A Stage of Innovation Emitting Broad and Bright Learning

Gwanggyo-ro forms the structural spine of Gwanggyo New City, a high-tech smart city spanning Suwon and Yongin in Gyeonggi-do. Lined with gleaming glass convention centers, department stores, and cutting-edge government buildings, it feels relentlessly futuristic.

Yet the name 'Gwanggyo' (光敎) reaches back over 1,100 years. According to legend, Wang Geon, the founding king of the Goryeo Dynasty, set up a military camp near a local mountain during his campaigns against the rival state of Later Baekje. One night, he saw a mysterious, brilliant light radiating from the mountain peaks. When he asked local monks to explain the phenomenon, they told him it was the "light (光) of the Buddha's teachings (敎)." Awed, the king formally named the peak Gwanggyosan.

The vast reservoirs nestled at the foot of this mountain have been transformed into Gwanggyo Lake Park, one of Korea's most beautiful urban waterfronts. The boulevard bearing the mountain's name, Gwanggyo-ro, now anchors the Gyeonggi Provincial Government Complex and the Gwanggyo Techno Valley.

It is a fitting evolution: a name originally bestowed to signify the illumination of spiritual teachings now represents a hub of technological innovation and modern urban planning, continuing to emit "light" and "broad learning" into the 21st century.