One evening last month, I was at a swanky apartment on the Upper West Side in New York City celebrating the birthday of a journalist friend. There were other journalists at the party, too, and when one learned that I had been living in Seoul the previous year, he told me about a press trip that was being organized to cover the third World Ceramic Biennale in South Korea.

Taking place every two years, the Biennale drew 6 million visitors in its first year in 2001 and 4 million in 2003. This year, the organizers expect 6 million visitors.

"Would you be interested in going?" the journalist asked.

"Definitely," I replied.

Though I no longer want to live in Korea as I had done before, I still love the country and welcome the chance to return for a visit and to check out the ceramics festival.

That’s how I found myself on a plane two weeks later with a group of American and British art and design journalists for the 14-hour flight from New York to Seoul. None of the journalists, most of whom were well traveled, had ever been to South Korea before (proving my theory that Korea is a woefully overlooked travel destination).

Some of the works on exhibit at the Icheon World Ceramic Center as part of the World Ceramic Biennale include “Human Bowl Faces” by Phillipe Barde, Bean Finneran’s colorful cones, chess pieces and Antony Gormley’s installation of 190,000 miniature terra cotta figures.

A driver, who was sent by the festival’s organizers, greeted us when we landed at Incheon International Airport.

"I am Mr. Lee," the driver said, which turned out to be the extent of his English.

"Mr. Lee," one of the journalists asked, "where can we change some money?"

Mr. Lee stared at the journalist blankly.

"She wants to know where she can change some dollars to Korean won," I said to Mr. Lee in Korean, finding myself turning into our group’s ad hoc translator. While not exactly fluent, I was at least conversational.

"I thought you looked Korean," Mr. Lee said to me, relieved that he could communicate with somebody in our group.

Mr. Lee drove us to Icheon (not to be confused with Incheon, the port city of the same name as the international airport). Located about an hour’s drive southeast of Seoul, in Gyeonggi Province, Icheon is famous because it was where Koreans first discovered how to make celadon during the Goryeo Period (918-1392).

Today, Icheon, along with Gwangju and Yeoju, are three cities in Gyeonggi Province where the provincial government spent a whopping $140 million to build museums and educational centers dedicated solely to ceramics. Sixty percent of Korean potters come from one of the three towns, and of the 1,200 pottery studios in South Korea, 900 are in Gyeonggi Province. The World Ceramic Exposition Foundation (WOCEF), which runs the festival, seeks to turn the province, the largest in geographic area in South Korea, into an internationally recognized center for ceramic arts.

Bean Finneran’s colorful cones,

"We want to encourage local ceramicists to have confidence and carry on the tradition of Korean ceramics," said Nam Ki Myong, secretary general of WOCEF, who explained that much of the recorded history on Korea’s ceramics was obliterated during the Japanese occupation of Korea from 1910 to 1945. "The festival helps promote Korean ceramics around the world and exposes Korean artists to the international art community."