Wando-gun Launches Full-Scale Efforts to Build Marine Healing City Brand

Yaksan Marine Healing Experience Center to be Completed in March, Cheongsan Marine Healing Park to Begin Pilot Operation in April

Perspective view of the Marine Healing Experience Center scheduled for completion in March. Photo by Wando County

[Wando＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Kyung-pil] Jeonnam Wando-gun, which has newly embarked on becoming a marine healing city, has begun to take off with the full-scale operation of its programs.

According to the county on the 14th, since 2017, various public projects and research initiatives have been underway to establish a marine healing industry base in Wando, and last year, the first public facility, the Marine Climate Healing Center, was completed.

From the second half of this year, in addition to pilot programs utilizing the climate, spaces where various programs such as seawater walking and seaweed therapy can be experienced will be sequentially completed.

First, the Yaksan Marine Healing Experience Center, where marine and forest healing can be experienced simultaneously, is scheduled to be completed in March. Once the seawater bathhouse, seawater walking experience facilities, and marine healing decks are established, it will be linked with the coastal healing forest and pilot operation will begin in April.

In April, eight themed marine healing experience facilities will be created in Sinheung-ri, Cheongsan-myeon, offering marine healing programs using sound, scent, seaweed, herbs, and maekbansuk (a type of volcanic rock).

Also, near the Shinji Marine Healing Center under construction, the Marine Culture Healing Center will be completed in April, where marine healing programs involving five senses experiences such as media art using audiovisuals, taste experiences using food, olfactory experiences using aroma scents, and tactile experiences through pottery crafts will be conducted.

The Marine Healing Center, which will serve as the control tower for the marine healing industry, will complete finishing construction in October and, after trial operation, is scheduled for full operation in 2023.

Marine healing experience programs such as Nordic walking, singing bowl sound meditation, wave sounds, and five-sense meditation, which have been operated since 2018, will be expanded. Additionally, to promote residents' health, ‘Visiting Marine Healing Programs’ in towns and townships and marine healing programs to overcome COVID-19 blues for mild dementia elderly and COVID-19 response personnel will also be operated.

Especially this year, during the Jangbogo Seafood Festival, the ‘National Beach Nordic Walking Competition’ will be held to enhance Wando-gun’s status as a center of the marine healing industry and to achieve external promotional effects.

An Hwan-ok, the Marine Healing Officer, said, “2022 will be the most important turning point for the marine healing industry that has continued since 2017,” and added, “We will do our best to ensure stable operation after the construction of public facilities through thorough preparation and by addressing predictable issues.”

Wando＝Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Kyung-pil ckp6737@asiae.co.kr

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.