Sunchang, North Jeolla Province, Honam, South Korea

🇰🇷 Sunchang County (순창군, Sunchang-gun) is a county in North Jeolla Province, South Korea. It is located in a mountainous region of the province and is connected to the city of Jeonju by a modern double-lane free-way that was completed in 2011. Sunchang's claim to fame is its red pepper paste, or gochujang, which is supposed to be distinct from other recipes. The governor of the county puts his personal seal of approval on it to make it authentic Sunchang Gochujang. Famous people from Sunchang include Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who was born there.

History As a world-famous longevity town and famous producer of traditional soybean pastes including hot pepper paste, the green and citizen-friendly town, Sunchang was once called 'Okcheon' and 'Osan' during the Mahan Period. It was called 'Sunhwa' during the unified Shilla Period and then 'Sunchang-hyeon' during the Goryeo Period. Sunchang was elevated from hyeon to gun (County) when the Buddhist monk Jeongo, who came from the town, took the honorable duty as the Monk of the State in 1319 (the 1st year of King Choongsook's reign).

Festival The biggest and foremost festival of Sunchang was organized to globalize its fermented soybean products, promote the county as the Mecca of the industry with the designation as Korea's first special fermented soybean product district. It is designed to enhance the brand reputation of the Sunchang hot pepper paste and to promote its excellence in and outside of the country. A festival where visitors can see the origins of Korean hot pepper paste (gochujang), soybean paste (doenjang), soy sauce (ganjang), and other traditional ingredients and fermented foods made from soybean.

Sunchang Traditional Hot Pepper Paste Folk Village Sunchang-gun organized the Sunchang Traditional Hot Pepper Paste (Gochujang) Folk Village in order to vitalize the traditional fermented soybean product industry and to uphold its reputation as a main producer of traditional hot pepper paste as well as traditional production methods. It took three years to construct the village that was opened in 1997.

The county gathered the hot pepper paste masters from various areas at Baeksan-ri, Sunchang-eup, at the foot of Mt. Ami. They organized the village and made it as a tourist spot.

The sanitation requirements proved by the modern science technology and the secrets of the masters in taste and ingredients are combined to produce the original and traditional taste of the hot pepper paste. • Location: Minsokmaeul-gil, Sunchang-eup, Sunchang-gun, Jeollabuk-do • Village size: 84,404 m2 54 households (42 enterprises in operation) • Project period: 1994–1997 (4 years) • Project expenses: 15.2 billion KRW (900 million KRW from the central government, 1.4 billion KRW from the province, 4.8 billion KRW from the county, 8.1 billion KRW from the private sector) • Main facilities: Soybean product research centre, soybean product museum, soybean product experience, video PR centre, Chonbuk National University, lifelong education centre, Sunchang branch office, native food restaurants • Product list: traditional hot pepper paste, soybean paste, soybean sauce, fast-bean fermented paste, pickled vegetables, etc.