Gwangju Metropolitan City, located in southwest South Korea, is a metropolitan city with an area of about 501 square kilometers and a population of approximately 1.41 million. It is one of the political, economic, cultural, and educational centers of southern South Korea and is known as “the symbolic city of democratization movement.” Gwangju is also renowned as “the home of South Korean culture and arts,” and in 2004, President Roh Moo-hyun officially designated it as the cultural capital of South Korea.