Gangneung city organizes event as part of 2026 Gangneung-style wellness tourism support program, with four themed activity booths ranging from drip coffee to archery
Gangneung, Gangwon province, will hold Gangneung Wellness Day, a promotional event for wellness tourism, from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on the 3rd at and around the birthplace of Heo Gyun and Heo Nanseolheon in Chodang-dong. The city announced the plan on the 2nd. The event was organized in cooperation with local wellness tourism businesses as part of the 2026 Gangneung-style wellness tourism support program. It will feature forest healing yoga and singing bowl meditation for preregistered participants, along with four themed activity booths open to all visitors.
Gangneung Wellness Day promotes the city’s wellness tourism image at home and abroad
Gangneung Wellness Day begins at 2 p.m. on the 3rd and runs for three and a half hours, until 5:30 p.m. The event will take place at and around the birthplace of Heo Gyun and Heo Nanseolheon in Chodang-dong, Gangneung. The city is hosting the event in cooperation with local wellness tourism businesses.
The city said it organized the event to promote wellness tourism by drawing on Gangneung’s natural, cultural and experiential resources and to showcase the city as a destination for healing and renewal, both within South Korea and abroad.
Forest healing yoga and singing bowl meditation open to preregistered participants
The main programs are forest healing yoga and singing bowl meditation. Both will be held amid the natural surroundings of the birthplace and will be offered to participants who register in advance. Singing bowl meditation involves focusing on the sounds and vibrations produced by striking singing bowls, musical instruments shaped like metal bowls.
The city described the two programs as opportunities to find mental and physical calm in nature. Details on the schedule and capacity for each program, as well as how to register in advance, were not included in the announcement.
Four themed activity booths open to everyone
Four themed activity booths will operate on-site, and any visitor may use them without registering in advance. The “A Moment to Savor” booth will offer drip coffee tastings, while the “Filling the Mind” booth will feature gemstone color therapy. The “Undivided Focus” booth will offer archery, and the “Five-Sense Satisfaction” booth will offer tastings of Gangneung hangwa, a traditional Korean confection.
Coffee and hangwa are considered signature foods of Gangneung. The city said it designed the booths to weave local resources into wellness content, allowing visitors to experience Gangneung’s distinctive approach to wellness through all five senses.
Event site features Heo Gyun and Heo Nanseolheon birthplace and pine grove
The Chodang-dong area where the event will be held is home to Heo Gyun and Heo Nanseolheon Memorial Park, which honors the siblings Heo Gyun, author of “The Story of Hong Gildong,” and Heo Nanseolheon, a poet of the Joseon era. According to tourism information from the Korea Tourism Organization, the park consists of Heo Nanseolheon’s birthplace site, the Heo Gyun and Heo Nanseolheon Memorial Hall and a traditional tea experience center. Restored in 2001, the birthplace site is a noble family’s traditional hanok residence with a main gate, men’s quarters and inner quarters. It has been designated a cultural heritage resource of Gangwon province.
The stand of pine trees surrounding the birthplace site is known as Heo Nanseolheon’s Pine Grove. The grove won an award at the national Beautiful Forest Contest in 2010, organized jointly by the Forest for Life movement, Yuhan-Kimberly and the Korea Forest Service. The memorial park is open year-round, and admission is free.
Gangneung-style wellness tourism expands from temple stays to six themes
The Gangneung-style wellness tourism support program behind this event is a city initiative aimed at developing a high-value tourism industry. The city said in April that it supported wellness tourism operations at two local temples last year and that about 3,500 people took part in temple-stay programs featuring temple food experiences and walks along pine-scented healing beach trails.
This year, the city expanded the program beyond its focus on temple stays to six themes: healing meditation, beauty spas, nature-based healing, food, traditional Korean medicine and stays. The city solicited applications from participating businesses from April 27 through May 8 and announced plans to select three businesses, providing each with up to 5 million won in funding along with online and offline promotion.
Gangneung official: “Building a city healed through all five senses”
Bae Gwang-sik, director of Gangneung’s Tourism Policy Division, said Gangneung Wellness Day was designed to let people enjoy the city’s natural, cultural and experiential resources through all five senses while finding a moment of rest in their daily lives. “We will continue working to promote wellness tourism as we build Gangneung into a city healed through all five senses,” he said.