Yangpyeong, Korea's tourist mecca

By Feature Editor Lee Sam-sun, Reporter Kim soo-bin

Mayor Jeon Jin-seon said, “Yangpyeong is Korea’s tourist mecca, and I whole-heartedly welcome tourists visiting us from all parts of the world as well as from Korea!”

Mayor Jeon made the impressive remarks at a recent interview with The Korea Post media, publisher of 3 English and 2 Korean-language news publications for the past 39 years. Details of the interview follow:

 Q :What are your major achievements as the mayor of the Yangpyeong County following your successful election?

 A : Since the inauguration of the 8th-term administration at our County in July 2022, there have been many big and small developments in the Yangpyeong County. The economic downturn caused by COVID-19 pandemic continued to cause economic difficulties for the citizens, and the devastating disaster of the worst flood that came for the first time in 100 -years, which inflicted considerable damages to private properties as well as to the public facilities.

However, thanks to the wise and enthusiastic participation and cooperation rendered by the entire people of the County, we were able to recover from COVID-19 wisely and well.

In addition, we were able to receive budgetary support from the central government as Yangpyeong-gun was declared a ‘special disaster area’ from the devastating floods. However, we have done our best and provided comfort to the wounded hearts of the civilians. We made a quick and bold decision to provide special disaster support allowance of 500,000 won to each household affected by the floods.

As soon as I took office as the mayor of the Yangpyeong County, I learned that the most important policy was the practice of livability administration. It is a departure from the development-oriented administration and administrative expediency policies of the past, and we now prioritize the welfare and the elimination of inconveniences from daily lives of the people in our county.

In January this year, the Cleaning Department at our county was established to diagnose the organization and create a clean Yangpyeong, and a ‘Clean Yangpyeong Campaign’ was held once every week, with 142 related organizations and more than 2,000 people participating in it to create a culture of voluntary cleaning by the residents.

To resolve traffic congestion in front of the Yangpyeong Railroad Station, we established a seamless transfer system that connects railways, taxis, and buses centered on Yangpyeong Station, and expanded the Yangpyeong Bypass Road and the intersection of the Civilian Center to six lanes.

The Yangpyeong County has been actively working to resolve the difficulties of pregnant women who cannot afford the services of a maternity hospital to deliver their babies comfortably, and plans to start operating a maternity hospital this year after renovating outpatient rooms, labor and delivery rooms, and hospitalization rooms, and equipping them with 42 different types of medical equipment including ultrasound diagnostic machines.

In addition, we invested KRW1 billion last year to renovate and expand the Yangpyeong Park Golf Course, the largest golf course in the Republic of Korea with 81 holes for leisure activities for the elderly, by building a new club house and planting grass.

In this way, we have been trying to solve the inconveniences and needs of residents in their daily lives, and in the year of 2024, we will continue to make Yangpyeong an attractive place that fulfills the happiness and expectations of county residents by making 'Yangpyeong an attractive place that fulfills the happiness and expectations of county residents' which are among the top goal s and value of the county government.

Our Yangpyeong County is also promoting the construction of a comprehensive funeral facility.

 Q: What are the future plans of the Yangpyeong County?

   A: Yangpyeong County is investing more than 60 billion won to jointly build a comprehensive burial facility with cremation facilities, a votive hall, a natural burial ground, and a funeral hall with the goal of opening in 2030 to provide welfare facilities for the end of the life cycle of Yangpyeong County residents.

We in the Yangpyeong County believe that collecting and communicating residents' opinions is the most important aspect of building a comprehensive burial facility, and the county held a briefing session for residents on November 30 last year and a benchmarking of excellent burial facilities with resident participation on December 13-14.

In addition, in order to reduce construction and operating costs and secure stable demand, we signed an MOU with the Gwacheon City on January 17 to jointly build a comprehensive funeral facility, and on the same day, we started an open call for candidate sites for the construction of the comprehensive funeral facility in Yangpyeong-gun.

In line with the public notice, a briefing session for residents in 12 towns and villages was held from January 22 to 31 to collect opinions and communicate with residents about the direction of building a comprehensive business facility in Yangpyeong-gun, the contest process, and residents' concerns and countermeasures.

The county plans to openly recruit and receive candidate sites from February to April, and for those villages that applied, the county will conduct site suitability and feasibility services from May to June, deliberate with the promotion committee, and finally select the target site for the construction of the comprehensive facility in September.

We believe that the success of building a comprehensive burial facility is first and foremost the consensus of the residents and sufficient explanation and disclosure of information, and we will do our best to provide the residents of Yangpyeong County with a burial welfare facility for the end of their life cycle through continuous communication with the residents.

The Yangpyeong County is promoting the construction of the proposed project, please introduce the progresses made so far.

The population of Yangpyeong County is continuously increasing due to the expansion of various infrastructure facilities and the construction of large apartment complexes, and the demand for administration is also increasing.

However, the current Yangpyeong-gun government building is not able to cope with the growing administrative demand, as 6 out of 25 departments are distributed to offices due to lack of space, and the parking lot area is small, adding to the inconvenience of residents and employees visiting the government building.

Accordingly, there is a need to build a new county government building to respond to the needs for the development of Yangpyeong County and the growing administrative needs, and to raise the necessary financial resources, the “Yangpyeong County Government Building Construction Fund Ordinance" has been enacted, with a target of 200 billion won from 2024.

In the first half of 2024, the "Yangpyeong County Government Building Construction Fund Ordinance" will be enacted to establish a construction promotion committee and actively operate and promote the civilian participation group to fully collect various opinions from county residents.

In January 2025, we plan to order a business planning service for the construction of the new government building to set the direction of the new government building and closely examine the feasibility of the project through development benefits, economic, financial, and policy analysis.

