in, you send 100,000 KRW and get 150,000 KRW worth back. The system is already popular because 100,000 KRW normally comes back as 130,000 KRW, and for these two weeks or so that math tilts even further in your favor.
Taking part is simple. Go to 고향사랑e음 (Gohyangsarang e-Eum), choose Sokcho City as the recipient local government, donate 100,000 KRW or more, then order an eligible thank-you gift from the gift shop. What is easy to miss here is that you only qualify once the order is complete. If you donate but put off choosing your gift, you may not make it into the first 500, so we recommend finishing the donation and the order in one go.
Why Sokcho residents cannot donate to Sokcho
Under the rules, you may donate only to places other than the address on your resident registration (both the municipal and the provincial-level local government). It is a safeguard against donating to your own town and collecting the tax credit and gift. That is why Sokcho residents cannot be the ones taking part in this event.
There is something people in Sokcho can do instead: tell the children, siblings, or relatives in Seoul (서울) and Gyeonggi (경기) who come down for the holiday about this period. From their side, they get 50,000 KRW worth of Sokcho specialties for the 100,000 KRW they were going to get back at year-end tax settlement anyway, and that donation is spent within Sokcho. It is exactly the kind of thing to slip into a Chuseok greeting call — which is why we at 속초어때 brought this topic up first today.
To get it on the Chuseok table, you have five days from today — until the 19th
The most practical piece of information in this event is actually the delivery schedule.
- Order by Friday, September 19 — ships as normal. You can receive it before Chuseok.
- Order on or after Sunday, September 20 — ships sequentially from September 28.
Chuseok this year falls on Friday, September 25, with the holiday running from Thursday the 24th to Saturday the 26th. The 28th is the Monday after the holiday ends. In other words, if you order after the 20th, it will not make it onto the Chuseok table. The event itself runs through the 30th, but for anyone planning to use it as a ‘holiday gift,’ the real deadline is not the 30th but the 19th. Counting today, five days are left.
If it is not for a gift but for yourself to keep and eat, shipping after the 28th is not much of a problem. Still, the first-500 condition is attached, so either way the structure is the same: the longer you put it off, the worse your odds.
11 gift items — which should you choose?
There are 11 items eligible for this event. They include stuffed squid (ojingeo sundae) sets, semi-dried squid, salted seafood (jeotgal) sets, dried pollack (hwangtae) gift sets, semi-dried fish sets, fruit maple-leaf bread, and the 속초리자인 (Sokcho Rizain) gift set, and on top of that 속초사랑상품권 (Sokcho Sarang Gift Certificate) is also included.
Breaking down the criteria for choosing, it goes something like this.
- If you are sending it as a holiday gift — something like a dried pollack gift set or a semi-dried fish set, which is easy to package and store, is the better bet. The recipient does not have to prepare it right away.
- If you are eating it at home — stuffed squid and semi-dried squid are the choices with the strongest Sokcho character. Keep them frozen and they are easy to heat up throughout the holiday.
- If you are planning to come back to Sokcho — 속초사랑상품권, hands down. You can use it like cash at restaurants and shops around Sokcho, so it is effectively receiving your next trip's spending money in advance. It is also an item deliberately included so that returning natives and tourists spend within the region.
The detailed contents of each item can be checked at the 고향사랑e음 gift shop. Even among the ‘sets,’ the weights and contents vary from one to another, so we recommend opening the product photos once before ordering.
Sokcho right now
For those heading out today, here is the situation as of 1 p.m.
- Crowded — the Daepohang Port (대포항) observatory and Cheongchoho (청초호), two spots, are crowded. Daepohang being busy even on a Monday afternoon has become a familiar sight by now.
- Moderate — 마레몬스 호텔 (Maremons Hotel), 켄싱턴호텔 설악 (Kensington Hotel Seorak), Sinheungsa (신흥사) Temple on Seoraksan (설악산), and Sokchohang Port (속초항). The Seorak side still has room.
- Access traffic — Misiryeong-ro (미시령로, toward Seoul) is flowing smoothly, while Donghae-daero (동해대로, coastal and downtown) and Seoraksan-ro (설악산로, toward Seorak) are moving slowly. Rather than cutting through downtown, detouring via Misiryeong-ro is the better option.
- Sea — water temperature 23.7°C, wave height 0.4 m. Today's tide stage is 11-mul (11물), and low tide passed at 11:01. The next high tide is at 17:06.
- Sunset — today's sunset is at 18:36 (sunrise was at 06:06). With clouds in the sky, conditions are right for the glow to spread beautifully across the surface of Yeongnangho (영랑호) or Cheongchoho.
It is worth checking tomorrow's forecast as well. Tuesday the 15th will be overcast with a high of 20°C and a low of 17°C, four degrees lower in daytime temperature than today. If you got by in short sleeves today, tomorrow you will need a light outer layer. It means another day when the sea temperature (23.7°C) is higher than the air temperature, so even just dipping your feet in, the water will feel lukewarm.
Other things to catch in Sokcho this week
- Wednesday, September 16 — 속초 수산시장 (Sokcho Fish Market) is holding a rebate event returning 30% of your purchase amount in gift certificates. If you can put off your Chuseok shopping, Wednesday is the better day.
- Saturday, September 19 — the deadline for ordering thank-you gifts, and also the day of the first ‘씨네테이블 (Cine Table)’ screening held by the Sokcho Culture and Tourism Foundation. It is a program for enjoying film and food together, and it is currently recruiting attendees.
- Ongoing — at 속초관광수산시장 (Sokcho Tourist & Fishery Market), vehicle traffic inside the market has dropped sharply thanks to its ‘car-free street’ operation. If you plan to shop, it is more comfortable to secure a nearby public parking lot first and walk in.
To sum up, one new door opened in Sokcho today. If you live outside Sokcho, a window has opened to get 150,000 KRW worth for 100,000 KRW, and within the first 500 people at that, and if you want to use it as a holiday gift it has to be by the 19th. If you live in Sokcho, passing that information on to your family is the most useful thing you can do today. 속초어때 will keep pointing out the ‘real deadlines’ in news like this.
Today we looked at Sokcho City's bonus thank-you gift event for Hometown Love donations, the delivery cutoff for receiving it before Chuseok, and the weather, sea, and traffic conditions in Sokcho on the afternoon of September 14 — was it helpful? We will be back next time with even more useful information.
