A cultural and arts delegation from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, meets with County Chief Choi Ki-young at the Bonghwa-gun county office. [Bonghwa-gun]
A cultural and arts delegation from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, meets with County Chief Choi Ki-young at the Bonghwa-gun county office. [Bonghwa-gun]

A delegation of cultural and arts figures from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, visited Bonghwa-gun in North Gyeongsang Province to tour historical sites linked to the Vietnamese Ly dynasty from more than 800 years ago and to discuss plans for cultural content development and expanded bilateral exchange.

According to Bonghwa-gun, eight members of the Ho Chi Minh City cultural and arts delegation, led by Chairman Tran Ngoc Dau, visited the county office Wednesday to discuss ways to collaborate on performance and arts content drawing on the historical and cultural legacy of the Ly dynasty.

The delegation had learned of Bonghwa-gun's "K-Vietnam Valley" development project while attending an international exchange forum in Busan, and decided to visit the site in person.

The group toured Chunghyodang Hall and the planned site of the K-Vietnam Valley development in the Changpyeong-ri area of Bongseong-myeon, Bonghwa-gun. They also visited the 28th Bonghwa Sweetfish Festival grounds to experience local festival and tourism offerings.

Bonghwa-gun's historical connection to Vietnam traces back to Yi Yong-sang, a member of the Ly dynasty royal family.

Yi was a son of Emperor Yeongjong, the sixth emperor of Vietnam's Ly dynasty. He crossed into Goryeo in the 13th century to escape political turmoil and settled there. His descendants went on to form the Hwasan Yi clan, taking root in Korean society.

In the Changpyeong-ri area of Bongseong-myeon, remnants of the Ly dynasty lineage remain — including Chunghyodang Hall, a memorial stele and an ancestral shrine. Direct descendants of the dynasty still live there today, making it one of the most notable sites in South Korea where Ly dynasty relics have been preserved.

Bonghwa-gun is advancing the K-Vietnam Valley development project on the strength of this historical legacy.

The county envisions the project as more than a tourism facility — it aims to create a hub for historical and cultural exchange between South Korea and Vietnam. Plans call for a Ly dynasty history park, a Korea-Vietnam cultural exchange space and a traditional culture experience facility.

At a roundtable held that day, participants discussed ways to expand the Ly dynasty's historical narrative into cultural and arts content such as theater productions and performances.

The possibility of combining the Vietnamese artists' local cultural expertise with Bonghwa-gun's historical resources to produce jointly developed content was also raised.

"The shared historical asset of the Ly dynasty is serving as a cultural bridge between South Korea and Vietnam," a Bonghwa-gun official said. "We will expand exchanges across diverse fields — including performance, exhibition and education — to develop the K-Vietnam Valley into an internationally recognized historical and cultural space."


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