Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Gangnam is a city that holds many stories of modern Korean history. In the 1960s, it was ruined by the Korean War and contested the ranks of the world’s poorest countries; Seoul was confined to the northern part of the Han River and now commonly referred to as “Gangbuk”. The southern part of the Han River was not developed anywhere, and the Gangnam area was also a rural village lined with thatched houses. At that time, it was submerged around the current Samseong Station, and people had to go out wearing rain boots when the water of the Han River overflowed. In 1962, the Seoul city plan was created, and in 1967, the construction plan of the Gyeongbu Expressway connecting Seoul and Busan was announced. Since then, Gangnam began to develop in earnest. he speed of development ignited as the sections were divided and the third Han River Bridge, today’s Hannam Bridge, was built. Apartment complexes were built along the Han River, and important government agencies and prestigious schools in the northern part of the river moved to Gangnam. In a way, it was natural for the newly rich to gather in Gangnam to seize new opportunities. It was the beginning of the “Gangnam Era”. It took only about 20 years for Gangnam to turn from the countryside to Seoul’s outskirts and eventually into a representative space of Seoul. Gangnam-gu is currently home to more than 550,000 people, and it is listed in statistics every time as the area where the wealthiest people live. Gangnam-gu had a gross regional domestic product of 71.85 trillion won ($6 billion USD) in 2019. Gangnam is a business hub and Korea’s economy continues to grow with its center at Teheran-ro of Gangnam and COEX. Gangnam is a city that leads Korea and has an excellent education, culture, and art infrastructures, and is also the center of high-tech medical tourism. Countless people eat, sleep, work, and enjoy in this complex and enormously intertwined with commercial and residential districts as well as global business districts. High-tech industries including IT, trade, and banking, as well as the Korean wave like K-POP, are centered on Gangnam-gu. The colorful lights of Gangnam, the massive forest of buildings, and the cars packed with roads have long been a symbol of Gangnam, which does not sleep for 24 years.