Heunghae-gun of South Korea and Haiyan County are similar in culture. Over the years, two parties have made deep educational and cultural cooperation and exchanges. Recently, 30 students from an overseas history and culture visiting group of Heunghae-gun visited Haiyan’s schools and China-South Korea friendship historical sites, and stayed at local families to experience traditional culture and people’s life.

At Zaiqing Villa in Scenic Area of South-north Lake, they visited the refuge of Kim Koo (1876-1949, a Korean Peninsula independence activist, once took refuge in Haiyan) to learn about the historical tie between the founding father of South Korea and Haiyan. In the 1930s, Kim Koo, a Korean patriot insisting on resisting Japanese aggressors, ever lived in this villa for half a year to escape Japanese chases. This is a good story in the history of China-South Korea friendship.

At Yinlu, they learned about tying and dyeing techniques - a Chinese intangible cultural heritage. They watched the staff tie a white handkerchief, dip it into botanical dye, and then take it out after five or six minutes, and then found a gorgeous intangible cultural heritage was produced, to which they all gave exclamation of surprise. One of the students from Middle School of Heunghae-gun said he was very interested in the production process of such an intangible heritage.

They then came to the eastern school of Experimental Middle School Education Group of Haiyan to visit its school history hall and folklore hall to learn about the general situation of local schools and folk culture. Founded in 1997, this education group has adhered to people-oriented, quality-oriented and practice-based education concept to build a characteristic smart school. Now it is a provincial-level civilized unit, advanced teaching and research unit, a digital school, etc.

They shared a “rubbing class” with local students. “Rubbing” is an ancient printing technology with a long history, mainly using pigments and paper to “copy” the pattern or text clearly. The students of two countries cooperated closely in class to typeset, ink and lay paper and rub together, and soon a colorful pattern was printed, becoming a special witness to the friendly exchanges between them.

The “gun” in South Korea is equivalent to a county in China. Heunghae-gun is located in South Jeolla, South Korea. It and Zhejiang are sister provinces. With a total area of 622.4 square kilometers and a population of 35,000, Heunghae-gun is similar to Haiyan in the culture, area and geographical position, laying a natural foundation for both parties to build a good friendship.

As early as 2003, two parties began to make cultural exchanges. In 2006, Haiyan signed a friendly cooperation agreement with Heunghae-gun with the approval of the Foreign Affairs Office of Zhejiang Province. This agreement takes education as a starting point for friendly exchanges, aiming to make more cooperation and exchanges in various fields. In the future two parties will continue to deepen exchanges in education, medical care, etc. for win-win cooperation.