Gwangmyeong
Gwangmyeong (Korean: 광명시) is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea. It borders Seoul to the north and northeast, Anyang to the east and south, and Siheung to the southwest.
The KTX Gwangmyeong Station is home to the world's largest IKEA store at 59,000 square meters (640,000 square feet), along with a large Costco store and a Lotte Premium Outlet.
Symbols
Tree : Ginkgo Tree
Flower : Rose
Bird : Korean magpie
History
Gwangmyeong City area was part of the old (or original) Siheung County as with Yeongdeungpo, Guro, and Geumcheon areas. It belonged to West (서면) and South townships (남면) of original Siheung County. In 1914, the two townships were merged into West township of "expanded" Siheung County.
In 1963, the northern part of Gwangmyeong (at that time, the northern part of West Township in Siheung County) area was merged into an expanded Seoul (i.e. districts for urban planning in Seoul. 서울시 도시계획구역) as with Gwacheon (at that time Gwacheon was a township in Siheung County) and Sindo township of Goyang County (now parts of Goyang City which borders Seoul). The neighbourhood of Gwangmyeong (Gwangmyeong-dong) and Cheolsan (Cheolsan-dong) were developed as a residence zone next to Seoul and it was provisionally planned to be administratively merged with Seoul Metropolitan City. In 1974, Gwangmyeong-ri and Cheolsan-ri became a part of the county branch of Gwangmyeong (광명출장소) and in 1979 southern part of Gwangmyeong area became Soha town (소하읍). In 1981, the annexation to Seoul foundered as an unexpected rapid growth of Seoul was a great concern for government officials. Consequently, the county branch of Gwangmyeong and Soha town merged and formed a new city of Gwangmyeong, instead of the annexation to Guro-gu, Seoul.