YEONGWOL, Gangwon Province -- Luxury travel is incomplete without a stay at a high-end hotel, where the pampering includes exquisite food, decor and seclusion, while sessions for restoring mental and emotional wellness enrich the experience. All that is available at the Hanok Heritage House in Yeongwol County, Gangwon Province -- the latest example of how far entrepreneurs are willing to go when refashioning “hanok,” the traditional Korean house. The architect behind the $130 million project -- which involves a 337,190 square meter plot nestled in the mountains, roughly the size of the National Assembly compound in Yeouido -- speaks of a space that delivers the “comforts of home.
” “The aim is a physical space that is as cozy as possible,” Cho Chung-il, president of the Hanok Hotel & Resort, said during a preopening tour of the complex in early July. Hanok reborn with tech Cho is also the chief executive officer of KONA I, a Kosdaq-listed company globally known for its “smart cards” used for online and offline settlements and payments, as well as ID authentication. The firm has a mission statement: Benefit the world through technology.
This permeates every corner of the three hanok units currently up and running. The hanoks average 750 square meters per unit, each seven times the average living space of a four-person Korean household. Jongtaek 1, Jongtaek 2 and Seondoljeong -- each built to accommodate up to eight or ten guests and featuring a private sauna, ga.