Gangjin County () is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

South Jeolla South Jeolla Province (), formerly South Chŏlla Province, also known as Jeonnam (), is a province in the Honam region, South Korea, and the southernmost province in mainland Korea. South Jeolla borders the provinces of North Jeolla to the nor ...

Province,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. Gangjin county proper was established in 1895. The county office is located in

Gangjin-eup Gangjin-eup () is an administrative division of Gangjin county, South Jeolla Province, South Korea. As with much of Gangjin county, Gangjin-eup is largely agricultural and known for its rice, tomato, and persimmon harvests. It is the county s ...

. The Gangjin Kiln Sites are a noted area for the production of traditional

Goryeo celadon Goryeo ware (, also known as ''Goryeo cheong-ja'') refers to all types of Korean pottery and porcelain produced during the Goryeo dynasty, from 918 to 1392, but most often refers to celadon (greenware). Celadon techniques were first introduced fr ...

, and annually a big festival and symposium on celadon porcelain at the Goryeo Celadon Museum with participants from all over the world takes place in Gangjin city. Additionally, it is the birthplace of

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

poet Yeongrang Kim Yun-sik, famous for his work in the 1930s and 1940s in the

Jeolla Jeolla Province (, ) was one of the historical Eight Provinces of Korea during the Kingdom of Joseon in southwestern Korea. It consisted of the modern South Korean provinces of North Jeolla, South Jeolla and Gwangju Metropolitan City as wel ...

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

. The county bird is the

magpie Magpies are birds of various species of the family Corvidae. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent c ...

. The county flower is the

camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas in East Asia, eastern and South Asia, southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are ...

, and the county tree is the

ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants, assigned to the gymnosperms. The scientific name is also used as the English common name. The order to which the genus belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, , and ''Ginkgo'' is n ...

. There are also two mascots, Gang and Jin, who represent fire and water, respectively, and who appear throughout the county on signs and sidewalks. A small portion of Wolchulsan National Park is located in Gangjin County. There is a monument to 17th-century Dutch

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

Hendrick Hamel, the first westerner to experience and write about

Korea Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...

Joseon Dynasty Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...

era. Hamel and his men were shipwrecked on

Jeju island Jeju Island (Jeju language, Jeju/) is South Korea's largest island, covering an area of , which is 1.83% of the total area of the country. Alongside outlying islands, it is part of Jeju Province and makes up the majority of the province. The i ...

, and they remained captives in Korea for 13 years.

Other places of interest

* Gangjinman Bay, in Maryang-myeon. * Geumgok Temple (금곡사), in

. * Baekryeon Temple (백련사), in Doam-myeon. * Mt. Su-in (수인산), 561 meters, in Byeongyeong-myeon. * Boeunsan (보은산), 439 meters, in

Climate

References

External links

County government home page
{{coord, 34.6405555656, N, 126.77000001, E, source:ruwiki_region:KR_type:city(49254), format=dms, display=title Counties of South Jeolla Province