Welcome

The city people from around the world aspire to live in
The city people from around the world are eager to make friends with

Welcome to the website of Gwangju Metropolitan City,
"Hub City of Asian Culture" and cutting-edge industrial city
in North East Asia.

The 21st century, century of the global village,
is a cultural era when communication and emotions are shared through culture.
Culture tells the story of cities to cities and people all over the world thanks to the help of IT technology.

Gwangju, which has long been a leading cultural city in Korea, continues to blossom. Based on its cultural traditions and heritage, Gwangju hosts the Gwangju Biennale every other year, an international arts festival where oriental arts and modern arts co-exist.

Gwangju, which dreams of becoming an international cultural city, hopes to play a role as a window of communication between Asia and other societies in the global community by building the Asian Culture Complex International by 2012.

The cultural heritage of Gwangju is consistent with the May 18 Democratic Movement symbolizing democracy, human rights and peace. Whenever Korea faced crises, the spirit of Gwangju has led its people to be at the forefront of the democratic movements in Korea with the Gwangju Democratic Movement, in turn affecting other Asian countries and becoming a beacon of hope and a city that is a defender of democracy, human rights and peace.

Gwangju is a leading cutting-edge industrial city which achieved its export target of $ 10 billion through the LED, automotive and electronics industries. Gwangju joined the ranks of the 5 major industrialized LED countries including Germany, Russia, and Japan and will play host to the "2009 Gwangju International LED EXPO", showcasing the power of the unique LED industrial cluster of IT powerhouse Korea.

The city of Gwangju is going to host the 'Summer Universiade 2015', which is a sports festival for university students from about 170 countries who will become the future leaders who pave the way for the next 100 years. Gwangju has been transforming itself into a city in which 'the people of the world aspire to live in and are eager to make friends with'.

I hope to have a chance to invite all of you to Gwangju and ask for your unsparing interest and affection. Thank you.

Mayor Gwangju Metropolitan City, Park Kwangtae

• Major Office Website : http://gwangju.go.kr/mayor/ [Korean]

• Division : Marketing Planning Division of the City Marketing Headquarters
• Contact : +82-62 -613-3075