Skip to content
Mixroutes
Gwangju
Former city in South Korea

Gwangju

Gwangju, formerly romanized as Kwangju, was a city in South Korea.

Plan a trip to Gwangju→From Muan (Piseo-ri)

In July 2026, the city was merged with South Jeolla Province into a new provincial-level city called Jeonnam-Gwangju.

Get in

Getting to Gwangju

  1. 01
    Gwangju Airport

    It has domestic flights from Seoul (Gimpo Int’l Airport) and Jeju Int’l Airport.

  2. 02
    Gwangju Songjeong
  3. 03
    Gwangju

    Gwangju has a highly developed bus network because of Kumho Express, which is headquartered in Gwangju.

See

Worth seeing

Travelers coming to Gwangju can experience a slower paced experience than Seoul, despite still feeling the Ppalli Ppalli (빨리 빨리 - hurry hurry) lifestyle of Korea. Gwangju also serves well as a good hub for touring the surrounding province of South Jeolla.

Do

Things to do

  1. 01
    Geumnam-ro and Chungjang-ro Streets

    These two streets form the pedestrian area of downtown, which is large when compared to other downtown areas with the exception of Seoul and Busan.

  2. 02
    Ice

    Ice skating is available at the Pungam World Cup Stadium athletics center for approximately ₩6500.

  3. 03
    Baseball

    A modern ballpark (KIA Champion's field) has been constructed next to the former stadium.

  4. 04
    Soccer

    Because there is Lotte outlet beside of it, you can enjoy shopping too.

  5. 05
    Walk Gwangju River

    The river in Gwangju runs from the southeast to the west of the city with a well-paved footpath along all the parts of the river in the city.

  6. 06
    Cinema

    But CGV Gwangcheon is the best cinema for tourist, because it is at U-square (Gwangju Bus terminal) so you can find it easily.

Eat

Where to eat

As the nickname, ‘The City of Gourmets’, Gwangju features numerous special cuisines for visitors. The reason why there are no 'King' restaurants in Gwangju is all of them are well known in the country and placed higher than standard quality basically. There are dishes you should try in Gwangju that is not typically available in other parts of Korea.

  1. 01
    Songjeong Tteokgal-bi

    Tteok-galbi is a local specialty with an area dedicated to it near Songjeong-ri subway station.

  2. 02
    Ori-tang

    Gwangju duck stew is a special cuisine which is not easy to taste in the other parts of South Korea.

  3. 03
    Sangchu-Twigim

    It is pretty similar to Ssam (eat something wrapped in leaves of lettuce), but the contents are deep-fried food or something like fritters.

  4. 04
    Yuk-jeon
  5. 05
    Hwangsolchon

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Drcbrothephotographer (CC0), Wikimedia Commons.