The three districts of Dongcheng, Beijing (China), Meguro, Tokyo (Japan), Jungnang, Seoul(Korea) have been conducting sports exchange programs since 2017. Such trilateral district-level exchange was the first of its kind.
The origin of the trilateral exchange dates back to the 1990s, when Meguro and Jungnang each established friendship relations with Dongcheng. With this established relation, Meguro and Jungnang began exchanges in 2010 and concluded the Friendship Promotion and Exchange MOU in 2013.
The three localities currently run a youth sports exchange program for middle school students. The idea for the program was first suggested in 2015, and was realized in 2017 based on the agreement made the year prior. Thereafter Meguro and Jungnang began consultations on forming sister/friendship relations, leading to the establishment of such relation in July 2019. Discussions are underway on enlarging the trilateral cooperation to areas other than sports exchange, such as cultural exchange.
July 2016: Association of the Three Districts Agree to Conduct Sports Exchange Program for Middle School Students
The 2019 Tournament (Source: Jungnang District)
In July 2016, following an invitation from the Head of Dongcheng, a working-level meeting was held, where the representatives from Meguro and Jungnang visited China and discussed matters on promoting exchange programs and the friendly relation among the three districts. As a result, the three districts agreed on the following points, details of which were to be discussed afterwards: (1) From 2017, the three districts hold a sports exchange program for middle school students, who are the future leaders of the next generation, (2) The first venue for the exchange will be Dongcheng, (3) The participants will be male students in their second year of middle school.
- July 2017: The 1st Trilateral Inter-District Youth Basketball Tournament held in Dongcheng
- During July 25-29, 2017, Dongcheng held the 1st Trilateral Inter-District Youth Basketball Tournament. The motive for holding this tournament was to maintain friendly exchange among the three districts by boosting mutual understanding among the youth. The main schedule of the event was as follows:
| Date | Schedule |
|---|---|
| July 25, 2017 (Tuesday) |
- Arrival of Meguro and Jungnang delegations to Beijing - Welcome Dinner |
| July 26, 2017 (Wednesday) |
- Opening Ceremony of the Trilateral Inter-District Youth Basketball Tournament - 1st Match: Dongcheng vs Jungnang - 2nd Match: Dongcheng vs Meguro |
| July 27, 2017 (Thursday) |
- 3rd Match: Meguro vs Jungnang - Closing Ceremony - Experiencing of Chinese Traditional Culture (Fan, mask painting, and a visit to the Beijing No. 5 Middle School) - Dongcheng Sightseeing (Nanluoguxiang) - Farewell Dinner (Hosted by the Chairman of Dongcheng District National People’s Congress) |
| July 28, 2017 (Friday) | - Beijing City Sightseeing (including Forbidden City |
| July 29, 2017 (Saturday) | - Depart Beijing |
Meguro’s post-project report states that the 12 participants from there were able to increase mutual understanding through sports despite the differences in history, culture, language, and the ways of thinking, and gained valuable experience in becoming a world citizen.
Individual students gave their thoughts on the event as well. Students mentioned that their “impression of others improved”, and that they “became more interested in China and Korea”. The report introduces an anecdote in which a Japanese student was pushed over by a Chinese student and fell during the basketball match. The Chinese student helped the Japanese student stand back on his feet. A student recalled that he felt a strong sense of solidarity when the incident happened despite the different nationalities.
Regarding languages, the participants also shared their thoughts: “I realized that we can be friends through playing sports even without a common language.”, “We were able to communicate with each other at the dinner using basic English and body language”, and “I felt that it is important to learn English and the language of our neighboring countries”.
- July 2018: The 2nd Trilateral Inter-District Youth Basketball Tournament Held in Meguro
- The 2nd Trilateral Inter-District Youth Basketball Tournament was held in Meguro from July 24 to 27, 2018. As in the previous year, participants of the event were limited to male students in their second year of middle school. Participants shared that they were “happy to interact with other students through basketball” (Meguro participant), “able to interact with each other through sports without language” (Dongcheng participant), and that they were “able to socialize with friends (from China and Japan), and wish to continue this exchange” (Jungnang participant).
- [Communication between the Students Despite Language Barriers]
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Middle school students from CJK usually find it hard to socialize with each other since they lack a common language as well as experiences of international exchange. To overcome this problem, the host prepared a successful ice-breaking session involving games.
The ice-breaking game took place after all the basketball matches were over. To allow for intense student interaction through basketball, six teams of mixed nationalities played free throw games. The six teams were divided into two groups, one throwing the ball and the other picking up the ball, and competed with each other by scoring as many goals as they can within a minute. Although they were not able to talk with each other, the students were able to smoothly participate and close the distance between each other in the ice-breaking session using body language to communicate. The result of the free throw game, which was announced during dinner time, was a tie. The atmosphere heightened as the final winner was decided by a rockpaper-scissors game, a common game among the three countries.
The organizers took caution in arranging seats for dinner, so as not to have students from the same country seated together in groups. Students had trouble communicating with each other at the beginning, but soon were able to communicate and open up to each other using basic English and body language. Some students used translation software downloaded beforehand to communicate with each other.
- July 2019: The 3rd Trilateral Inter-District Youth Basketball Tournament held in Jungnang – Meguro and Jungnang concluded Sister/Friendship Cities Agreement
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The 3rd Three Inter-District Youth Basketball Tournament was held in Jungnang, Seoul, from July 23 to 26, 2019 for male middle school students.
Students of the three districts not only participated in the basketball tournament, but also visited the Yongma Waterfall Park in Jungnang. The students visited the largest artificial waterfall in Asia and experienced rock climbing. They also participated in cultural experience activities such as zip-line riding at the Jungnang Youth Experience Forest and making traditional Korean paper and wood crafts at the Onggi (pottery) Theme Park.
On July 25, the representatives from the three districts selected badminton for the future exchange program. On the 26th, the head of Jungnang (RYU Gyeonggi) and the head of Meguro (AOKI Eiji) established sister/friendship cities relation between the two districts, forming the trilateral sister relations among Dongcheng, Meguro, and Jungnang.
The Meeting of the Representatives from the Three Districts in 2019
(Source: Jungnang District)
