Visiting Korea
A Report: 2006 Chinese Youth Invitation
Partners for greener tomorrow-
During July 5th to July 14th 2007 for 10 days, 200 Chinese youths were invited to various spots of Korea and took part in the Chinese Youth Invitation project hosted by the Korea Youth Association and supervised by Future Forest. The project was aimed to initiate participation from the Chinese youths and enhance understanding of Korean economics, Politics and administration, environment, culture and history in general. Additionally, the programs were created to explore the origins of the recent Hallyu fever in China and thus allow more in-dept understanding of Korean popular culture. It also tried to create a human network of future leaders of North-East Asia and use this as an opportunity to promote Korea’s identity by visiting various governmental institutions.
After arriving on the afternoon of 5th of July, the participants, divided in to 3 groups, went through a rollercoaster ride of events, starting from a reception at the Paradise hotel, Incheon. From day one, they enjoyed a taste of traditional culture (Samulnori) and visited various Korean social services including Hankook Ilbo where they had a reception with the Korean press. Day two, 7th, was more academic, featuring a Korean-Chinese discussion at the Lotte hotel. This was joined by 150 participants from Korea, and the discussion topics given were #1: Plans to support Korea-China Youth exchanges, #2: The necessity and practice of FTA. The event was interpreted simultaneously in Korean and Chinese.
The Chinese students also visited the scenes of Saemaeul movement. At Wonju Agricultural center and Information Technology village, they were explained of the background of Korea’s rapid development in the 70s to provide insight to present China. On the 10th, the Chinese youth visited the scenes of industrial development at Pohang- the steel mills of POSCO, Gwangyang, the Hyundai Heavy Industry, Samsung electronics and Busan Ports. Through visiting the best examples of Korean Industry today, hopefully it had promotional effects to maintain developmental partnerships into the future. The industry-themed schedule was concluded at the Busan Grand hotel, where they were toasted by the vice major of Busan followed by a banquet.
The itinerary was also focused on the historical aspects of Korea. By visiting historical spots in Gyeongju and Anding Hahwe village, it was an opportunity to appreciate Korean history and culture.
Lastly on the 11th, all participants assembled at Busan, Grand Hotel and joined the Korean-Chinese Forum under the theme of ‘Enhancing Busan and China’s Exchange & Co-operation’. Also the Korea-China Associated manifesto was selected and announced. The grand finale banquet was held at Jeju Resort Hotel, 13th of July.
The objective of this project was to strengthen Korea-China relationship that had resumed since 1992 and give the participants diverse perspectives of Korean traditional culture. Also through networking future leaders of each country, it is expected to play a vital role in the future North-East Asia epoch. By visiting significant places of Korea’s past and present industrial development, it was aimed to conjugate China’s present dynamics in the rural areas to new areas of Korea-China co-operation. Additionally, the cultural spots such as Jeju, Gyeongju and Andong could function as to provide insight to China’s enhancement of tourism as an extension of Korea-China partnership.
To make this project an ongoing success, it is planned to perform an extensive assessment meeting of all contributed sectors and produce a report on the pros and cons of this year’s event. More than ever, to make sure that the Korean-Chinese future leaders networking develops further, it is essential that a Chinese-English homepage is created to cater and manage the entire participants into the future.
