TRADITIONAL KOREAN RURAL FARMING CULTURE

(FT. LEE, NJ) AUGUST 29, 2004 – The Korea National Tourism Organization and the Gimje Festival organizers, Gimje City’s Department of Tourism, Culture, invite you to experience traditional agriculture culture.

Gimje Horizon Festival is Korea’s only agricultural culture festival with a theme of the wide horizons of rice paddy fields. It serves as an excellent educational site where visitors can experience a variety of traditional rural Korean culture and customs. Through experiencing agrarian culture, the festival offers both local people and foreign guests a chance to truly appreciate nature. It also provides foreign guests with the opportunity to understand and experience Korea’s family-oriented traditional culture and Korean people’s respect for life, that has been deeply embedded in Korean tradition and customs.

Main Events:
Byeokgolje ritual service, rice harvesting demonstration with Mangyeongdeul Norae (songs praying for a good harvest), farm stay, foreign guest rice food cooking contest, scarecrow-making, rice harvesting experience, ox cart rides, and grasshopper catching contest.

Date:
October 7 – 10, 2004

Venue:
Byeokgolje
Buryang-myeon, Gimje-si
Jeollabuk-do

From Seoul, Gimje is approximately 2 hours and 50 minutes by bus.
Nearby sites of interest include:
Beokgolje (Korea’s first irrigation facility), Geumsana Temple, Gwisinsa Temple, Wolchonipseok (Dolmen site), Manghaesa Temple, Bongsudae (beacon signal station), sunset at Simpo Port, Seongmoam Rock.

For further information, please contact the Korea National Tourism Organization at telephone: (800) 868-7567, fax: (201) 585-9041 or E-mail: gregory_m_kelly@kntoamerica.com
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