Eunpyeong-gu Wins Grand Prize at 'Korea Healthy City Awards'

Selected as 'Eunpyeong, a City Where Walking Brings Happiness' in the Active Living Environment Creation Category

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Eunpyeong-gu (Mayor Kim Mi-kyung) won the grand prize in the 2020 Korea Healthy City Awards competition for creating "Happy Steps in Eunpyeong."

The district has developed five Eunpyeong Dullegil trail courses connecting the entire area to create a safe and healthy walking city where anyone can walk comfortably anywhere. It has promoted physical environment improvements to activate walking, such as improving walkways focused on vulnerable pedestrians including children, adolescents, the elderly, and people with disabilities, and creating barrier-free paths.

To encourage a walking culture, the district actively promoted interdepartmental collaborative projects for "Happy Steps in Eunpyeong" by providing various contents such as resident-led walking clubs, customized walking programs for different target groups, stamp tours, and the music-filled Bulgwangcheon stream. This achievement led to winning the grand prize in the joint policy category of the Korea Healthy City Awards.

A healthy city refers to a city that continuously improves its physical and social environment, where community members cooperate to enhance residents' health and quality of life through ongoing efforts.

Eunpyeong-gu introduced the concept of a healthy city into its administration in 2017 and joined the Korea Healthy City Association as a member city in 2018, striving to build a sustainable healthy city.

Additionally, it selected 45 key projects in two areas related to creating an active living environment and improving health equity, pursuing health-friendly policies aimed at creating healthy living spaces, practicing healthy lifestyles, establishing safe and healthy environments, strengthening public medical services, and providing welfare services without exclusion or discrimination.

Along with this, Eunpyeong-gu is building a robust healthy city by establishing a meticulous infectious disease response system to cope with the resurgence of COVID-19 cases and attempting a shift to non-face-to-face administration using online platforms.