Goyang-si

Goyang was rice paddies within living memory. As recently as the 1980s, this area northwest of Seoul was agricultural land—the kind of flat, fertile plain that had fed Korean kingdoms for centuries. Then South Korea's government designated it as a new town in 1992, part of a systematic programme to relieve Seoul's housing pressure by building satellite cities along subway lines. Ilsan New Town, the planned district within Goyang, broke ground in 1992 and accepted its first residents in 1996. A city of over a million people was conjured from farmland in less than a decade.

The speed was possible because of infrastructure planning. Seoul's subway Line 3 and the Gyeongui-Jungang Line connected Goyang directly to central Seoul. The government built apartment complexes—the dense, uniform tower blocks that define Korean urbanism—alongside schools, hospitals, and commercial centres. KINTEX (Korea International Exhibition Center), one of Asia's largest convention centres, opened in Goyang in 2005, giving the city an anchor institution that attracts 3 million visitors annually. The Hallyu Wave of Korean entertainment found a base here: CJ ENM and other media companies operate from Goyang's studio complexes.

Goyang's population reached 1.08 million by 2024, making it Gyeonggi Province's third-largest city. The economy runs on services, retail, and the convention/entertainment sector rather than manufacturing—a deliberate departure from older Korean industrial cities. The residential towers that define the skyline house commuters who work in Seoul but live in Goyang for the lower housing costs. Average apartment prices are roughly 60% of Seoul's, creating the cost arbitrage that sustains the satellite city model.

The risk is demographic. South Korea's birth rate—0.72 per woman, the world's lowest—threatens the growth model that built Goyang. A city designed for young families depends on young families continuing to exist. The apartment towers were built for a population curve that has since inverted.