Gwangju City: Experience Traditional Fermented Foods at Kimchi Town

A Variety of Programs Including Kimchi and Korean Dessert Experiences

Kimchi Town Korean Dessert Making Poster. Provided by Gwangju City

On the 21st, Gwangju City announced that it will operate a variety of educational and experiential programs themed around traditional fermented foods for citizens at Gwangju Kimchi Town this year.

The programs operated at Gwangju Kimchi Town are led by expert instructors, including Gwangju City's intangible heritage holders and kimchi masters, and are gaining great popularity.

The signature experience at Gwangju Kimchi Town, kimchi making, will be offered from April with activities such as kimchi experiences for children and seasonal kimchi making. The kimchi making experience, which is open to everyone from children to middle-aged and older adults, is seeing an increasing number of applicants each year. Participants can take home the kimchi they make themselves, such as Kkakdugi, Oisong-songi, and Baechu Kimchi.

In addition, the '2025 Kimchi Leaders Academy', an advanced kimchi expert training course, will be operated to foster key leaders who will lead the kimchi industry.

Educational and experiential programs themed around fermented foods will also be offered. The fermented food curriculum includes 'Seasonal Royal Table Learned from Intangible Heritage' and 'Healthy Meals Using Seasonal Ingredients'. Each course will be conducted over eight weeks in both the first and second halves of the year. There will also be one-day fermented food experience programs on topics such as homemade syrup and pickling (April), royal court cuisine (scheduled for June), and rice cakes (scheduled for September).

There will also be a Korean dessert making experience, ideal for families to enjoy together during weekend afternoons. The experience, previously held once a month, will be expanded to twice a month (on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays). The first sessions this year, on March 1 and 15, will allow participants to make strawberry seolgitteok and strawberry latte.

All educational and experiential programs operate on an online pre-registration basis. Details such as tuition and schedules can be found on the Gwangju Kimchi Town website. In consideration of the difficult economic situation and to reduce citizens' burdens, the city has frozen most program fees.

Noh Hyungun, Director of the Gwangju Kimchi Town Management Office, said, "At Gwangju Kimchi Town, we operate a variety of programs where citizens can directly participate and enjoy making traditional fermented foods," and added, "We hope for the active interest and participation of citizens."

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