Daejeon

Daejeon (in Hangul: 대전 in Chinese characters: 大田) is a city located at the center of the South Korea, slightly in the west. It is to 150 km in the south of Seoul.

In spite of the adoption of the new system of romanisation of the Hangul, the old writings Taejŏn and Daejon remain very much used. Daejeon means large field in Korean, which one finds in vernacular name hanbat (한밭) of the same direction: 한밭大學校 Hanbat University, for example.

It is the fifth town of Korea, it counts 1.438.778 inhabitants for 539,84 km ² (in 2003) and is indicated by its scientific profile.

History

It is thought that the zone of Hanbat (current Daejeon), was inhabited since the time of the Paléolithique. During the Bronze Age which followed, it constituted a peripheral zone in the North of Mahan which was one of the three existing Hans at this time.

Around the third century, the dynasty of Baekje , which was founded along the basin of Hangang (current Gwangju), conquered Mahan and increases its territory, by extending it to the southernmost coast of the peninsula. Making a success of its expansion, Baekje installed its capital with Ungjin (current Kongju) and called the zone of Daejeon Usul-gun . Usul-gun was regarded as one of the strategic zones at the time of the war of unification of the three kingdoms, Koguryeo , Baekje , and Shilla .

When the unification of all the territory was finally carried out under the dynasty of Shilla at the seventh century, Usul-gun was famous Pip' ung-gun . Koryeo divided this zone into Hoedeok-hyeon and Chinjam-hyeon .

With the introduction of a system of “eight provinces” the 13th year of the reign of the king Taejong of the dynasty of Choseon (1413), both hyeon were famous gun - Hoedeok-gun and Chinjam-gun . It is at this time that the zone was named Hanbat , meaning the “large field”.

Daejeon accommodated the World Fair of 1993. The site of the Expo-Park is always present at Yuseong-gu.

In 2002, it was one of the cities to receive the Football world cup.

Geography

Daejeon, located in a large central plain, is a node of the Korean grid system. The highway coming from Seoul separates there in north from the city to serve south-west and south-east. Since March 2004, date of inauguration of the train at high speed in South Korea, KTX (see also TGV) passes to Daejeon to go to Seoul to north and Busan to south-east. The line for Mokpo in south-west being in construction.

In the North-West of the city is the National park of Gyeryongsan (鷄龍山國立公園), the “mountain of dragon-chicken”. It is very popular like place of excursion of mountain, but also for its temples Gap-its (甲寺), Donghak-its (東鶴寺), and Shinwon-its .

A underground line energy of the stage of the world cup (Yuseong-gu) to the station (Dong-gu) was brought into service the March 17th 2006.

Science

Daejeon became the scientific capital of South Korea by political will to extremely create a scientific pole at the end of the Sixties. The majority of the important research centres are located in the valley of Daedeok, in the north of the city, in the field of the nuclear power, telecommunications, biology, chemistry… One will also note the presence of the KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute off Science and Technology) which passes to be the best scientific university of the country, right in front of Postech de Pohang, but also of the ICU (Information Communication University)

Culture

The city is re-elected for its hot baths, located at Yuseong-gu .

From a gastronomical point of view, the local speciality is the " muk" , a paste of frozen of nipples very appreciated by the inhabitants: one makes the voyage by far to taste it.

Administration

Administrative divisions:

  • Daedeok-ku (대덕구; 大德區)
  • Dong-gu (동구; 東區)
  • Chung-gu (중구; 中區)
  • Seo-gu (서구; 西區)
  • Yuseong-gu (유성구; 儒城區)

Twinnings

Zh-classical: 大田廣域市

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