During Chinese New Year, the China Tourism Office in Seoul launched a photo exhibition featuring 11 cultural cities of East Asia. The exhibition showcases the unique natural and cultural resources of the 11 cities, including Quanzhou in Southeast China’s Fujian province, Qingdao in East China’s Shandong province, Ningbo in East China’s Zhejiang province, and Dunhuang in Northwest China’s Gansu province.

As part of a joint activity of China, Japan and South Korea, the East Asia City of Culture program was first proposed by the cultural ministers of the three countries during the third ministerial conference in Nara, Japan, in January 2011. Since the program's initial launch in 2013, 21 cities from the three countries have been designated as Culture City of East Asia.