Declares Mayor Jong Myeong-geun of the City
Declares Mayor Jong Myeong-geun of the City
“Hwaseong is well on its way to a one-million-man Special City of Korea”
By Publisher-Chairman Lee Kyung-sik with Feature Editor Kim Hyung-dae
“The Hwaseong City is well on its way to becoming a one-million-man city in the Republic of Korea!” So declared Mayor Jeong Myeong-geun of the Hwaseong City of the Gyeonggi Province some 27.8 miles southwest of the Seoul City at a recent interview with The Korea Post media, publisher of 3 English and 2 Korean-language news media since 1985.
Mayor Jeong then said, “Our city, which was a medium-sized city with a population of 210,000 when it was promoted to a city in 2001, has now grown to achieve a population of 1 million.”
After reaching 1 million people this year, the Hwaseong City will become the fifth special city in the Republic of Korea. The Hwaseong Special City will have a very special city brand value and will become a city that everyone wants to live in, where they can say, "I live on Mars!” (“Hwaseong” which originally means a “Brilliant Castle” also means “Mars” or “Fire Castle” if translated in other Chinese characters.)
As a special city, Hwaseong will have a total of 16 administrative, financial, and business privileges. It will take over some of the powers of the governor of the Gyeonggi Province in matters related to building permits, land development districts, designation and removal of development restrictions, agricultural land use permits, and logistics parks, and will be able to issue local development bonds with the approval of the local council.
However, for full-scale local autonomy revitalization, in addition to the above-mentioned special cases, it is necessary to equip 'special cities', which are metropolitan areas of more than 1 million people, with substantial powers and responsibilities, and to discover autonomous powers that citizens can feel and need to carry out administration.
To this end, according to Mayor Jeong, the Hwaseong City will become an associate member of the Korea Council of Special Mayors next year, and join four other special cities, e.g., Suwon, Goyang, Yongin and Changwon, to organize a network and promote the enactment of the "Special Law for Supporting Special Cities."
Details of the interview with Mayor Jeong follow:
We plan to actively cooperate to expand various autonomous rights of special cities.
We plan to discover special affairs with the private sector, including researchers and the 1 Million Special City Preparation Committee and we are also planning to carry out various activities for the transfer of special authority.
In particular, the City needs to become a special city with the ability to turn citizens' hopes into reality by amending the law to grant special powers to special cities, such as those related to local finances, powers over regional transportation and passenger projects that directly affect citizens' lives, and powers to foster local SMEs and support their exports.
We are a city that looks forward to the future more than the present. We will prepare for the future of Hwaseong Special City in order to realize a city that is a good place for citizens to live in and a city that everyone can be proud to reside in, and we will do our best to create a 'special city like a real special city'.
The Hwangseong City has impressive work plans in the New Year for the attainment of status of the 1 Million City, which the following:
January 2024: Organize and operate the "Hwaseong Special City Authority Discovery TF" to launch the Hwaseong Special City Associate member of the Korea Mayors' Council for Special Cities.
March: Establish and operate a public relations plan to promote the significance of special city and improve citizen awareness of the new status of the city.
Dec. 31, 2024: Successfully meet the criteria for recognizing Special City.
January 2025: Designation as a special city based on meeting the criteria for recognizing the population of a special city (2 years).
March 2025: Hwaseong Special City Launch Ceremony (in conjunction with Hwaseong Citizen's Day on March 21, 2025).
Special City Privileges:
The status of the citizens changes from 'Hwaseong Citizen' to 'Hwaseong Special City Citizen' as a result of the upward change of the city's status as a special city.
--A special city with a very special city brand value, one of only four in the country.
--Maintaining the status of a basic local government but excluding the command and supervision of a significant part of the functions of the province. With the establishment of the legal status of a 'quasi-metropolitan city,' it is located in the middle of the Gyeonggi-do (metropolitan area) and general cities (basic local governments), and the name is also changed from 'Hwaseong City' to 'Hwaseong Special City'.
--Appointment of two vice mayors in special cases, issuance of local development bonds (local council approval)
-- Designation of a land development district pursuant to Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the Land Development Promotion Act (consultation with the Governor)
--Request for a decision to change the urban management plan regarding the designation and release of development restriction zones pursuant to Article 4 of the Act on Special Measures for the Designation and Management of Development Restriction Zones (in consultation with the Governor)
Historical background of the Hwaseong Special City:
During the time of the early Three Kingdoms of Korea, parts of modern-day Hwaseong was controlled by the State of Wonyang, a small statelet that was part of the Mahan confederacy.
According to Wikipedia and other domestic and international reference materials, in 1949, when Suwon was split from the rest of Suwon County, the remaining area of Suwon County was renamed to Hwaseong County, after Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon. On January 1, 1989, the town of Osan was promoted to a city, splitting from Hwaseong County. On March 21, 2001, Hwaseong County would also be promoted to the status of city.
On November 27, 2007 the city was chosen as the site for the future Universal Studios South Korea theme park. 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.
Other important aspects of the Hwasong City:
Climate: Hwaseong has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dwa), but can be considered a borderline humid subtropical climate (Köppen: Cwa) using the −3 °C (27 °F) isotherm. The city is located in the western area of the Korean Peninsula. The temperatures in winter are low along the coast since it is located in the lower plains and close to the Yellow Sea (West Sea), where the water is shallow.[5] 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% female South Korean citizens, 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.[7]
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 is also made by local companies as a specialty.
Sports: Hwaseong is home to the V-League women's volleyball team Hwaseong IBK Altos and the K3 League football team Hwaseong FC, which is based at Hwaseong Sports Town. This sports complex hosted football and basketball matches in the 2014 Asian Games, while the shooting events were held elsewhere in Hwaseong.
Notable personalities hailing from the Hwaseong area:
Cha Bum-kun, South Korean football player
Cho Yong-pil, South Korean pop singer
Lee Yong-jin, South Korean comedian
Seo Soo-jin, South Korean singer/dancer
Yoon Jeonghan, member of K-pop group ‘SEVENTEEN’
Sister cities:
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Weihai, Shandong, China
Wujiang District, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
Phú Thọ Province, Vietnam