About the City

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Environmentally-Friendly Cutting-edge City, a Hub of Asian Culture
Gwangju is the leading city of the Honam region, which is being sought for its cutting-edge industry and culture, and a core middle city leading the development of the southwestern region. For a long time Gwangju has been known as a hometown of justice, art and beauty because citizens have never turned a blind eye to injustice and enjoy art, flavor and taste.

A Sacred Land of Democratization and a City of Democracy, Human Rights, Peace
The history of this virtuous village continued from the honorable troops movement in the late Korean Kingdom to the Gwangju Student Independence Movement and the May 18th, Gwangju Democratization Movement. As a result, Gwangju has been recognized as a city of democracy, human rights, and peace.In particular, the May 18 Democratizaton Movement, in resistance against military rule, set an example for many Asian countries who are aspiring freedom and justice. The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Summit and a Women’s Forum in 2006 and 2007 respectively offered opportunities to raise awareness about the spirit of Gwangju, democracy, human rights, and peace around the world.

A Window on Asian Culture and a Cultural Hub of the World
Gwangju is a city of the arts and has giben birth to many artists including masters of pansori, a traditional Korean song, Lim Bangul, Oriental painter Uijae Huh Baekryun, Chinese modern musician, Chung Uelsung, and poet Park Youngchul. On top of this, Gwangju hosts the Gwangju Biennale and the Design Biennale, which are international festivals of modern art and design, transforming itself as a cultural hub of Asia.Gwangju, with this cultural competitiveness, has tried to renew itself as a hub of Asian culture through a long-term project (from 2003 to 2023). If the National Asian Culture Hall opens to the level of Pompidou in 2012, Gwangju will move toward being the cultural hub of the world. *5 major festivals of Gwangju: Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju Design Biennale, Gwangju Kimchi Festival, Im Bangul Korean Traditional Music Festival, and Gwangju Jeong Yul-seong International Music Festival.

Environmentally-friendly High Tech Industrial City, and a Science Park in Northeast Asia
Gwangju is opening a new era with the environmentally-friendly future high tech industry.It has nurtured next generation strategic industries such as high tech components, new energy, design and culture content along with automobiles, digital electronics, and photonics, developing as a high tech industrial area in 21st Century Northeast Asia. In addition, Gwangju has planted about 10 million trees all across the city, and became the first city to forge a UN City Environment Convention in Korea in order to cut greenhouse gases and make itself a green city. Gwangju, with its harmony among culture, nature, and industry, has tried to realize the dream of being a global city that attracts attention in the 21st Century. Gwangju’s global events: 2010 international Photonics Expo, 2011 International Environment Expo, 2014 World Hydrogen Energy Convention, 2015 Summer Universiade.

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