Back The Sister Cities and the Sister Castle of Himeji MASAN

An industrially advanced town facing a calm sea MASAN Republic of Korea Affiliated on April 18, 2000 The city of Masan is the second largest city in the Kyungnam province, located about 50 km west of Pusan in the Southeast Republic. Masan forms a beautiful natural view with mountains 600-700 m high, which surround the city like a folding screen at its back and deeply indented coastlines at its front. Masan is also one of the major industrial cities in Korea whose main industries are the manufacturing of iron and the machine industry. As part of the economic development plan, the administration built "the Masan free export zone" to attract foreign investment and it is globally recognized as an example of a successfully implemented free trade zone. In the city there are a lot of cultural assets and historical heritage, such as the museum established by Moon Shin, a world famous sculptor, mountain temple (Kuangsansa), Mongol Well (Monggo Jeoung), etc. Himeji city and Masan city have many similarities in population, area, history of city organizations, industrial structures and so forth. There have been exchanges by citizen delegations between the two cities and because there are many foreigners who come from Asia living in Himeji the demand for further exchanges within the Asian regions has increased recently. Due to these circumstances, Masan city proposed an affiliated sister city relationship. In the future Masan is expected to develop into a complex city consisting of both urban areas and farming villages and to function at the center of the Kyungnam province in commerce, industry, transportation, education and culture. http://www.masan.go.kr/