Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Gwangju Special: Hub City of Asian Culture

Another lifetime benefit of becoming a member of World Students Korea is a free trip to different parts of the country. This time we went to Gwangju. Known as the city of light based on its Chinese character Gwang (광,光?, which means "light" and Ju (주, 州) which means "province.

Brief Information About Gwangju:

Gwangju is the 6th largest city in South Korea. Used to be the capital of South Jeolla Province until 2005 and was once a major political and economic centre of Korea ever since.57BC being an administrative centre of Baekje during the Three Kingdoms Period. It’s a 3.5 to 4-hour bus ride from Seoul with one 15-minute break after 2 hours so it’s not tiresome at all. The roads are good and buses are more than good so nothing to worry about it. Since I already featured the May 18th Uprising and the Gwangju World Music Festival in my two other entries, I will feature the newest project of the city.

Gwangju: Hub City of Asian Culture
According to the guide who explained to us about the project in detail, so far this is the biggest cultural project in Korea. It seeks to promote awareness of Asian Culture through different venues and ways in the cultural complex, Asian Culture Complex, which is currently being made in the center of Gwangju City. “Western” culture has been known and popular throughout the world even in Asia. This project would aim to put Asian Culture in the limelight in a world class arena at the same time preserve and let everyone know about it through exchanges. There are five main institutions that will be built, each catering to different sorts of cultural expression. Cultural Exchange Agency, Asian Culture Information Agency, Cultural Promotion Agency, Asian Arts Theatre and Edu-Culture Agency for children. For more information visit http://www.cct.go.kr/english/index.do

The project is expected to finish on 2014. Although I'm not going to be here anymore at that time, I hope I could come back and witness it. It was raining that day but good we were able to accomplished all the scheduled sights and activities. I enjoyed the food since it was "authentic" Korean food. we went Gwangju's most famous restaurants. Lunch was in a very cozy place 에루화, while dinner was bibimbap in 예향촌 another popular restaurant in Gwangju.



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