Andong City, North Gyeongsang Province, announced on the 14th of October that the Andong episode of the viral video promoting Korean tourism, which has recently attracted sensational popularity at home and abroad, was released on YouTube and Facebook on the 13th of October along with the Mokpo and Gangneung episodes.
Seoul, Busan, and Jeonju episodes of “Feel the Rhythm of Korea” produced by the Korea Tourism Organization for overseas promotion in late July are on the verge of 300 million views.
The newly released Andong episode is a 100-second-long video showing various parts of Andong by mixing modern dance with traditional Korean music with pop style, featuring fusion Korean traditional music group Ilchi and dance company Ambiguous.
The video begins with a decorated teacher pressing the cassette button and the music “Hometown of God” playing. It will then present addictive music and dance against the backdrop of Buyongdae, Hahoe Mask Dance Training Center, Manheujeong and Byeongsan Seowon, in the mysteriousness of the foggy Mansongjeong, which would only appear in the Netflix drama “Kingdom.”
Against the backdrop of the sandy beach in front of Buyong University, Manheujeong, the best visual beauty in the drama “Mr. Sunshine,” Byeongsanseowon Confucian Academy in Seowon, and Wolyeonggyo Bridge in which people make their love, the video seems unnatural, but it is said that it is enough to capture the eyes of not only Koreans but also foreigners.
Local residents also participated in video production. Yangban and Bune of the Hahoe Byeolsingut Talnori Preservation Society, a decoration teacher at Byeongsan Seowon, and Talnori troupe, which is gaining sensational popularity at every mask dance festival, participated.
It seems to symbolize the solemnity of the teacher, who seems to be just a solemn one, who is fitting his hand to cassette music, and the Confucian scholars, along with modern dance, shed their old-fashioned image and turn into Andong, a global tourist city.
Overall, the exquisite harmony of singing and dancing, and the rugged yet sophisticated feeling combined with Andong’s traditional image gave it a strange addiction, achieving a new era of more than 400,000 views in the night since its release on the 13th of October.
“It is a good opportunity for Andong to be produced as a follow-up to the video that has become a hot topic around the world,” said Bang Bo-jin, head of the city’s tourism promotion division. “Although tourists are now slow to visit with ‘COVID 19’, we expect it to be a great help in attracting domestic and foreign tourists to Andong.”