Pongee is a cloth made of silk thread, a natural protein fiber produced by silkworm cocoons. This gloss is created by scattering light to create colorful reflected light like a prism.

Several types of larvae make protein fibers as they pupate, but not as much as silkworms. Because silkworm cocoons wrap the entire chrysalis with silk thread, humans have long used it as a fiber.

Chinese legend says that Nujo, the wife of an emperor, first made silk. Silk was originally used only by Chinese kings and nobles, but along with the transmission of Chinese culture, it was classified as the most precious fabric in Asia.

In Korea, until the 1970s, silkworm farming was one of the major agricultural specialties that brought a lot of income to rural villages. It started to go down the road.

Recently, silkworm cocoons grown by eating mulberry leaves have become Cordyceps sinensis, which is a special medicine for diabetes, and mulberry fruits and mulberry leaves, which are the fruits of mulberry trees, are in the limelight as well-being foods such as tea and beverages.

Sangju is traditionally known as the home of three hundred people. Sambaek refers to rice, silkworm cocoons, and dried persimmons, and the name was given because the quantity of these items produced in Sangju is the highest in the country. However, despite this reputation, the wind of declining domestic silk industry has also affected Sangju, and currently it has been maintained only in the Hamchang-eup and Ian-myeon areas of Sangju. However, in the case of Sangju, hope for the revival of the silk industry is alive. Recently, as interest in improving the quality of human life has increased, people are looking for natural fibers that are not sensitive to fashion again, and are fascinated by the elegance and warmth of silk fabric.

Hamchang silk has a soft and rugged texture, yet exudes a nostalgic classical beauty, and recently developed products are receiving favorable reviews for their modern sensibilities. At the same time, the Hamchang Silk Museum was opened in Sangju, and a silk theme park was created last April to localize the entire process from breeding silkworms to producing silk products. And every year, the 'Hamchang Pearl Festival' is held here. The silkworm plant in North Gyeongsang Province also recently moved to Hamchang and held a completion ceremony.

The Hamchang Myeongju Agriculture Association raised 300,000 silkworms this spring and produced 500kg of pure domestic raw silk in mid-June, and also raised silkworms in the fall to produce a total of 800kg of raw silk, and production is increasing. The produced raw silk is made into various products such as weaving and shroud, and is being chosen by the growing number of silk maniacs across the country. Because of this, 22 members sold 150,000 pieces of silk last year, posting an all-time high of 15 billion won in sales.

More welcome news follows. Heo Ho (56, CEO of Heo Si Silk), who has been producing traditional silk cloth in Hamchang for more than 30 years, was selected as the best craftsman in Gyeongsangbuk-do in the textile field last June. The farmhouses of Hamchang Myeongju, who reside here, vomited their energy. As such, Hamchang Myeongju is showing new possibilities as another high-income industry in Sangju agriculture.

Sangju City plans to invest heavily in various fields, such as creating mulberry fields, improving silk looms, and developing health functional foods, to restore its old reputation as the nation's best sericulture center and to develop traditional industries like a slow city.

In addition, if we develop various functional foods using silkworms and mulberry leaves as well as silk production through cooperation with the Gyeongsangbuk-do Jamsa Insect Plant and the Sangju Campus of Kyungpook National University, it will be born as the best food in the spotlight in the well-being era.

It will take on the globalization of Hamchang silk by making good use of the unique strengths of Hamchang silk and establishing a strategy to export related clothing to Milan, Italy and Paris, France. We think that our mission is to continuously develop new items that combine traditional culture and agriculture to pass on to future generations a beautiful and livable world where nature and humans are in harmony as well as the development of residence.

Seong Baek-young, Mayor of Sangju