I don’t have a sweet tooth. I like chocolates, but I certainly can live without them. And gladly, too. (But if we’re talking about dark chocolate, we’ll have to sit down and have a serious conversation.) But that did not mean I did not appreciate our short visit to Chocolate Land (not to be confused with the Chocolate Museum which, sadly, we didn’t go to).
From the name of the place alone, one would easily conjure images of acres and acres of rolling fields filled with, what else, chocolates. But no, there’s none of that here. It’s basically a stone building, with two floors that house a cafe, a souvenir shop, a chocolate store, some chocolate exhibits, and a chocolate school.
Entrance to Chocolate Land costs 3,000 KRW (USD 3.00) for adults. You will be issued these Chocolate Tickets.
You will be entering the building through the second level, and you’ll immediately find chocolate displays inside glass cases.
Guests have to pass through a hallway of benches with teddy bears, and an area selling chocolates. At the end of the hallway is the door indicating the Chocolate Gallery (we’ll get to the Chocolate School later).
These 4 men will be waiting by the stairs that will take you down to the first level, where the Chocolate Gallery is. This is called “Samul Nori” or “Ensemble of Four Percussion Instruments”. Samul Nori is, essentially, a genre of traditional percussion music originating in Korea.
Moving further, you’ll find yourself standing atop sweeping staircases on both sides. Spot the giant M&M’s smack in the middle.
To get to the Chocolate Gallery and Chocolate School, you have to go down.
There were a few kids at the Chocolate School.
Now, I thought that it will teach kids how to make chocolate (in hindsight, an improbability, since this is no factory). It turns out they’ll simply be taught how to put them in molds, design them, and stuff.
All the walls of the gallery is filled with displays of all chocolate brands from all over the world. Literally. I saw some Goya from the Philippines, haha!
Yes, you’re not mistaken. The photo on the lower right is not of DVDs. They are chocolates packed in Dae Janggeum packaging. Looks like the Koreans also package their chocolates via their most lucrative export, which is K-pop (which includes K-dramas and anything Hallyu-related).
Remember the Chocolate Tickets? You can actually use them as discount coupons when you buy chocolates from the Gallery. Buy chocolates, and the amount on the tickets will be deducted from the price of the chocolates.
Quite a sneaky yet smart marketing move, I must say, since the chocolates being sold are priced at an average of 11,000 to 15,000 KRW (and those are just the regular chocolates, not the premium, limited edition ones). You buy one box worth 11,000 KRW, and you pay only 8,000 KRW.
Stepping out into the Belveder, we found ourselves in a viewdeck featuring…. Willy Wonka.
If you are going to Jeju, and you are pressed for time so you want to go only to places that are MUST-SEEs, I’d advise you to skip this one. Try going to the Chocolate Museum instead; it looks to have more chocolate-y goodies worth checking out.
That is not to say, however, that coming here is a waste of time. It’s not. We enjoyed it. I mean, surrounded with all that sweetness, who wouldn’t? But I guess I was just expecting to see more.
On another note, tomorrow, June 12 is the Philippines’ Independence Day. And looks like there’s going to be not a little amount of rain. Summer is really over, huh?
