Hwaseong () is a

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Gyeonggi Province Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. It has the largest area of farmland of any city or county in

Seoul Subway Line 1 Seoul Metropolitan Subway Line 1 of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway is a rapid transit and commuter rail line which links central Seoul, South Korea to Soyosan Station in the northeast, Incheon in the southwest, and Sinchang (Soonchunhyang Univ ...

passes through Hwaseong, stopping at Byeongjeom Station. Suin Bundang Line also passes through Hwaseong, stopping at Eocheon Station. Historically, the former Namyang-gun region in the west and the former Suwon-gun region in the east form a heterogeneous landscape due to the large east-west gap due to the area about 1.4 times that of Seoul and the geographical condition stretching from east to west.

History

Universal Studios

On November 27, 2007 the city was chosen as the site for the future Universal Studios South Korea

theme park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

. Originally set to open in 2016, it would have been the world's largest Universal Studios theme park, being larger than all the other four combined. The US$3.1 billion park is expected to create at least 58,000 new jobs. In 2014, the project was put on hold. The plan was restarted in 2015, and K-Water (Korean Water Resources Corporation) was chosen as a business partner. Universal Studios South Korea is no longer under development as of 2020.

Climate

Hwaseong has a

humid continental climate A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: ''Dwa''), but can be considered a borderline humid subtropical climate (

: ''Cwa'') using the isotherm. The city is located in the western area of the

Korean Peninsula Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. The temperatures in winter are low along the coast since it is located in the lower plains and close to the

Yellow Sea The Yellow Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean located between mainland China and the Korean Peninsula, and can be considered the northwestern part of the East China Sea. It is one of four seas named after common colour ter ...

(West Sea), where the water is shallow. Climate Additionally, Siberian air flows directly into the western flatlands of the Korean peninsula, making several areas colder.

Demographics

Hwaseong is populated by 49% male South Korean citizens, 46% South Korean females, and 5% foreign residents. With 236,241 homes, there are on average 2.8 people per registered place of residence in the city. With the exceptions of Byeongjeom 2-dong, Dongtan 2-dong and Dongtan 3-dong, there is a larger number of males than females in every division of the city. Administrative divisions Hwaseong has 4 towns (eup), 9 townships (myeon) and 13 neighborhoods (dong). Each eup and myeon is further divided into villages (ri). In October 2014, Namyang-dong was downgraded to an eup- the first case in South Korea. "Hwaseong is old name of Suwon 'Hwaseong' castle built by king Jeonjo of Yi dynasty. West area mainly called Namyang, East area called new city of Byeongjeom and Dongtan 1 new city. East side new city is under construction as Dongtan 2 city with 300,000 population smart city including SRT Dongtan high speed rail station, Ease side of Gyeongbu expressway in the Hwaseong East area started operation since December 2017. West Hwaseong is segrated by Seohae expressway from Ansan to Pyeongtaek port.

Local products

Many special products are sold in the Hwaseong area that are different from other regions of Gyeonggi-do. There are many facilities that grow products ranging from honey melons to herbs. Additionally, meat and dairy products are also available.

Hangwa ''Hangwa'' () is a general term for traditional Korean confections. With ''tteok'' (rice cakes), ''hangwa'' forms the sweet food category in Korean cuisine. Common ingredients of ''hangwa'' include grain flour, fruits and roots, sweet ingre ...

is also made by local companies as a specialty.

Symbols

*Flower: Forsythia *Tree:

Ginkgo ''Ginkgo'' is a genus of non-flowering seed plants. The scientific name is also used as the English name. The order to which it belongs, Ginkgoales, first appeared in the Permian, 270 million years ago, and is now the only living genus with ...

*Bird:

Pigeon Columbidae () is a bird family consisting of doves and pigeons. It is the only family in the order Columbiformes. These are stout-bodied birds with short necks and short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres. They primarily ...

Sports

Hwaseong is home to the V-League women's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

team Hwaseong IBK Altos and the

K3 League The K3 League is the third tier of South Korean football league system, which was created from the rebranding of the Korea National League (2003–2019) and the former K3 League (2007–2019) into K3 League and K4 League in 2020. 16 teams are ...

football team Hwaseong FC.

Notable companies

* U-JIN Tech Corp.,

friction welding Friction welding (FRW) is a solid-state welding process that generates heat through mechanical friction between workpieces in relative motion to one another, with the addition of a lateral force called "upset" to plastically displace and fuse the m ...

machines

Notable people

* Cha Bum-kun, South Korean football player *

Cho Yong-pil Cho Yong-pil (; born March 21, 1950) is a South Korean singer who is considered one of the most influential figures in Korean popular music. He debuted as a member of the rock band Atkins in 1968 and made his solo debut with the hit single "Co ...

, South Korean pop singer * Lee Yong-jin, South Korean comedian * Seo Soo-jin, South Korean singer/dancer, member of (G)I-dle * Yoon Jeonghan, member of k-pop group SEVENTEEN

Sister cities

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada * Weihai, Shandong, China * Wujiang District, Suzhou,

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

, China * Phú Thọ Province, Vietnam

References

External links

City government website

City Council website
{{Authority control Cities in Gyeonggi Province Hwaseong, Gyeonggibr>음성자이 센트럴시티