Pohang City, Visible Leap Toward a Global Cultural Tourism City Fusing History and Art

Pioneer of the "Convergent Scholar," Teacher Lee Gyu-jun's "Seokgok Memorial Hall" to Open in the First Half of This Year

Expansion of Two Museums: History Museum and Art Museum, Enhancing Cultural Landmarks, Advancing as a Historical and Cultural

Perspective view of Seokgok Memorial Hall honoring Seokgok Lee Gyu-jun.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] Pohang City plans to accelerate its leap into a ‘global cultural tourism city’ with a unique cultural hue by opening cultural tourism hubs that integrate the region’s history, culture, and arts one after another this year.

The ‘Seokgok Memorial Hall,’ honoring Seokgok Lee Gyujun, a historical figure born in Pohang, is scheduled to be completed in the first half of this year. The memorial hall will be built as a two-story building in the Doguri area of Donghae-myeon, with a total investment of 5.35 billion KRW.

The Seokgok Memorial Hall will include a storage facility for the ‘Seokgok Teacher’s Woodblocks,’ designated as a cultural asset by Gyeongbuk Province, as well as planned and permanent exhibition rooms and a screening room to commemorate Seokgok’s life, philosophy, and historical value.

Lee Gyujun (1855?1923), from Donghae-myeon, Pohang, who extensively studied modern Korean medicine, literature, philosophy, and astronomy, was a forward-thinking ‘integrative scholar’ and a ‘Confucian doctor (儒醫)’ who healed the people.

Academia highly regards Seokgok Lee Gyujun alongside Dongmu Lee Je-ma, who advocated Sasang constitutional medicine, as the two major pillars of modern Korean medicine.

His legacy is especially highlighted as it aligns with Pohang City’s current efforts to promote a ‘research-centered medical school.’

The city is focusing on establishing a ‘research-centered medical school’ as a hub for nurturing physician-scientists who are ‘integrative talents’ researching and developing COVID-19 vaccines and more, under the new paradigm of ‘fusion of engineering and medicine.’ Through this, it seeks innovative development of Korea’s bioindustry and a revolutionary improvement in regional medical conditions.

The Seokgok Memorial Hall is expected to be a space that resonates deeply with the trajectory of Seokgok, an ‘integrative talent’ who lived healing the people early on in his hometown Pohang, enhancing citizens’ cultural pride and serving as a cultural tourism resource that contributes to revitalizing the local economy.

The old Nonghyup frozen warehouse at Dongbin Inner Port, built in 1969 and used as a storage for Pohang’s seafood and ice until its closure in 2018, will be reborn in the second half of the year as a ‘complex cultural and artistic experience hub’ with a total investment of 10.7 billion KRW, bringing new cultural vitality.

This site, a core of ‘Pohang’s cultural urban regeneration’ and an industrial heritage reflecting fishermen’s lives, will be transformed into a new space integrating culture, arts, and the region’s humanities and historical values by equipping multipurpose exhibition halls, cultural bookstores, and art creation studios, serving as a base for expanding citizens’ cultural experiences and domestic and international artistic exchanges.

Aerial view of the complex cultural arts hub.

Additionally, the ‘Cultural Arts Factory,’ opened last year, serves as a complex cultural and administrative hub, complemented by a cultural arts plaza combined with an urban forest, providing citizens with high-quality cultural and administrative services and a pleasant healing environment.

Moreover, through the ‘Marine Grand Marionette Hub Establishment’ project under the ‘Cultural City Pohang’ initiative led by the Pohang Cultural Foundation last year, the city is creating new growth engines for the city brand as an ‘advanced arts city’ by discovering and spreading cultural industries that combine Pohang’s excellent scientific and technological resources with culture and arts.

The city plans to continuously expand facilities such as the History Museum (46 billion KRW), which embodies Pohang’s identity, and the second building of the Municipal Art Museum (24.1 billion KRW), which will lead the world’s steel culture, to create a ‘cultural and historical city’ together with its citizens.

Mayor Kang-deok Lee of Pohang emphasized, “Like the East Sea that embraces all rivers and steel that fuses various minerals to create new metals, we will expand cultural infrastructure and ecosystems that integrate Pohang’s unique history, arts, science, and technology to enhance citizens’ cultural pride and further strive for creative Pohang-style cultural urban regeneration and tourism resource development.”

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