Growing Excitement for Gwangju's Transformation into a 'Kkuljaem City'

Concrete Plans for '5 Major New Vitality Belts' Including Yeongsangang and Hwangryonggang Exciting Belts

Priority Negotiation Partner for Eodeungsan: Shinsegae Property... Agreement to Be Signed Within the Year

Festival Branding of Gwangju B

A new vitality project that breathes fun and energy into Gwangju is gaining momentum. As Gwangju continues to evolve into a ‘Kkuljaem City’ (a city full of fun), expectations are rising.

Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Kang Gi-jung) is rapidly advancing five major new vitality belts represented by the New Vitality Project, attracting complex shopping malls, and branding as a festival city, moving closer to the vision of ‘Exciting Tourism City Gwangju’ and the goal of ‘achieving 30 million urban users.’

▲ Concrete blueprint for five major urban vitality hubs

Gwangju has completed the blueprint for five major new vitality belts: the ‘Yeongsangang-Hwangryonggang Exciting Belt,’ the ‘Gwangjucheon Ecological Healing Belt,’ the ‘Gwangju Songjeong Station Vitality Belt,’ the ‘Gwangju Station Startup Belt,’ and the ‘Hyochon Station Digital Content Belt.’

On the 26th of last month, the city announced the ‘Yeongsangang 100-ri Road, Y-Project,’ which envisions ‘A New Future for Gwangju 100 Years’ centered on the Yeongsangang River.

The Y-Project realizes four core values?‘Clean Water,’ ‘Exciting,’ ‘Eco,’ and ‘Connection’?through 20 detailed tasks. The total project cost is approximately 378.5 billion KRW, with 5.7 billion KRW planned for next year to begin major project designs.

Notably, the ‘Asia Water History Theme Experience Center’ secured 500 million KRW in the government budget for next year despite national fiscal tightening.

The ‘Gwangjucheon Ecological Healing Belt’ plans to complete the bicycle path maintenance project along the Gwangjucheon by the end of this month.

The ‘Gwangju Songjeong Station Vitality Belt’ opened a parking building with 1,580 spaces in May and plans to start construction by the end of the year to double the size of the Gwangju Songjeong Station building.

The ‘Gwangju Station Startup Belt’ has returned to normal track after resolving the biggest obstacle?the inclusion of the Gwangju Station Urban Regeneration Innovation District in the national pilot project site.

The ‘Hyochon Station Digital Content Belt’ was selected as a candidate site for the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s urban regeneration project in September for the ‘Songam Industrial Complex Eco-friendly Mobility Complex Hub Center’ project, drawing the blueprint for a core digital content space linked with the Gwangju Content Cube (GCC).

▲ Priority negotiator confirmed for Eodeungsan Tourism Complex... Complex shopping mall progressing

Expectations for attracting a complex shopping mall are also growing.

Shinsegae Property Co., Ltd. was selected as the priority negotiator through a third-party public offering for the development of the Eodeungsan Tourism Complex. Accordingly, related follow-up procedures will be completed within the year, and the project will be vigorously promoted with a goal of starting construction in 2025.

In addition, preliminary negotiations on public contributions related to land-use changes for the Jeonbang and Ilsin Textile sites are nearing completion.

As a result, it is expected that at least two complex shopping mall operators will be established in Gwangju.

Accordingly, Gwangju City is operating a New Vitality Administrative Council to pre-review legal, administrative, and technical aspects of the complex shopping mall business plans. Furthermore, the city plans to achieve co-growth of complex shopping malls, small business owners, and traditional markets through one-stop administrative support based on transparency, fairness, and promptness, citizen opinion gathering, continuous efforts to reflect national budget support projects in central government ministries and the National Assembly, and discussion bodies for regional win-win measures.

▲ Creating a park city for rest and healing in Gwangju

The number of urban parks providing citizens with spaces for rest and healing will also increase significantly.

Gwangju plans to create 15 public parks (1,378,000㎡) and 9 private parks across 10 project districts (7,135,000㎡) by 2026.

Among the 15 public parks, Sinchon Park has already been completed, and Hwajeong Park is under construction with a target completion date of December this year.

Private parks including Sinyong, Mareuk, Unamsan, Jungang 1, Jungang 2, and Ilgok Parks have begun construction, and the remaining parks are also accelerating toward completion by 2026. After about a year of difficulties, the Pungam Lake water quality improvement method was finalized by the resident council, speeding up the project.

These parks will feature play and rest areas such as campgrounds and water play zones, and ecological green spaces will be greatly expanded by connecting walking paths between parks separated by roads.

▲ A bustling festival city full of people

The ‘Festival City Gwangju Branding,’ which organically arranges, groups, and links festivals by season to create a story, is also receiving positive reviews.

In spring, over 500,000 people visited Gwangju through events linked with the Gwangju Biennale, a contemporary art festival, Citizen’s Day, and the Fringe Festival. In summer, the Gwangju Street Culture Festa and Beer Fest attracted about 10,000 and 23,000 visitors respectively.

In autumn, the Chungjang Festival and Seochang Silver Grass Festival drew approximately 800,000 and 100,000 visitors respectively. The Chungjang Festival was selected as one of the ‘2023 Top 100 Regional Cultural Attractions’ by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, recognizing it as a representative festival of Gwangju.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju Kimchi Festival and Food Festa, which are being held together from the 3rd to the 6th at Sangmu Citizen’s Park.

In winter, the area from Yangnim-dong to Geumnam-ro to the National Asian Culture Complex to Dongmyeong-dong is developed as a Christmas-specialized tourism zone hosting the ‘Festival of Lights.’

Next year, the city plans to further enhance festival branding by concentrating festival timing and locations according to seasonal concepts.

Kim Jun-young, head of the New Vitality Promotion Headquarters, said, “The New Vitality Project under the 8th elected administration, including the five major vitality belts, Eodeungsan Tourism Complex, and festival city creation, is showing results. Through linkage, collaboration, and coordination of new vitality projects, we will do our best to bring forward the era of ‘Kkuljaem City Gwangju’ and ‘30 million urban users.’”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.