World Oriental Medicine-Bio Expo which began on September 16 is now being held in Jecheon, Korea until October 16. This is the first world festival of oriental medicine. The organizing committee projects about 50,000 foreign visitors from 16 countries around the world, and over a million visitors from nationwide will come to this event.

"We will utilize this event as the driving force behind the local economic revitalization and social welfare improvement to grow into a world-class Oriental medicine city," said Choi Myeong-hyeon, mayor of Jecheon City at the interview. He, who has been serving the city for 32 years, added, "With my long experience in public service, I promise to make this Expo a very successful event."

At the World Oriental Medicine-Bio Expo, you can enjoy a hands-on experience and obtain useful information through this voyage of discovery of Korean medicine.

In the Futuristic Oriental Medicine Pavilion, you can catch a glimpse of the joyous encounter of Korean medicine and the state-of-the-art IT technology such as ▲diagnosis of physical constitution according to photos of people's faces ▲3-dimensional image analyzers of pulse, meridian function diagnosis devices, image analyzers of skin. It will offer the vision of Jecheon as a WHO Korean medicine Health city.

Attendees will have an opportunity to learn about the value of natural herbs with stories about their natural benefits in the Medical Herb Study Pavilion. Explore 300 herbs and medical materials derived from animals and minerals as recorded in "Donguibogam", a classic medical textbook on the origins of Korea's herbs and oriental medicine. The expo will also offer diverse sightseeing attractions such as the Herb Garden, ginseng cultivated from water and the real experience of showering with Jecheon's native Hwanggi(milk vetch roots).

There will also be a Korean Traditional Medical Clinic and Prestigious Korean Medicine Hospital Pavilion where visitors can be provided with diagnostic, counseling and treatment services performed by famous herbal doctors from renowned Korean medicine hospitals. There will be various exhibitions and experiential programs as well. Check out diverse artifacts and instruments related to Korean medicine, such as books, acupunctural needles, herb grinders and herb boilers.

At the Oriental Medicine Bioscience Museum, visitors can take a journey into health with 4D image diagnosis, which will give a better understanding of the body, the history of disease, and the principles of Korean medicine and its diagnostic and treatment methods. 3D and 4D theaters will welcome visitors with informative movies for children.

Since there are plenty of things to do and places to play for children including theaters and the Children's Korean Medicine Playground, this Expo will be a great and valuable trip for families as well.

One of the meritorious retainers known as "healthy" Korean food, fermented foods have their own space in this Expo, too. Visitors will see fermented foods from various nations, as well as their fermentation methods and production processes.

Plus, several symposia are being held along with the Expo. The purpose of these symposia is to hold diverse symposium events to lay the groundwork for transforming eco-friendly Jecheon into a world-class city of Korean medicine, link Korean medicine with industry to create high value added and to activate the local economy, and promote international exchange within the Korean medicine industry and expand opportunities for friendship. There are 4 international conferences and four local conferences.

"I sincerely hope that the eight various academic conferences held during the 2010 world Oriental Medicine-Bio EXPO in Jecheon can lay the foundation for the development of Oriental medical science together with Oriental medicine's scientific progress, industrialization, and globalization," said Soo-seong Lee, chairman of the Organizing Committee of the 2010 World Oriental Medicine-Bio Expo.

Approximately 2,800 experts from local and overseas universality associations, research associations, and universities related to Korean medicine have been attending these symposia at Chungpung Lake Hotel.

"Oriental medicine is recently gaining enormous global attention with frequent occurrences of a wide range of rare and incurable diseases that Western medicine cannot treat or cure," said Lee. He added, "At this critical juncture, our academic conferences during the 2010 World Oriental Medicine-Bio Expo can contribute to facilitating scientific breakthroughs and globalization of Oriental medicine and restoring the pride of our ethnic medicine."

In Korea, Jecheon has long acted as a technological and industrial hub of herbal medicine processing and distribution thanks to quality medicinal herbs collected and produced from the mountainous areas.

The city of Jecheon itself is also known for its gifted beautiful environment as a great place for travel. Chungpung Lake, the inland sea, Mt. Wolak National Park and the Alps in the east are famous spots to visit. Ecological therapy, relaxation tours are the treasures of this pure natural environment in the upper region of Nam-han River.