🇰🇷 Gunpo, formerly romanized as Kunp'o, is a small city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province, located south of Seoul in the Seoul National Capital Area. It borders Anyang to the north, Uiwang to the east, and Ansan to the south and west, and is connected to its neighbours and to Seoul by lines 1 and 4 of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway. Gunpo is also home to three stops on the Gyeongbu Line, a national railway that links it to the rest of the country. Although 73.2% of the city is green-space, owing largely to Surisan and various smaller mountains, Gunpo contains several urban areas. The city's downtown core is Sanbon New Town, a commercial hub which centres on a pedestrian "street of culture" that Gunpo has designated as one of its eight scenic locations.
Gunpo was promoted from town to city in 1989 due to the rapid urban and industrial growth of Seoul, and large-scale housing projects were immediately begun. Hansei University, a Christian institute of post-secondary learning, is in the city, as are forty-four other public schools and a number of private academies. With eighty-three percent of its citizens holding public library memberships, Gunpo touts itself as a book-reading city, and it also promotes itself as being environmentally friendly and in harmony with nature. Its resident include 2010 Olympic figure skating gold medalist Yuna Kim, who grew up in Gunpo after moving there at the age of six. Sightseeing locations around the city include the Banwol reservoir and the Royal Azaleas Hill, and Surisan is a hiking destination.
1Geography Gunpo is located in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province, south of Seoul in the Seoul National Capital Area. It is nestled in between three other cities, bordering Anyang to the north, Uiwang to the east, and Ansan to the south and the west. At 36.38 km², Gunpo makes up 0.36% of the province's total area. As of 1 January 2004, 17.8% of the city was residential area, 1.8% commercial, 7.2% industrial, and 73.2% greenspace.
Gunpo is divided into nine legal dongs (neighborhoods). Four of those dongs—Sanbon-dong, Geumjeong-dong, Dang-dong, and Dangjeong-dong—are heavily urbanized residential, commercial, and industrial areas. Located in the northern end of Gunpo, they are serviced by Seoul Subway Lines 1 and 4. In the south of the city, Bugok-dong, Daeya-dong, and Domagyo-dong are largely rural, although Bugok-dong has seen recent urban development and Domagyo-dong has been earmarked for a development project of its own. Daeya-dong also contains a small urban area, which is serviced by Daeyami Station. On Gunpo's west side, Dundae-dong and Sokdal-dong contain large parts of the Surisan mountain and are mostly mountainous, with farmland comprising the majority of their valley areas. Surisan also extends into western Sanbon-dong.
Gunpo can alternatively be split into its eleven administrative dongs. Under this system, Sanbon 1-dong, Sanbon 2-dong, Gwangjeong-dong, Gungnae-dong, and Suri-dong replace the legal neighborhood of Sanbon-dong, while Geumjong-dong, Ogeum-dong, and Jaegung-dong fall within the borders of the legal Geumjeong-dong. The administrative neighborhoods of Gunpo 1-dong and Gunpo-2 dong replace the legal Dang-, Dangjeong-, and Bugok-dongs, while the administrative Daeya-dong covers the entirety of four legal dongs: Daeya-, Dundae-, Sokdal-, and Domagyo-dongs.
1Transport The Gyeongbu Line, a major South Korean railway line, runs through Gunpo, making stops at Geumjeong, Gunpo, and Dangjeong Stations, all three of which are also stops on Seoul Subway Line 1. Dangjeong Station services Hansei University and its surrounding downtown. Citizens of Bugok-dong's primary residential and commercial area can easily access Uiwang Station—one stop south of Dangjeong, the station falls within Uiwang's city limits but straddles the Gunpo/Uiwang border. It is similarly a stop on both Seoul Subway Line 1 and the Gyeongbu Line.
Geumjeong Station is also a transfer station to Seoul Subway Line 4. Southwest of it on Line 4 is Sanbon Station, which provides access to Sanbon New Town, as well as Surisan and Daeyami Stations. On Line 4, a passenger can ride south-west into Ansan and Siheung before transferring to a train for Incheon, or north-east into Anyang, Gwacheon, and Seoul. Line 1 runs north into Anyang, Seoul, and several cities north of Seoul, or south into Uiwang, Suwon, and beyond.
Two major highways run east–west through Gunpo: the Seouloegwaksunhwan Expressway in the north, and the Yeongdong Expressway in the south. A number of local buses run frequently in Gunpo, some of which provide rapid service to other cities or to the Incheon International Airport. Buses and the Seoul Subway can both be ridden using Korea's T-money metro card. Although there is no inter-city passenger bus terminal in Gunpo, both the Ansan Bus Terminal and the Anyang Bus Terminal are a short distance away. Bugok-dong does house a cargo bus terminal, but local residents banded together in 2003 to oppose its expansion, complaining of the traffic congestion and the air and noise pollution that it produced.
1Gunpo has a population of over 286,485 people. Gunpo also forms part of the wider Seoul metropolitan area which has a population of over 9,963,000 people.
To set up a UBI Lab for Gunpo see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork
Twin Towns, Sister Cities Gunpo has links with:
🇯🇵 Atsugi, Japan 🇨🇦 Belleville, Canada 🇰🇷 Changnyeong Town, South Korea 🇰🇷 Cheongyang, South Korea 🇺🇸 Clarksville, USA 🇺🇸 Ephrata, USA 🇨🇳 Linyi, China 🇺🇸 Moses Lake, USA 🇰🇷 Muan County, South Korea 🇰🇷 Shinan, South Korea 🇰🇷 Sinan, South Korea 🇰🇷 Wanju, South Korea 🇰🇷 Yangyang County, South Korea 🇰🇷 Yecheon County, South Korea🇺🇸 Chesterfield 37.367
🇯🇵 Kashiwazaki 37.371
🇺🇸 Santa Clara 37.35
🇪🇸 Alcalá de Guadaíra 37.333
Locations Near: Gunpo 126.95,37.35
🇰🇷 Uiwang 126.982,37.343 d: 2.9
🇰🇷 Anyang-si 126.933,37.383 d: 4
🇰🇷 Gwacheon 126.997,37.418 d: 8.6
🇰🇷 Hwaseong 126.92,37.252 d: 11.2
🇰🇷 Geumcheon 126.902,37.452 d: 12.1
🇰🇷 Ansan-si 126.833,37.317 d: 11
🇰🇷 Ansan 126.829,37.31 d: 11.6
🇰🇷 Gwanak 126.952,37.478 d: 14.3
🇰🇷 Gwangmyeong 126.866,37.465 d: 14.8
Antipodal to: Gunpo -53.05,-37.35
🇺🇾 Maldonado -54.95,-34.9 d: 19693.6
🇦🇷 Pinamar -56.85,-37.1 d: 19677.5
🇺🇾 Ciudad de la Costa -55.95,-34.817 d: 19631.4
🇺🇾 Montevideo -56.198,-34.907 d: 19623
🇺🇾 Canelones -56.284,-34.538 d: 19587.9
🇦🇷 General Pueyrredón -57.533,-37.983 d: 19614.3
🇺🇾 Florida -56.215,-34.099 d: 19554.4
🇦🇷 Mar del Plata -57.55,-38 d: 19612.5
🇺🇾 Durazno -56.517,-33.367 d: 19472
🇧🇷 Rio Grande -52.099,-32.041 d: 19418.4