담양 삼지천 마을
Samjicheon Village, the First ‘Slow City’ in Asia
By Jeong Hyeon-young, Tribune Reporter
Have you ever heard about the term ‘Slow City’? It refers to a special place where its people pursue a slow and happy life with an effort to conserve the natural environment and their traditional culture. To be designated as a 'Slow City', traditional culture and food should be preserved as they used to be and each member of the community should form good-relationships with each other as well as develop their village. The first ‘Slow City’ in Asia that met the conditions mentioned above is Samjicheon Village in Changpyeong. Its name is derived from a stream consisting of three waterways. I went to see this unique sight and to feel the harmony between the past and modern times.
It took about one hour to travel from Gwangju to Changpyeong by bus. While getting off the bus, beautiful rural sceneries caught my eyes. The well-preserved traditional houses and stone walls which are almost 300 years old made me feel as if I were in Joseon Dynasty. I thought as usual that finding the way by using a map would be more effective for finding these beautiful sceneries, but soon realized there was no need to hurry in. I just slowly walked along the stone wall, my feet leading the way. Each irregular and various stone had been joined together to form a well-arranged stone wall reaching 3600m in length. The height of the wall was not excessive, as if people built the wall with respect for each other.
While I was strolling along the wall stone, the old man that I met first greeted me with a smile and asked me where I came from. Kim Hak-jung, a 82-year-old villager, said, “Our village is very close-knit, so we help each other whenever we are in trouble. We have happily lived without effort to keep up with the ever-changing tempo of life in the city.” And then he gave me a Changpyeong Rice-yeot, which is one of typical slow foods produced by traditional methods in this area. As we walked together talking I could feel the residents’ affection for each other as well as their pride of Samjichon.
In visiting the Samjicheon Village I was impressed by their ways of living and thought that I could not see this in the city. The people who live in this area want to live in harmony with nature as well as to recover a loss of humanity caused by rapid urbanization. Although these attitudes have receded more and more in today’s society, we should focus on the preservation of tradition, culture and the natural environment as much as possible. Speediness is more convenient and materialistic enrichment might be still deeply rooted in our society, but ‘Slowness’ fertilizes our mind by reminding us of some priceless values transcending time and space. If you want to escape from your busy life in the city, I would recommend that you visit Slow City!
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