Great tourist attraction enough to proudly boast at G-20 summits
    
Hapgu mountain eco-village in Byeonsan-myeon, Buan-gun
A small rural village settled parallel with a seashore road running near the sea side.
A low hill softly embraces the village and Byeonsan sea shore runs surrounding the village, which creates a fantastic image out of hill valley and hamlet in great harmony. 
Hapgu village has been originally well known for its abundant amount of crams like white cram. The word, "Hapgu" also refers to "nine crams".
But, now the number of people engaging in fishery is getting low and the field farming rate is increasing to make a well functioning multiple village in a good harmony. Hapgu is well known as a secluded place, surrounded by a charming and graceful sea, and about 100 people of 60 families live in the village.  

Hapgu mountain eco-village embracing a hill, plain, and sea 
Construction works to develop Hapgu into a mountain eco-village started in a full-scale way from 2008. All of the village people thought developing the eco-village is perfect for Hapgu which is surrounded with the mountain, plain, and sea, and in the result Hapgu has been developed in the mountain eco-village for the first time in Buan-gun.   
The first thing to do was to set up a cultural center in the mountain village. All residents made efforts in seeking a construction site as well as raising a community fund.  
Youn Won-Tae, the head of development committee, said "the construction site was prepared because all residents made every efforts in fund-raising, from one million won to bigger per family as possible as they can", adding "the village cultural center belongs to all of the village people." 
The strong will and effort of village people made a concrete foundation and Buan-gun constructed the building. Two buildings were constructed for the village cultural center and one is for visitors and tourists to use it as condo style accommodation and the other is for a joint workshop. To help visitors enjoy wonderful eco-village experiences, there are diverse facilities such as bee farm, dragonfly resting place, pinetree resting place, and so on around the cultural center.  


Abundant tourism resources like Naesosa and Saemangeum
A few walks, through an old bumpy path, from the mountain village cultural center lead to a small levee over a ridge line.  
Actually the small levee was built for a reservoir to be used as drinking water source of Hapgu village before the establishment of Buan-dam, but now, the embankment has been developed into an eco-friendly insects biotope to help residents or children easily learn the ecological environment through the field learning. 
The village planted nearly 20,000 flowers around the biotope. They have  already started to sprout as if they are jealous of the gentle sunshine in spring time to welcome visitors coming to Hapgu. 
If visitors come to the insects biotope here during a summer season from early June to end of August, they can get a good luck to find the biggest fireflies glowing in the dark.
Further, visitors can enjoy a nature-made forest path and mineral spring running out of soft rock around the biotope. 

Designated as one of the best tourist attractions in Korea
Hapgu village has been designated as a pilot community for "Rural-20 project" to present at G-20 summit meeting to be held at November this year to attract the public attention.
Because, Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries selected major places for rural life experiencing and tourist attractions to proudly introduce them at G-20 summit meeting.
The selected villages have been well known for its excellency in preserving authentic Korean culture, local food specialties, and beautiful sceneries intact. 
Youn Won-Tae, the head of development committee is quoted as saying "I think Hapgu is available for visitors to fully enjoy and experience lives of hill valley and sea village and further there are abundant local specialties such as onion Gimchi or white crams as well as the rich tourism resources like Naesosa temple, Saemangeum, and Byeonsanbando beach and that's why it is selected as a pilot village for the project."
Hapgu village is going to develop more diverse tour courses and P.R. contents and translate them in foreign languages which are good enough to attract foreign tourists and they will be distributed to every corner of the world. 
The village is also going to recruit the "Rural-20 experiencing group of foreigners" through a variety of channels such as G-20 member country's embassy, language schools, internet sites, and rural summer vacation festivals.