‘Gilmore Girls’: Lane Kim’s South Korea Summer Vacation Brought Her to a Huge Tourist Attraction
Lane Kim might not have been a main character in Gilmore Girls, but she still had several important storylines during the show’s seven-season run. Most were incredibly meaningful and rife with drama and angst. In season 2 of Gilmore Girls, Lane Kim was petrified that her parents were sending her to live in South Korea for good. Ultimately, the rebellious teen was only gone for the summer, as her parents promised. She didn’t need to be anxious at all. As it turns out, she vacationed in a very popular tourist destination. A real-life occurrence even inspired Lane’s trip.
Where did Lane Kim vacation in South Korea?
In season 2 of Gilmore Girls, Lane Kim found herself in an anxiety-inducing situation. Her parents told her that she would spend the summer with distant family members in South Korea. The trip, which came as a shock to Lane, concerned her for several reasons. Most importantly, she feared her parents were planning to leave her in South Korea with family. No return ticket and a massive suitcase were certainly suspicious. She had no reason to worry. She returned home to Stars Hollow after enjoying herself in the country where her mother was born, but where exactly did she go?
In a season 2 episode, Lane revealed she was headed to Busan. Busan, known as the summer capital of Korea, is a bustling, high-tech city. Trousts love Busan for its beaches and five-star hotels.
In fact, Busan is the second most populated city in the country and welcomes the second most tourists each year. According to the Korea National Tourism Survey, published in 2016, Busan saw 7 million travelers in 2015. Only Seoul saw more tourists, welcoming more than 12 million visitors in the same year. Lane’s parents didn’t send her away. They sent her on a pretty epic vacation!
A real-life experience inspired Lane Kim’s season 2 storyline
Lane’s visit to South Korea felt like a random side plot. It came out of nowhere, and the entire experience was mentioned just once upon Lane’s return stateside. As it turns out, the storyline wasn’t created in Amy Sherman-Palladino’s imagination. According to Annotated Gilmore Girls, a website dedicated to the series, Helen Pai’s own experience inspired the storyline. According to the publication, Pai’s parents sent her to visit family in Korea rather unexpectedly, too.
Lane Kim’s entire character was inspired by Pai. Aside from being a childhood friend of Sherman-Palladino, Pai also worked on Gilmore Girls. Lane’s first boyfriend, Dave Rygalski, is the name of Pai’s real-life husband, although Pai didn’t meet her Dave as a teen. If Adam Brody, the actor who played Dave on Gilmore Girls, hadn’t left the show, fans assume Lane and Dave would have ended up together, just like their inspiration couple.
