The Jeju Weekly
January 2013
News Briefs 11
“Jeju Fire Festival” will be held from Mar. 8 to Mar. 10 Jeju’s representative festival, Jeongwol Daeboreum Fire Festival, will be moved from February to March this year. According to a press release from the Jeju City government, the festival will be held Mar. 8 Mar. 10 at Saebyeol Oreum. The name of the festival has been changed this year to “Jeju Fire Festival.” Previous festivals were mostly held in February to celebrate Jeongwol Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar calendar. However, the festival faced problems due to the poor weather conditions. Participants and tourists experienced difficulties accessing the site due to road conditions, and high winds made lighting the fire dangerous. Jeju City decided to change the time of the event to minimize such inconvenience. This year’s festival will mark Kyungchip, on March 5 (Jan. 18 in the lunar calendar). This is the day on which insects are traditionally believed to appear from holes in the earth. Since the first event in 1997, Jeju City has annually altered the festival’s program to keep pace with current festival trends and attract locals and tourists, alike. The festival has been commended as one of the best festivals in Korea, by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, for three years running. The main theme of this year’s festival will be “Safety, Health and Healing.”
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Penguin swimming festival
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The 14th Seogwipo Penguin Swim took place on Jan. 5 at Jungmun Beach in Seogwipo City. An estimated 600 participants, tourists, locals and military personnel dashed into the cold winter sea with hope for a dynamic start to 2013.
The local government reshuffles public officials in anti-corruption effort As a result of Jeju government receiving the lowest ranking in an anti-corruption evaluation last year, the provincial government is pushing for a personnel reshuffle within various divisions to aid anti-corruption efforts. Under this plan, a task force team exclusively dedicated to monitoring public employees will be
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established and managed directly by the vicegovernor. The Jeju Provincial Audit and Inspection Commission will also organize a special inspection team within the first half of this year to monitor public workers all year round. A personnel reshuffle this year will focus on preventing corruption, such as wining and dining, special favors, and bribery. This will be partly achieved by re-posting individuals who have worked for more than three years in the departments responsible for approval, permission, accounting, contracting, construction and civil engineering. Government officials say divisions which deal with developers and civil petitioners, which are more likely to be involved in illegal corruption activities, will be under special scrutiny.
First published in Jan. 2011, the new year marks the second anniversary of The Jeju Weekly’s Chinese edition, “Jeju ju-gan” (“㋙᪳۳”). The Chinese-language newspaper is now distributed to 60 countries worldwide and its online readership is spread across 49 countries. The monthly publication is provided in-flight on Korean Air’s Jeju-Beijing route and through a Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese newspaper “The People’s Daily,” writers and stories are shared across both news outlets. The newspaper’s success is sure to continue as the number of Chinese visitors and residents increases on Jeju Island. Please visit the homepage: http://www.jejuchina. net/
“Jeju Travel Guide” Jeju’s first Chinese newspaper, smartphone service launched “Jeju ju-gan,” celebrates its Jeju Special Self-Governing Province has developed a foreign language “Jeju Travel Guide” second anniversary mobile app service, which was rolled out on Jan. 7. In addition to the foreign language services provided at www.jeju.go.kr, a ‘Homepage Business Sophistication’ marketing approach has been active since May last year, resulting in the mobile app. It provides practical information about traveling around Jeju in English and Chinese. The app provides travel information about Jeju, such as, attractions, activities, accommodation, and food and shopping. It also links directly to the Korea Tourist Service, at 1330, and users can speak to English-, Japanese- or Chinese-speaking operators. The provincial government has targeted the app at international visitors and residents and it can be downloaded via smartphone application stores free of charge.