The construction of the proposed building is a very important matter that can greatly affect the lives of the people of Yangpyeong County, including the formation of the city and the flow of the local economy. Therefore, we will proceed with caution and timeliness above all else.

The Yangpyeong County is viewed by many people as a representative medical under-served area. What are the plans and possibilities for attracting a medical center or general hospital in Gyeonggi Province?

Yangpyeong-gun has set the establishment of an emergency room at the National Traffic Rehabilitation Hospital with facilities comparable to general hospitals as a pledge for the 8th civil election, and after meeting with the Minister of Land, Infrastructure & Transport, it was promised to expand the medical departments, and has continuously proposed amendments to related laws such as the Automobile Damage Compensation Guarantee Act to the relevant ministries.

In addition, in order to attract a general hospital, the government provided two idle sites of the County for the hospital site and held several meetings with Ewha Womans Medical Center and Hanyang University Hospital in exchange for operating an emergency medical center.

However, the medical center decided that it would be unreasonable to start operating a general hospital in a region with a population of less than 300,000 without support for hospital construction and operating costs.

On February 5, the Gyeonggi Provincial Government announced that it will establish an innovative public hospital that provides services to handle infectious disease, emergency, and integrated medical and care services in the northeastern region of the country, which has a very poor medical infrastructure with no advanced general hospitals capable of treating serious diseases.

It also announced that it will receive an application for establishment in May of this year, and that the Medical Center Establishment Review Committee will finalize the site selection process in the third quarter of this year, and that construction will begin after going through procedures such as a preliminary feasibility study by the central government.

We will do our best to prepare for the establishment of Yangpyeong-gun, a public medical center in the northeastern region of Gyeonggi-do, so that county residents can receive high-quality medical services, and we will further strive to create a caring and considerate health and welfare environment where all neighbors are happy and cared for, where Yangpyeong is a good place to have and raise babies, and where all neighbors are not left out.

 Q: Yangpyeong-gun is a representative tourist destination in the metropolitan area. Are there any special initiatives to revitalize tourism?

 A : Since the Paldang Dam was built, Yangpyeong has been faced with the double-edged sword of regulation and conservation. The Yangpyeong County is promoting the Yangpyeong County Tourism and Culture Belt, a project to develop the area by selecting and focusing on tourism using the well-preserved natural environment, by dividing it into two zones.

First of all, the Western Zone is centered on Dumulmu-ri and Semiwon, and plans to make Semiwon, a provincial garden in Gyeonggi-do Province, the first national garden in the metropolitan area, and improve transportation infrastructure, such as relieving traffic congestion by improving transportation facilities.

Semiwon, a representative tourist destination in Yangpyeong, was opened in 2012 thanks to the efforts of local residents and government officials, and became a top attraction in the metropolitan area with more than 400,000 visitors per year before the Corona pandemic, and was registered as the first Gyeonggi-do provincial garden on June 27, 2019.

Our County is also aiming to expand Semiwon and the Dumulmu-ri areas, the best ecotourism resources in the metropolitan area, into a garden area, which will be designated as a ‘National Garden.’

In addition, we are preparing to create a national ecological trail on Turtle Island, which has been well-preserved since the Paldang Dam was built.

The Central Region plans to promote a nucternal landscape lighting project based on Yanggang Island and Galsan Park for beautiful scenery at night for stay-over tourism, and to "Blue Yanggeuncheon River" by creating walking paths and friendly water spaces on both sides of Yanggeun-cheon River, and to create tourism infrastructure by combining the Yanggeun-cheon River Road Specialized Road Construction Project, the Water-friendly Footbridge Construction Project, and the Bushland Ecological Belt Construction Project.

The eastern region will transform the Yongmun-sa Mountain tourist destination to meet the tourism trend. It is promoting a nighttime landscape illumination project for stay-over tours, and is planning to separate the footpath from the tourist attractions to Yongmun-sa Buddhist Temple for ease of access. In the long term, it is also considering installing a cable car to improve accessibility.

The future of Yangpyeong County is tourism, and we will focus all our administrative power on the slogan 'Yangpyeong is Tourism,' and we will strive to become a center for ecological resource education and tourism by utilizing Yangpyeong's well-preserved natural environment.

 Q : Finally, what would you like to say to the people of Yangpyeong?

A: I wish to say to the people in my County: “I love the people of my Country and respect them all! We are moving forward to make Yangpyeong an attractive place where people and nature come together.

It has been one year and seven months since the Yangpyeong-gun local government started a new beginning in July 2022 with the wishes of more than 124,000 citizens. I would like to thank all of our citizens for their support and encouragement.

The 8th civil election was inaugurated and we faced many challenges, but thanks to the participation and cooperation of the wise citizens of Yangpyeong-gun, we were able to get through them in success.

We are doing our best to think deeply about what effective policies are for the residents and to carry out an administration that will be of practical help to the people of the Yangpyeong County.

In addition, we will always visit our citizens of people of Korea, respect the opinions of our people, and reflect them in our policies.

This year, we will make "Attractive Yangpyeong that fulfills happiness and expectations of the people," the top goal and value of the county government, and we will make Yangpyeong attractive so that we can fulfill the wishes and expectations of all those who visit Yangpyeong.

We will always move forward for the sake of Yangpyeong following the edicts of Jungyong (modesty) and Do (decorum), and we will devote all our heart and strength to the fulfillment of the wishes of the people and successful execution of all the good policies of the county government.

On the occasion of dawn of the Year of Gapjin (Year of Blue Dragon), I wish you, all the people of the Republic of Korea and people of my “Unlimited Progress and Glory as well as every success in everything that the people of our County and the Republic of Korea do. Thank you.