Sister city since: October 19, 2004

Overview

Gangneung is located on the east coast of the ROK. It is a leisure city where business, culture and tourism flourishes. Gangneung has hosted a number of international events such as the 2012 ICCN World Congress, Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018 and Gangneung International Film Festival. It is now becoming a popular international city. Gangneung is an ideal place to visit. It is also a suitable place to host conferences and exhibitions.

Relations with Jingzhou

In the autumn of 1992, the National Ancient Costume Culture Seminar was held in Jingzhou, Hubei Province. A group of international friends and prominent figures were invited to attend the seminar. The ROK also sent experts to attend the event. After several days of discussions and sightseeing visits, an expert from the ROK found that there was a great resemblance between Jingzhou’s history, culture, local customs, and lifestyles and those of Gangneung in Gangwon-do. What’s more, the expert found that the Chinese pronunciation of “Gangneung” was the same as the Jiangling County of Jingzhou. After the seminar, the friendly exchange between the two cities started thanks to the assistance of the expert.

On October 19, 2004, Jingzhou and Gangneung established the sister city tie. Since then, the government delegations from the two sides have paid multiple mutual visits, and various civil service staff exchange programs were held in the two cities regularly. So far, the two cities dispatched a total of 31 civil servants to each other.

In 2019, a Gangneung delegation was invited to the opening ceremony of the Second Hubei Garden Expo. Meanwhile, the opening ceremony of the Gangneung Park and celebration to mark the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the sister city tie between the two cities were also held. The two cities have witnessed robust people-to-people exchanges. For example, Jingzhou youth art troupes were invited to participate in the Gangneung International Junior Art Festival for several times.

Over the past 18 years, the two cities have maintained friendly exchanges and expanded cooperation. Pragmatic cooperation has been promoted in various fields, including education, culture, youth exchanges. The sound relationship helped each city to learn from each other and realize healthy and fast growth, both economically and socially. The ties have helped the people of both sides to enjoy a greater sense of wellbeing and fulfillment, bringing new vitality to the traditional friendship of the two cities.