Diplomatic Corps' famtour report to The 2019 Chuncheon Makgusu & Dakgalbi (Chuncheon Buckwheat Noodles & Chuncheon-style Stir-Fried Chicken) Festival

With the famtour of the Seoul Diplomatic Corps as a new momentum, Chuncheon Makguksu & Dakgalbi Festival garnered a new groundwork not only to settle down as a representative food festival on the peninsula, but also to grow as a real global festival.

By the invitation from both Chuncheon City and Chuncheon Tourism Council, almost 40 senior diplomats from the Seoul Diplomatic Corps. visited various festival venues of the 2019 Chuncheon Makguksu & Dakgalbi festival with the purpose of its boom-up effect to attract more many tourists from both home & abroad.

Visiting diplomatic members included Representative Mrs. Joana Neves & her husband from Portugal Trade Representation, Mrs. Ruth L. Kpasaba members from the deputy head mission, Embassy of Nigeria, Mrs. Atai Namatbaev from the deputy head mission, Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic, Myanmar Defense attache office members, Hong Kong Trade Representation and Panama Embassy.

In fact, there are many festivals in Chuncheon, that is, Chuncheon Lake Starlight Festival, Puppet-Festival Chuncheon, Chuncheon Mime Festival, Chuncheon Anitown Festival, Kim You-jeong Literature Festival, and Romantic Chuncheon Festival, to name just a few.

In terms of both its festival content and participants scale from home & abraod, Chuncheon Makguksu & Dakgalbi Festival settled down firmly as one of the Chuncheon's representative festival, offering visitors an opportunity to taste and enjoy famous local foods, Makgu ksu and Dakgalbi, each year.

In a nutshell, famous foods of Chuncheon are summed up as Makguksu & Dakgalbi. As regarding Mak guksu first off, the origin of Makguksu (spicy buckwheat noodles) in not known yet, but it seems to come from the meaing of the term, 'a simple dish that does not require a complex recipe or many ingredients.

Makguksu is usally prepared directly from knitted buckwheat after it is ground into a paste. The paste is boiled for only a brief time and served in cold water-based radish kimchi, or mixed with vegetables and sauce with vinegar, mustard and meat broth.

Dakgalbi(spicy stir-fried chicken) is so famous for its taste that it is said that there is no point of visiting Chuncheon without tasting it. The food does not refer to the whole Galbi, but is made by stir-frying marinated diced chicken in a chili pepper paste-based sauce after spreading and making it thick just like slicing the meat.

On the route to Chuncheon, visiting Diplomatic Corps. dropped by first of all, Chuncheon National Museum in the morning which is a storehouse of the cultural heritage of Gangwon Province. It preserves and exhibits the archaeological and artistic treasures of the region and serves as a vital center for academic research and education so that visitors can learn about the history and culture of the region and have a hands-on experience as well, according to its curator.

For their luncheon, Chuncheon's local Makguksu & Dakgalbi were served for the visiting Diplomatic members in accordance with the purpose of their visit to the festival at the festival venue.

In the afternoon, visiting Diplomatic members chose Oksanga Cultural Complex as their first visit destination which is the only white jade mine. Jade Mine Experience Center, a preserve of a natural cave which is about a distance of 150m into the Jade Mine, allowed participants to feel the powerful energy emitted from the mysterious cave! Moreover, a collection of potteries from the Joseon Dynasty to the Japanese colonial era allowed to feel the history and culture from the ancient years.

After the visit of Oksanga Cultural Complex, visiting Diplomatic members dropped by Soyang River Dam which is the longest dam with multiple purposes in Korea. Befitting its reputation, it is normally dubbed as an 'inland sea' and boasts of magnificent scenery with Obong Mt. and Cheongpyeong Temple (built in Goryeo Dynasty).

An meeting with Honorable Chuncheon City mayor Lee Jae-soo on 4 p.m at the 3rd floor garden within the Chuncheon City Hall was a surprising gift for the visiting diplomatic members where Mayor Lee was able to meet each participants including taking a photo with them separately and last but not least asked them to publicize Chuncheon to their countries so that more many tourists from their home countries can visit Chuncheon.

Before the dinner reception at Sejong Hotel Chuncheon, visiting Diplomatic members dropped by Soyanggang Skywalk which is an observatory facility set up with the longest walking path in Korea, running 174m from Statue of Soyanggang Maid to Statue of Fish in the center of Uiamho Lake.

The walking path, which is comprised of transparent glass, offered thrills the visiting diplomatic members as they feel they are walking over the lake.

Expressing his heart-felt thanks for the visit of the diplomatic members from the Seoul Diplomatic Corps, Secretary-General Lee Kyo-sun from the Chuncheon Tourist Council hosted a farewell dinner reception at the Sejong Hotel Chuncheon which is also served as an opportunity to ask more publicity to the visiting Diplomatic members even though they returned to their home countries, finishing their diplomatic service.

Representative Ms. Joana Neves from the Representation of Portugal Trade, Embassy of Portugal who assumed the Dean role of the visiting Diplomatic members, said by her return thanks remarks: "We are confident that Chuncheon Makgusu & Dakgalbi Festival shows sufficient potentials to grow as global festival, to say nothing of the fact that this year's Chuncheon Makgusu & Dakgalbi Festival will be able to take root as a representative food festival firmly on the peninsula, providing diverse culture arts programs & experience stuffs. (Find more details at the following her return congratulatory remarks!)+

Return congratulatory remarks

First of all, on behalf of the visiting Diplomatic Corps. from Seoul, I would like to express our sincere appreciation for inviting us to the 2019 Chuncheon Makgusu & Dakgalbi Festival which will run for 6 days from today until June 16th.

We visiting Diplomatic Corps. & participants understand well that Chuncheon Magguksu & Dakgalbi Festival is settled down as the best food culture festival on the peninsula while at the same time, it represents Chuncheon's many festival which is called a city of lake.

Moreover, we heard that this year's Chuncheon Makgusu & Dakgalbi Festival invited General Director to upgrade the grade & the quality of the festival in addition to the best food stuffs such as Maggusu and Dagkalbi etc. so that local citizens & tourists can enjoy together to the fullest!

In that regard, we are confident that Chuncheon Makgusu & Dakgalbi Festival shows sufficient potentials to grow as global festival, to say nothing of the fact that this year's Chuncheon Makgusu & Dakgalbi Festival will be able to take root as a representative food festival firmly on the peninsula, providing diverse culture arts programs & experience stuffs.

Besides, we had a famtour programs for us to be able to experience Soyang Dam, Soyang Skywater, Okkwangsan in addition to festival's street parade this afternoon. So we are also confident that such a famtour will provide us with an good opportunity to publicize Chuncheon for not only diplomatic members of the Seoul Diplomatic Corps. but also each nationals in each countries who will be able to visit Chuncheon sooner or later.

Once again taking this opportunity, I would like to express our sincere thanks for Honorable Chuncheon City Mayor Lee Jae-su and its dedicated city staffs and also for Chuncheon Travel Association Offcials etc.

Thank you!

The opening day of the 2019 Chuncheon Makguksu & Dakgalbi Festival was wrapped up with the gorgeous opening ceremony where over 10,000 spectators including many dignitaries including Chuncheon City honorable Mayor Lee Jae-soo, parliamentary assemblymen, distinguished guest from sisterhood cities etc. gathered.