Changwon

Changwon
	Changwon; 창원
	— Municipal City —
	Korean transcription(s)
- Hangul	창원시
- Hanja	昌原市
- Revised Romanization	Changweon-si
- McCune-Reischauer	Ch'angwŏn-si
	View of Changwon
	; Emblem of Changwon
	; Emblem of Changwon
Country	South Korea
Region	Yeongnam
Administrative divisions	1 eup, 2 myeon, 12 dong
	Area
- Total	292.65 km2 (113 sq mi)
	Population (2008)
- Total	503,930
- Density	1,803.8/km2 (4,671.8/sq mi)
- Dialect	Gyeongsang

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City Hall

Changwon is a city in and the capital of South Gyeongsang Province in South Korea. The city is approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Busan on the Namhae Expressway. The city proper has a population of 503,930 (2008). Along with adjacent cities of Masan, Jinhae, and Jangyu in Gimhae, Changwon constitutes Ma-Chang-Jin metropolitan area, which has a population of approximately 1.2 million.

[edit] History

The city is relatively new. It was established in 1974 to be an industrial and residential centre, as well as the provincial capital.

[edit] Business and industry

Changwon is a hub of factories for many major companies, including Samsung Techwin, GM-Daewoo, LG Electronics, Hyundai Rotem, Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, Doosan Infracore, Doosan Engine.

[edit] Education and research

Changwon National University was created in 1991 and it has approximately 15,000 graduate and undergraduate students.

The city contains the head offices of archaeological research institutes such as the Gyeongnam Institute of Cultural Properties and the Changwon National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (see below) and is the centre of cultural heritage resource management and contract archaeology in South Gyeongsang.

[edit] Shopping

The city has four large department stores, Lotte, Daedong, Home Plus and Emart.

[edit] Tourism, sports, and recreation

Changwon has many parks and gardens throughout the city which give it a different feel from places such as Busan. For example, Yongji Park contains a small lake with a jet-fountain and hosts laser light shows at night.

The Junam Reservoir is an important bird migration site and the largest in Korea. During the peak winter season, an average of 30 to 40,000 birds a day can be seen there.^{[citation needed]} There is a birdwatching festival there each year.

Azaleas bloom on the hillsides around Changwon for a short time in the spring and the city hosts two one-day festivals to commemorate the phenomena. The city is close to the seaside city of Jinhae. Each spring Jinhae has a tree blossom festival that attracts many Changwonians.

Changwon is also home to the Changwon Exhibition Convention Center (CECO), located adjacent to the City 7 lodging and shopping complex. CECO hosted the 2008 conference of parties to the Ramsar Convention.

It is home to three soccer clubs and a basketball club- K-League side Gyeongnam FC, National League side Changwon City FC, K3 League team Changwon United, and KBL team Changwon LG Sakers.

[edit] City symbol, mascots, and slogan

The symbol of Changwon is a blue square with each line being extended slightly in one direction. Four small squares appear outside the square on the non-extended side of each line. They are colored red, green, yellow and blue following clock-wise starting from the top. The extended square represents the planned road network system of Changwon, and the city advancing in all directions. The small blue square represents the state-of-the-art industrial base, the small green square represents the environment friendly city, the small yellow square represents the citizens, and the small red square represents the energy that represents that sustains the city.

The mascots of Changwon are Chang-e and Won-e; two extraterrestrial holding hands. Chang-e is blue with headphones for ears symbolizing technology development. Won-e is green with leaves for ears symbolizing the natural environment. These show that Changwon is where the environment and technology coexist harmoniously.^[1]

The city's slogan is "Young City Changwon".