Parade & Festival “Wedding Road of the Queen Heo”Held In Great Success
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Parade & Festival “Wedding Road of the Queen Heo” which was jointly hosted by Busan Metropolitan City and Gimhae City and organized by the TPO was held in Hwamyeong Ecological Park in Busan Metropolitan City and in the whole area of the Daeseongdong Ancient Tombs site of Gimhae City. Approximately 1,500 people have participated and been bustling with activities.
The Wedding Road of Queen Heo covers the path, which started from Mangsando (Mangsan Island) where princess Heo of Indian kingdom Ayodhya arrived at the end of a long voyage 2,000 years ago and started her journey in order to marry King Suro of Gaya kingdom. After arriving to the Mangsan Island, the princess stayed at the Heungguk Temple, where she spent the first night. The next day she continued her journey into the West Nak Dong River area. Finally she arrived at Gimhae, which was the capital city of ancient Gaya kingdom at that time.
By combining elements of entertainment as part of the alternate reality game (A.R.G.) "Marriage Battle of Indian princess Heo" with the introduction of the relatively unknown historical and cultural tourism resources related to the story of Queen Heo and King Suro, the festival organizers could elicit a lot of favorable responses from the participants.
In addition, participants got a unique glimpse into the Korean culture without regional boundaries by using a free shuttle bus between Busan and Gimhae venues. The cultural experiences included trying on Gaya-Indian Costume, Gimhae Buncheong pottery experience, Gimhae “General`s tea” tasting, making Sotdae (prayer for a good harvest), and making a Gaya Crown. Therefore, the participants were able to participate in diverse cultural experiences by visiting experience-booths and mission-booths related to Gaya dynasty and had time to understand better the story of Queen Heo.
Despite the cold weather, the festival participants enjoyed the highlight of the festival, welcoming Queen Heo during the parade and musical performance. The Parade & Festival “Wedding of the Queen Heo” continued to draw attention to historical aspect of the wedding of the Queen Heo through story-telling method and the citizen’s voluntary participation.
Meanwhile, on the day of the festival, familiarization tour for domestic and foreign travel agencies including representatives of three China`s state-owned branches of CITS located in Guangzhou, Beijing, and Shanghai, and Outbound Travel Agency from Japan, Kyushu ‘Fuji Tourist’, as well as inbound travel agency from Republic of Korea ‘Sora Travel’ , was conducted. Familiarization Tour aimed to introduce the tourism resources and infrastructure of Busan and Gimhae area and to study the possibility of developing tourism product of “the Wedding Road of Queen Heo”.
The Wedding Road of the Queen Heo is expected to be the first win-win model of joint tourism project, which is based on local historical tourism resources and infrastructure.
The source of news: http://aptpo.org/
