Icheon, a city where chic meets elegance

Eastern part of Gyeonggi Province, a region containing historical facts and featuring environmental-friendliness

Located in the southeastern part of Gyeonggi Province close to Seoul, Icheon is a well-developed city with a pastoral atmosphere and well-developed plains and ridges, where the Bokhacheon and Cheongmicheon Streams flow. Icheon is in a strategic position on the country’s transportation network, with the Jungbu Expressway and the Yeongdong Expressway passing through it, and Highways 3 and 42 crossing each other nearby. The rice grown in Icheon is noted for its excellent quality. Icheon City is also a favorite destination for lovers of natural hot springs.

The World’s No. 1 Ceramic Arts Village

Seolbong Park, which plays a central role in tourism in Icheon, also serves as the venue for such international events as the World Ceramic Exposition 2001 Korea and the Icheon Ceramic Festival. The park contains a lake and the Icheon Municipal Museum, which displays relics of Hanseong Baekje and Korea’s ancient farming culture, the Icheon World Ceramic Center, where visitors can appreciate an array of ceramic goods and ceramic works from around the world, and Toya Land.

If you drive along Natioanl Highway #3, you will come across the ceramic art village in Saeum-dong, where there are many small and large stores selling ceramic goods. The many pottery items displayed along the road attest to this town’s status as the country’s leading purveyor of ceramic goods.

Numerous visitors are attracted to the unique-looking works made by more than 700 artists in 300 kilns in Sindun-myeon and Sagimak-gol. Most of them are a combination of skills accumulated over many years and a modern sensibility. The Icheon Cerapia, the venue of the 2011 World Ceramic Biennale Korea, was the country’s first facility to focus entirely on the world of ceramics. All the major facilities here, including the lake, playgrounds, offices, and toilets, are either made of or decorated with ceramics. It also houses a residency for artists currently engaging in creative works, exhibition halls, workshops, and an information center.

◇ Seolbong Park, which plays a central role in tourism activities in Icheon, contains a lake and the Icheon Municipal Museum, as well as the Icheon World Ceramic Center, and Toya Land. ⓒ G-LIFE Editing Team

In July 2010, UNESCO designated Icheon a “City of Crafts and Folk Art” in recognition of the city’s hosting of ceramic-oriented events, including the World Ceramic Biennale Korea, and its well-knit organization dedicated to ceramic-related affairs. The city also won a reputation as the world’s No.1 city of ceramic art thanks to its well-established infrastructure, including educational facilities and research centers.◇ In July 2010, UNESCO designated Icheon a “City of Crafts and Folk Art” in recognition of the city’s dedicated hosting of ceramic-oriented events, including the World Ceramic Biennale Korea. ⓒ G-LIFE Editing Team

Rural village stay experience offering fun and learning!

In addition to being famous for the production of good-quality rice, Icheon runs rural stay programs for urban inhabitants. In Jachaebanga Village in Gullyang-ri, where Prince Yangnyeong, King Sejong’s eldest brother, stayed for eighteen years, visitors can see vestiges left by him. The village is the birthplace of the farmers’ song known as Jachaebanga. Visitors can see several types of mills here, including a treadmill, a watermill, and a horse or ox-pulled millstone, and engage in traditional folk plays such as jangchigi or jeongchigi. In summer, they can go fishing in the stream or spend a night in a wondumak (a thatched watch house) in the middle of a crop field. They can also cook a meal with rice pounded first hand at a mill. And imagine \ how wonderful it would be to spend a day riding a bike along rural roads and forest paths!

The program run by Jachaebanga Village was selected as an exemplary hands-on rural life experience program. Consequently, the village received the financial support required to construct various buildings and convenience facilities, including modern-style toilets, and is making efforts to develop new programs.

Seogyeong Slow Food Village is noted for the production of rice with the “King” trademark. The villagers also produce soybean paste, soybean sauce, cheonggukjang (a variant of soybean paste), and meju (fermented soybeans) with red peppers and beans grown by themselves. Visitors to the village can enjoy a first-hand experience of picking strawberries in spring; potatoes, corn, peaches in summer; and grapes and pears in fall.◇ Miranda Spa Plus, a hot spring in Icheon, has been transformed into a four-season aqua park. ⓒ G-LIFE Editing Team

Icheon Hot Springs, a spa resort loved by many people!

The hot springs in Icheon are noted for their high sodium content, which helps people recover from fatigue. The water here is also known to be good for people suffering from skin troubles, gynecological disorders, stomach disorders, anemia and muscle pain. The water temperature is about 28~31.5℃. Each commercial establishment is equipped with guestrooms, sea-wave pools, flowing pools, saunas, and jjimjil bang (Korean sauna), etc.

Icheon Termeden is attracting attention as a German-style hot spring surrounded by forests where bathers can also enjoy aromatic forest bathing and a wide variety of theme-based baths. Recently, a new method of bathing using rice soap, known to be effective in treating people suffering from atopic skin disease and liver spots, was introduced, along with a pine needle-soaked bath effective as a way of alleviating mental stress.

Miranda Spa Plus, a hot spring resort in Icheon, has been transformed into a four-season aqua park, and now offers more than twenty types of hot baths, including baths of water mixed with herbs, clear strained rice wine, ginseng, etc. Commercial establishments in the city are doing their best to make sure visitors have a good time by coming up with innovative new methods of bathing, including a hot tub bath with floating rose petals and mud baths.

Icheon Rice, one of Icheon’s specialties◇ Icheon Rice, one of Icheon’s specialties ⓒ G-LIFE Editing Team

The rice grown in Jachaebanga Village, Icheon is noted for its great taste. In the past, Icheon Rice was selected to be served to the king. It is said that the good taste of Icheon Rice is attributable to the area’s favorable climate and fertile soil, and the clean water used in the rice paddies. The locally grown rice has a high octacosanol content, which is known to enhance physical strength.

There is a long line of Korean food restaurants along the road close to Icheon. Customers always say that they feel like a king when they are served a meal consisting of good-tasting rice and diverse side dishes. Other specialties offered by Icheon include traditional Korean rice cakes and makkeolli (rice liquor).

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