Who’d ever heard of “Pyeongchang” (평창) before the news came out that it would host the Winter Olypmics? Nobody, I think. Not me. It’s a small mountain place somewhere out there.
Here is a billboard I saw about a year ago, while visiting Gapyeong (가평) (see post-15), near Chuncheon (춘천):
Billboard for 2018 Olympics / Spring 2013 / Chuncheon, South Korea
That’s Korean ice-skater Kim Yuna on the poster. A much-less-flexible bear imitates her, with some success.
Koreans, being Koreans, began marketing “Pyeongchang Water” shortly after the announcement. My favorite bottled-water brand name remains “DMZ Water,” though. (This is not to say I bought it; I actually bought whichever was cheapest, which for me was HomePlus water at 500 Won [45 US cents] per 2-L bottle.)