Friday 3 April 2009

Discover Korea #2: Daegu (THE EAST Campaign in Association with Korea Tourism Organization)


History
The emergence of Dalgubeol, the first tribal state in the Daegu (大邱, great hill) area, was on the hilly grounds. The tribe’s occupied low hills and built walls of earth mounds encompassing their residential area to defend against the invasions of other tribes. The first appearance of the name, Daegu (大邱), in history was in the period of King Gyeongdeok’s region of the Silla Kingdom.
It had been called Dalgubeol (達句伐), Dalbulseong (達弗城) and Dalguhwahyeon (達句火縣) by the local people and by the people in the country meaning the great plane and great hill. This meaning and name trandformed in Daegu which is expressed in the Chinese characters. The during title of Daegu as it is used today was officially confirmed in King Jeongjo’s period during the Joseon Dynasty. The delay of using the title was due to the latter “gu” (hill) because it has the same pronounciation and meaning of the name of the great founder of Confucianism, Gu of Gong gu. The use of the name was a blaspheme to him.
In 1949, Daegu’s administrative designation was changed from Daegu-bu to Daegu-si. During the Korean War, which broke out in 1950 and lasted to 1953, Daegu became one of the few surviving cities along with Busan because of the Nakdong-gang River that flows along the western boundary. During the wartime, many artists from all regions of Korea gathered in Daegu, creating a springboard for Korean contemporary art.
On February 28th 1960, Daegu high school students started an anti-dictatorship movement to fight against the Lee Seung-man Regime. This movement was the initiation of the 4.19 Movement, a large nationwide protest by Korean students to achieve political democracy in Korea. In 1981, Daegu-si was raised to Daegu-jikhalsi, taking many bordering regions into its territory. In 1988, a new district Dalseo-gu was made to have a total of 7 gu offices throughout the city. In January 1995, Daegu was renamed again to Daegu-gwangyeoksi, a self-governing city. Lastly, in March 1955, Daegu received 8 administrative districts as the present, 7 gus and 1 gun (Dalseong-gun).

Economic Development
Daegu has a well-organized city infrastructure for enterprises to manage their business perfectly. Daegu’s economic structure is changing into a competitive one through the Milano Project, leading machinery businesses and high technology industries. The Milano Project was planned by the municipal government to restructure Daegu’s textile industry into a high-tech fashion industry.
Daegu’s gross regional domestic product was 17,120.4 billion won in 2000, occupying 3.4 percent of Korea’s GNDP. Daegu’s GRDP consists of 0.8% of primary industry, 24.2% of secondary manufacturing industry and 75.0% of tertiary service industry. Daegu has a total of 5,992 manufacturing enterprises, which consist of 36.2% textile companies and 43% machinery, metal engineering and auto parts businesses. 99.6% of the 5,992 enterprises belong to small or medium enterprises. Daegu’s regional textile industry occupies 13.9% of the total production within Korea’s textile industry with 11.9% of corporations. The Guji Complex is being built as an environment-friendly zone with high-tech industries. Daegu’s 2001 exports amounted to 24,300 million dollars and imports amounting to 12700 million. The city also invites international buyers from abroad to talk trade counselling and to dispatch trade delegations to the world.

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