Sancheong's Korean-medicine identity is easiest to understand when you begin with a book, not a promise of treatment. Donguibogam was compiled in Korea in 1613 under Heo Jun's editorship and entered UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2009. UNESCO treats it as documentary heritage: a major record of medical knowledge and the history of health care in East Asia. That is different from saying that every modern attraction or herb product associated with its name has proven medical effects. Sancheong has turned that historical association into physical places. Donguibogam Village combines a Korean-medicine museum, exhibition halls, herb gardens, themed outdoor spaces, forest walks and optional experiences. A visitor can therefore encounter traditional medicine as museum history, landscape design, local agriculture and tourism infrastructure in the same day. The annual Sancheong Medicinal Herb Festival extends that model. Its 2026 program mixes exhibitions, performances, local-product markets and hands-on wellness activities with references to Donguibogam and the county's medicinal-herb industry. The festival's own theme, “Sancheong with Korean Medicine, Opening K-Wellness,” shows how the region is consciously translating older medical heritage into today's wellness-tourism vocabulary. That translation is also happening nationally. In 2026, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism began implementing the Healing Tourism Industry Act and expanded support for wellness destinations serving domestic and international visitors. Sancheong therefore sits inside a broader shift: Korean wellness tourism is being organized as an industry that includes nature, food, traditional medicine, meditation, beauty and stays. For travelers, the distinction matters. A museum display can explain how people understood health in the past. A herb market can show what a region grows and sells. A foot bath, meditation session or yoga program can be an enjoyable travel experience. None of those facts, by themselves, establish that a particular product or activity treats a disease. Read that way, Sancheong becomes more interesting rather than less. The county is not simply selling “healing.” It is showing how a centuries-old text, mountain agriculture, museums, festivals and contemporary tourism policy are being assembled into a modern regional identity.