Gohan-eup ( ko, 고한읍) is a town in Jeongseon County, Gangwon Province,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, and the county seat of the county of

Jeongseon Jeongseon (''Jeongseon-gun'') is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea. It is famous as the hometown of "Jeongseon Arirang," a traditional Korean folksong. It is also the hometown of actor Won Bin and footballer Seol Ki-hyeon. Hi ...

. The town has a surface area of 52.32 km² (20.2 mi²) and a population of 9,940. It is located in the far southeast of Jeongseon County and is the southernmost town in the county. It is neighbored by

Sabuk-eup Sabuk-eup (사북읍) is a town in Jeongseon Jeongseon (''Jeongseon-gun'') is a county in the province of Gangwon-do, South Korea. It is famous as the hometown of "Jeongseon Arirang," a traditional Korean folksong. It is also the hometown of a ...

in the north.

History

* 1962: Sabuk-eup chartered. * September 1, 1985: Sabuk-eup and Gohan-eup separate. * June 29, 1998:

Kangwon Land Kangwon Land (hangul:강원랜드) is a South Korean casino and resort company based in Gangwon Province, South Korea. The Company develops abandoned mines, and builds gaming and entertainment facilities. Kangwon Land operates a number of ga ...

is founded and begins construction of Kangwon Land Casino and Hotel.

Economy

Gohan-eup and neighboring

were both heavily dependent on

coal mining Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

to sustain its economy for many years. When coal began losing favor as an energy source to

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

in the 90's, the local economy began to struggle and lag behind. In October 2000,

, Gangwon's largest casino and entertainment company opened Kangwon Land Casino and Hotel in Sabuk-eup, boosting the economy of both of the towns immensely. Kangwon Land opened another attraction, High1 Resort, Korea's largest and most popular Ski resort and lodge boosting the tourism based economies of Gohan-eup and Sabuk-eup even further.

References

External links

정선군 (Jeongseon County)
{{coord, 37.202, 128.853, type:city_region:KR, display=title Towns and townships in Gangwon Province, South Korea Jeongseon County