CHICAGO ― Step into the new Tilt! attraction on the 94th floor of the John Hancock Center and at first nothing happens.You are holding big metal bars. You are peering through a full-length window. But you know what is about to occur, and your insides, you are not ashamed to say, are like a crowded butterfly garden.And then there’s a sound ― think noisy dentist’s office, or airplane engine at the gate ― and the eight-window chunk of wall you are clinging to begins to quit its right-angle orientat

Coex Aquarium (Oakwood Premier Coex Center)Oakwood Premier Coex Center, a leading luxury serviced residence in Seoul, offers family-friendly accommodation packages in celebration of Family Month. The “O My Junior” package includes a one-night stay at an apartment, two Coex Aquarium tickets, free entrance to the children’s play area and an indoor swimming pool, free DVD rental and a discount for the breakfast buffet. Two types of apartments are available under the package: One is a 96-square-mete

Swirls of salted caramel at chic ice cream parlor

Putbaechu (young cabbage) doenjang muchim (Korean Bapsang)This recipe is a country-style vegetable side dish. It’s simply seasoned with doenjang, fermented soybean paste, hence the name doenjang muchim. Young cabbage, called putbaechu or eolgari, is one of the vegetables commonly used for this dish. Any other green leafy vegetable would also work. Just remember to adjust the blanching time. You can add a little gochugaru (red chili pepper flakes) or gochujang (red chili pepper paste) to make it

Korean food in ceramic art at Lotte Hotel SeoulLotte Hotel Seoul’s Korean restaurant Mugunghwa is presenting the “Elegance of Korean Cuisine” promotion from May 12-31, during which a special menu featuring traditional banga and royal cuisine will be offered. The courses will be served on dishes crafted by Korean ceramic artists. The lunch course, priced at 100,000 won, includes fish dumplings, bamboo sprouts, grilled chicken, abalone soup and bamboo rice. The dinner course, priced at 135,000 won

For more than a year, a portion of my apartment complex in Beijing has been a construction zone; squat, old buildings have been razed, and new towers are sprouting in their stead. The area is blocked off by walls covered with large, professionally printed green banners that stretch perhaps 15 feet high. A slogan on one reads: “The China Dream, My Dream.”Such posters ― inspired by President Xi Jinping himself ― can be found all over the country, and in six brief Chinese characters, the motto unwi

Not quite five years ago, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry greeted the arrival of his novel “Rhino Ranch” by saying it would be his last, his fiction-writing finale. But on May 7, McMurtry released his 46th book. It, too, is a novel, titled “The Last Kind Words Saloon.”So what changed?“Oh, I don’t know,” the 77-year-old icon said by phone from his bookstore in his native Archer City, Texas. “You never know about these things.”“The title is ripped off from a very legendary blues calle

Living With A Wild God: A Nonbeliever’s Search for the Truth About Everything By Barbara Ehrenreich (Twelve Books)“I was born to atheism and raised in it, by people who had derived their own atheism from a proud tradition of working-class rejection of authority in all its forms, whether vested in bosses or priests, gods or demons.” That sounds like the Barbara Ehrenreich we know ― the political activist and author of “Nickel and Dimed,” the feisty champion of the working poor, the professional c

The Garden of Burning SandBy Corban Addison(Quercus)From the opening scene of a young girl in peril to the rich conclusion of whether justice is served, “The Garden of Burning Sand” gives readers a glimpse inside the government and criminal system of Zambia ― and it may make us appreciate the American system a bit more.After authorities in the city of Lusaka are told that a girl with Down syndrome has been sexually assaulted and seems unable to speak, in comes Zoe Fleming, an American lawyer wor

Freelance translator Yi Jin spent some 18 years translating English literature into Korean, but she is now learning to do it the other way around.“Most English novels that are translated into Korean get that opportunity because they are good,” Yi told The Korea Herald. “So it’s been very rewarding and fun to introduce them to the Korean reading public. But after many years of doing that, I thought, ‘How come Korean novels don’t get to be translated into English?’ Whenever I read good Korean nove

Balance between accuracy and contextual meaning an ongoing debate among literary translators

German Ambassador Rolf Mafael poses for a photo during an interview with The Korea Herald at his home in Seongbuk-dong in Seoul. (Park Hae-mook/The Korea Herald)This is the first in a series of articles in which foreign envoys to Korea show the art of their countries displayed in their homes. ― Ed.The hilltop garden at the residence of the German ambassador on Mount Bugaksan commands a panoramic view of the elegant homes peppering the landscape of the exclusive Seongbuk-dong neighborhood below.

In her newly minted shop in Seoul’s Cheongdam-dong, florist Audrey Oh starts arranging marigolds, blue delphiniums, shepherd’s purse and stonecrop into a vibrant, spring-appropriate bouquet.The veteran floral designer’s swift movements make it look deceptively easy, yet the marriage of near-violet blue with ruffled golden orange, the carefully spaced exclamations of yellow-green, are portrait-worthy, serving as a testimony to her years of experience.“I like natural and simple designs,” said Oh,

(123rf)Universities are on alert as some students have been diagnosed with tuberculosis or measles, health officials said.It was confirmed that among the 11 people infected with measles, nine are students at Kookmin University in Seoul and one is a student at nearby Kwangwoon University, said disease control officials. Another 49 people are also suspected of having measles and among them 45 were identified as Kookmin University students, the agency added.“It was found that the disease first brok