Photograph of the week: Sunrise in Gangneung, South Korea

If you’ve seen one sunrise, you’ve seen them all. Right? Not so. Not all sunrises were created equal. In fact, some are so spectacular they’ve given birth to an entire tourist industry. Like the flashing orange, blazing red, gleaming gold, straight-from-an-artist’s brush version that puts on a regular morning show in Jeongdongjin, South Korea.

Jeongdongjin (also called Chongdongjin) is a small town located on the east coast of South Korea, 18 kilometres south-east of the better known coastal city of Gangneung, in the province of Gangwon-do. A favourite vacation destination for Koreans, and one of the most popular sites in Korea for ushering in New Year’s Day – complete with a sunrise filled with golden hope for a prosperous year to come – the area has become synonymous with sunrise perfection year-round. So much so that in 1997, Korail (South Korea’s national railway operator) began operating the immensely popular ‘Sunrise…