Indoor amusement venues helping Koreans beat the heat
  • 6 years ago
If you are watching us in Korea,.. you'll know all too well that it's been sizzling hot for days... even weeks... on end now.
Fortunately, there are numerous ways to beat the heat -- sitting in a coffee shop or enjoying a movie or two in a nicely air-conditioned cinema.
However, there are other, more novel ways to stay cool... or quite literally, send a chill down your spine.
Choi Si-young has more.
What you'll find in this closed-off room in central Seoul will put a chill down your spine, quite literally.
Visitors put their problem-solving skills to the test to escape from the "gwishin" -- Korean for "ghosts" -- which crawl out of the floor or jump out at you from behind.
In a twist on the "room escape" genre, they appear if you take too long trying to understand the clues that help you get out.

"It was so chilling. Every time the ghosts scared me so bad. I actually felt a chill in my spine, and it cooled me down."

There's scientific truth to the idea that fear is, in fact, chilling.

"When exposed to scary situations, our brains sense danger and divert blood flow from the skin to more important organs like the heart and other muscles. So the temperature of the skin temporarily goes down."

Another less conventional experience, chilling in its own way, is a tour of the ice museum.
Visitors can check out ice sculptures and other props in rooms that are below freezing.
In this extremely hot summer, it's attracted tourists from as far away as Europe.

"We saw this place. We were nearby. So, we decided to have fun and come in here."

"At the Ice Museum, the mercury is below zero degrees Celsius. And It's so cold that it’s highly advisable to slip into a padded jacket. People flock here to enjoy the long summer day out of the scorching heat."

With the heat raging on, locals and tourists alike are finding novel ways to stay cool.

Choi Si-young, Arirang News.
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