Sweating It Out at Hampyeong’s Seawater Spas

Written and photographed by Isaiah Winters

A few winters ago while on a GIC Tour, our group pulled up to an unassuming yet bustling seawater spa (해수찜) in Hampyeong, Jeollanam-do. After disgorging from the bus into the chilly winter air, we were greeted by the sites of Korea’s muddy west coast and the sounds of a vigorous old man with one leg shouting ticket numbers into a toy megaphone. This was one of the spa’s owners – a quick-tempered, shout-talking geezer with no time for niceties. Curt as he was, his shenanigans alone are almost half the reason why I now make the pilgrimage to his spa every winter I’m in Korea.

His spa, the Hampyeong Sinheung Seawater Spa (함평신흥해수약찜), is fairly well known, having been featured on TV a few times. All throughout our most recent visit the guests just kept coming, with many managing to get in and some unlucky others getting dismissed unceremoniously for lack of space. This time we got there early, eked our way in, and still had to wait an hour and a half for our turn with little to entertain us save the sight of the spa’s three geriatric owners playing hwatu (a card game of Japanese origin). Wagering petty sums of a few hundred won each, they guarded their cards with a playful suspicion that was more entertaining than expected.

When it was our turn to enter the spa, the old man slid open the window, hoisted himself up on his only knee, and began shouting “Number 32!” into the play megaphone, not realizing we were sitting in the same room with him. Here we paid 16,000 won each for a 90-minute stay in our own little spa room. We were each handed a loose-fitting navy shirt and pants with two towels. We were reminded to soak the larger towel in our room’s seawater pit and drape it over whatever body part we wanted to warm; the smaller towel was for the shower. After changing, we were shown our room and then left completely alone for 90 minutes.

Initially, the water is so scalding hot that you can’t even touch it. To cool it down, you can use the many plastic bowls provided to scoop up the water and aerate it – either by dumping it back into the pit or by throwing it across the wooden floor planks around the room. In the meantime, you should wet your towel so that it’s always hot and use it wherever it feels most comfortable. You can be as creative as you like, but keep it decent; sometimes people mistakenly enter the wrong room, so keep your clothes on, you hippie. All the activity should heat your body up and get the room nice and steamy. I like to keep dumping out the salty seawater again and again until it’s cool enough to touch; then I lie down on the planks like a beached whale and lazily dump buckets of it on myself.

Later, if the water gets cool enough, you can reach Valhalla by lying down in the shallow water pit itself for the remainder of your stay. Every pit comes with a thatched rice straw mat that keeps you from burning yourself on the inside of the pit. Also in every pit is a large bundle of herbs that gives the room a pleasant and slightly medicinal fragrance. A few rocks can usually be found down there, too, which probably help retain the heat. For an additional unique experience, once you’re sweating buckets, you can leave your room and step outside the spa to enjoy the cold winter air, which you’ll be impervious to for a little while.

If you get thirsty, the spa provides water free of charge as well as iced coffee, green plum juice, and a persimmon vinegar drink that you’ll need to pay cash for. You can enjoy these in your room until the end of your stay. When your time is up, you can either rinse all the saltwater off in the showers, or you can stay salty and just wash your hair. Heathen that I am, I skip the showers completely and throw on a hat for the rest of the day. The salty feeling reminds me of being at the beach back home.

Overall, visiting a humble seawater spa like this one is great because it’s just so different. If you’ve spent a few years living and working in a big Korean city with so many modern conveniences available, you can sometimes lose the feeling that you’re in a foreign country. Seawater spas are clear reminders that Korea is still a very different land with unique experiences to offer.

“Number 32! You’re up!”

Hampyeong Sinheung Seawater Spa 함평신흥해수약찜
Address: 61 Seoksan-ro, Sonbul-myeon, Hampyeong County, Jeollanam-do
전라남도 함평군 손불면 석산로 61
Telephone: 061-322-9487

The Author
Originally from Southern California, Isaiah first came to Gwangju in 2010. He returned to South Korea in 2017 after completing his MA in Eastern Europe and is currently the chief proofreader for the Gwangju News. He enjoys writing, political science, and urban exploring.