Icheon

Icheon is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Together with Yeoju, Icheon is known as a center of South Korean ceramic manufacturing and is a UNESCO City of Crafts and Folk Art. Other famous local products include peaches and rice. Local institutions of higher learning include Korea Tourism College and Chungkang College of Cultural Industries.

Icheon is home to Hynix, the world's second largest memory chip maker.

Fires
Major building fires occurred on 7 January 2008 and on 29 April 2020.

Geography
Neighboring districts include Yeoju City, Gwangju City, Yongin City, and Anseong City within Gyeonggi Province, as well as Eumseong County in North Chungcheong Province.

The Yeongdong Expressway and Jungbu Naeryuk Expressway pass through Icheon. In 2016, the city will connect into the Seoul Metropolitan Subway via Yeoju Line's Icheon Station.

Administrative divisions
Icheon-si is divided into 2 towns (eup), 8 townships (myeon), and 4 neighbourhoods (dong).

Population and Business
There are 230,000 people living, including about 220,000 Koreans and 11,000 foreigners. More than 1,200 companies employ about 40,000 people.

Climate
Icheon has a humid continental climate (Dwa in the Köppen climate classification).

City symbols

 * City bird: Magpie
 * City flower: Azaleas
 * City tree: Pine

Ceramic village
The Icheon Ceramics Village features 300-plus ceramics-making firms in the area of Sugwang-ri, Sindun-myeon, Saeum-dong, and a popular visitor attraction. They use traditional skills and produce porcelains in some 40 traditional firewood kilns. This pottery is recognized both at home and abroad for its quality.

The Saeum-dong and Sindun-myeon areas also include a ceramics village with many ceramics stores. Potters have researched traditional methods and revived the manufacture of ceramics in the style of Goryeo celadon and Joseon white porcelain here. The village is the center of the effort to preserve these traditions.

UNESCO
Icheon was designated as a UNESCO Creative City for Crafts and Folk Art, in  in 2010. In 2018, the city was elected as the first designated city for Craft and Folk Art among South Korea's creative cities. It served as the designated city until September 2021.

University

 * Korea Tourism College
 * Chungkang College of Cultural Industries

Twin towns – sister cities
Icheon is twinned with:


 * 🇨🇳 Jingdezhen, China (1997)
 * 🇯🇵 Kōka, Japan (2005)


 * 🇺🇸 Santa Fe, United States (2013)
 * 🇯🇵 Seto, Japan (2006)
 * 🇨🇳 Wuxi, China (2005)
 * 🇫🇷 Limoges, France (2015)
 * 🇺🇸 Santa Clara, United States (2019)

Notable people

 * Sŏ Hŭi: The historic figure of Goryeo dynasty who made a huge decision with Khitan people who was forcefully occupying northern areas of Korean peninsula.
 * Kang Mi-na : South Korean singer, rapper, dancer, actress and K-pop idol, former member of K-pop girlgroup Gugudan and its subunits Gugudan 5959 and Gugudan SeMiNa.
 * Choi Jeong: Baseball player who played for SK Wyverns/SSG Landers and South Korea national baseball team
 * Kim Se-yong (김세용): ceramist.
 * Chun Woo-hee: South Korean actress.