Daejeon Metropolitan City
Korean Name
Revised Romanization	Daejeon Gwangyeoksi
McCune-Reischauer	Taejŏn Kwangyŏksi
Hangul	대전 광역시
Hanja	大田廣域市
Short Name	Daejeon (Taejeon; 대전; 大田)
Statistics
Population	1,438,778 (2003)
Area	539.84 km²
Government	Metropolitan City; Capital of South Chungcheong
Administrative Divisions	5 wards ("Gu")
Region	Hoseo
Dialect	Chungcheong
Location Map

Daejeon Metropolitan City is a metropolitan city in the centre of South Korea, and the capital of South Chungcheong Province. It is the fifth largest city of South Korea with a population of 1,438,778 at the end of the year of 2003.

History

Before Gyeongbu railway passed through Daejeon, it was a small field called as Hanbat . In 1905 Gyeongbu railway started to transport, a station is built on the way from Seoul to Busan. Soon Honam railway was built to split at Daejeon. In 1932, the capital of Chungnam province moved from Gongju to Daejeon.

Geography

Latitude : N 36° 10' 50" ~ 36° 29' 47", Longitude : E 127 14' 54" ~ 127 33' 21"

For Daejeon is located in the middle of South Korea, it's the gateway to Yeongnam and Honam. It's 167.3km from Seoul, 294km from Busan and 169km from Gwangju.

Transportation

Daejeon is the center of transportation, two highway backbones, Gyeongbu highway and Honam highway join in Daejeon and two major railways, Gyeongbu railway and Honam railway meet in Daejeon. KTX passes through Daejeon, it takes less than one hour from Daejeon to Seoul.

Culture

In 1993, an international exposition (Expo '93) was held at Daejeon, and the EXPO Bridge was built for the event.

The city is also home to K-League soccer club Daejeon Citizen.

Downtown

Daejeon has become the recipient of the country's effort to decentralize certain ministries of the national government. The middle of the city or the new downtown called Dunsan is where the effort has manifested itself. Newer, shiner, albeit structurally similar apartment complexes to that of the rest of the city, sprung up around the new government structures being constructed concurrently in just a few short years starting from the mid-1990s. Newer municipal buildings including the city's courts and the province's main parliamentary building soon followed. The result is a several square mile neighbourhood full of restaurants, standard Korean western-type bars and coffee shops. The area is a place for the workers of the new Daejeon to live close to their offices, most able to walk to work, and dine and shop in a new urban environment.

Administrative divisions

Daejeon is divided into 5 wards ("Gu").

See also

• List of Korea-related topics

External link

• http://www.metro.daejeon.kr

Expo bridge

View of Daejeon