Korea to Host 2010 International Cittaslow Assembly

‘Communication and info sharing toward glocalization’

The 2010 International Cittaslow Assembly of Corea will open at the Seoul History Museum at 9:00 a.m. on June 26 under the joint sponsorship of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, led by Minister Yu In-chon, and the Cittaslow Corea Headquarters and Cittaslow International Headquarters, headed by Gina Luca Marconi.
The Cittaslow Assembly of Corea, to be hosted jointly by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, will be the first to be held in Asia since the foundation of Cittaslow International with the goal of facilitating communications and information sharing toward globalization and localization. Participants will attend the assembly in Seoul and move to Shinan, Damyang and Hadong to get onsite experience with slow cities.
Cittaslow founder Paolo Saturnini plans to deliver a lecture on the slow city movement, followed by the presentation of cooperative cases among domestic enterprises. The participants will move to Shinan, South Jeolla Province, to experience the mud flat and salt cave. Monk Hyungak of the Ssanggye Temple in Hadong will give a lecture on Korean Buddhism ahead of the participants’ meditation during a temple stay and the slow city global forum at the abandoned school in Hadong.
Some 100 government officials and experts from 14 nations like the UK, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United States, Canada, Japan and China including the mayor of Orvieto, Italy, the hometown of the slow city movement.
As of June 2010, 132 cities in 20 countries are members of Cittaslow International including six Korean cities ― Shinan, Wando, Jangheung, Hadong, Damyang and Yesan. Korea also has one Cittaslow cooperative city, Busan, and one cooperative company.
The event, to be attended by Cittaslow officials of each city, will be composed of eight slow themes: slow tour, happy forum, temple stay, seasonal food, oriental medicine, Korean house, Korean clothing and Korean traditional music. It is expected to provide precious opportunities for the participants to look at the current situation and future vision of slow cities while sharing various experiences and information on successful cases of each nation. nw

The 2010 International Cittaslow Assembly of Corea will open in Seoul on June 26. Shown above is a view of a lane lined with an ancient stone-stacked wall at the Samjicheon Village in Damyang., one of the nation’s renowned “slow cities.”