Wonju, South Korea, sent Roanoke Mayor Joe Cobb home with gifts to celebrate 60 years of sister city relations.
Cobb and a delegation from Roanoke departed Virginia to visit the Gangwon Province of South Korea in August. They returned with a gifted paper lantern and banner, plus stories of a ramen factory.
During a city council meeting this week, Cobb said he was honored to continue the tradition of friendship between cities on opposite sides of the globe. A delegation from Wonju most recently visited Roanoke last year.
“One of the things that I learned on the trip was how significant 60 is in the Korean calendar,” Cobb said. “I brought back a couple of things that were presented to the city, on behalf of the mayor and leadership in Wonju.”
Vice Mayor Terry McGuire and Councilman Phazhon Nash unfurled a long banner that a Wonju calligrapher wrote in neat Korean script. Cobb translated the message.
“Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Wonju and Roanoke,” Cobb said. “A new tomorrow that will bloom as a flower of fate, two cities with the same meaning and hundreds of years of history.”
The banner and a traditional hanji paper lantern will be added to Roanoke’s sister cities collection, visible on the main floor of the municipal building, Cobb said.
The friendly relationship between cities was forged beginning with two doctors in the late 1950s and was cemented in 1965, Cobb said. The cities still exchange medical students today.
Wonju, located in the north-central portion of South Korea, is home to some 360,000 people and calls itself “a city of nature and art,” according to a webpage.
Cobb said the Roanoke delegation toured a Wonju high school, a medical device factory and other locations around the city.
“We were able to tour a ramen factory,” Cobb said. “If you like ramen, and you go into your local grocery store here in Roanoke and see Buldak … That ramen, the hot and spicy is made in Wonju.”
Wonju Street Southwest, near Towers Shopping Center, is named after the sister city. Cobb said he visited Roanoke Street in Wonju.
“It was really special to be part of that legacy,” Cobb said. “A sister city relationship and friendship.”
Roanoke’s other sister cities are Florianopolis, Brazil; Kisumu, Kenya; Lijiang, China; Opole, Poland; Pskov, Russia; and Saint Lo, France. However, the relationship with Pskov was paused in 2023, due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to the Roanoke Valley Sister Cities website.
Councilwoman Vivian Sanchez Jones visited Saint Lo last year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the World War II D-Day landings.
Luke Weir (540) 566-8917
luke.weir@roanoke.com
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