I got this e-mail from one of my former colleagues at CBC and when I saw it I did not believe it, but I couldn’t get rid of it… Then eventually I did some research and was shocked to learn it is really true!

This is an island that is in the southernmost part of South Korea, and hence one of the warmest areas, so this is where many young honeymooning couples would go to celebrate their union…

“Cheju Island, with its beaches and mighty volcanic mountain, became the destination of choice for those who didn’t want to go hiking and temple-spotting in the country’s interior. That was doubly true for freshly married couples, who are still drawn to the island today“

Weddings it seems were still being arranged right up to the late 80’s or early 90’s – “As they got used to the notion of being bonded for life, they spent their wedding night and the following days on the Honeymoon Isle, which thereby also became a kind of ‘island of sex ed.’”

The article almost implies that when it, uh, comes to sexual matters, that Koreans are like the proverbial British when it gets to sex – “There’s a persistent prejudice against the Japanese, the Koreans and other Asians — that they’re prudish and repressed. But go to “Love Land” on Cheju Island in South Korea and you’ll start to question that clich?.”

But what the article did not show, just briefly described one example, was to show why Cheju has the reputation it’s got… Not any more! NB: NC-17, please!