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Changwon

City in South Gyeongsang, South Korea

  • 13 min read
  • 11 chapters
Downtown Changwon
Edward Seongho Jeon ( talk ) · CC BY-SA 3.0

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Through South Korea, Planned community and Iron Age

The region has been inhabited since the Bronze Age, and its urban areas have been renamed and re-organized many times throughout history. In 1974, with the creation of the Changwon National Industrial Complex, the three historically interdependent cities of Masan, Jinhae District, and Changwon began to undergo significant economic development, growing into an important industrial centre. On 1 July 2010, the cities of Changwon, Jinhae, and Masan merged to form the current city of Changwon.

As Korea's first planned city, modeled after Canberra, Australia, Changwon uses accessible urban planning including many parks and separate residential and industrial areas. The city has also branded itself an "environmental capital" with the municipal government actively participating in climate change conferences and committing to the development of sustainable policies like the globally recognized bike-sharing program, Nubija.

History

Early history

Populated since the early Bronze Age, the area surrounding Masan Bay would have been a wide open region between the ocean and the hilly lands of the coastal plain. Today ruins can be found in the area dating from the Iron Age. Typical Iron Age landmarks include Bangyedong monuments, dolmens, holy mounds, lower molar sites, and dolmens from Bronze Age settlements.

In 209 AD, during the Three Kingdoms period, the area was named Gulja-gun, a province of the Silla kingdom. During the Unified Silla Period, this region was renamed to Uian-gun in 739 AD, during the reorganization of all Silla provinces, then in the Goryeo Period, to Uichang-hyeon.

The name Changwon was first used in 1408 during the Joseon period, when King Taejong established the city as Changwon-bu. In 1415, he renamed Changwon-bu to Changwon-dohobu. Later during the King Sunjo Period (1601), it became Changwondae-do hobu.

In 1895, the country was reorganized into 23 divisions by King Gojong, and Changwondae-do hobu was split into Changwon-gun and Ungcheon-gun. In 1908 Ungcheon-gun merged with nearby Jinhae-gun. During the Japanese colonial period, the city became known as Masan-bu, and Masan Port was opened. Eventually, Changwon was separated from Masan-bu.

Post-Korean War

In 1970, the Masan Free Export Zone was opened to encourage foreign business to move to the area. In 1974, Changwon was selected to be an industrial and residential centre, as well as the provincial capital. The Changwon Industrial Complex was built in the south of the city, while Changwon began urban planning modelling itself after Canberra, Australia.

The country's longest straight road was constructed in Changwon, with a length of 15.27 kilometres (9.49 mi), with the industrial park to the south and residential complexes constructed to the north. This road, Changwon Daero, is meant to serve as an airplane runway in a state of emergency as Changwon was designed to be South Korea's emergency backup capital city. Underground walkways are able to serve as bomb shelters and roads and buildings in the planned city are numbered for efficient use in evacuation.

In 1985, the Korean War Monument (충혼탑) in Changwon's Uichang gu was constructed. The 47.1 metres (155 ft) monument is "dedicated to the 1,142 soldiers from Gyeongsangnam province that died in the Korean War."

On 1 July 2010, the three neighboring cities of Masan, Changwon and Jinhae unified to create Unified Changwon City, with a population of 1.04 million.

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