branch offices to
10 dongs, representing the major administrative regions of the city. The city continued to expand,
absorbing neighboring ri, myeon, and eup, including Pungse-myeon and Guryong-ri
in the early 80s. Throughout this time, new neighborhoods to the southwest that
were collectively known as Cheonan-gun, such as Ssangbond-dong, also grew in
population, and in 1995 Cheonan-gun and Cheonan-si were merged into one large
Cheonan-si. Larger dong that
comprised the city were subsequently separated into smaller factions, such as
Ssangbond-dong into Bongmyong-dong and Ssangyong, which itself was later
separated into Ssangyong 1(il)-dong and Ssangyong 2(i)-dong (and then again
into Ssangyong 2(i)-dong and Ssangyong 3-dong in 2003). In 2002 a city
ordinance promoted the northern fringe village of Jiksan-myeon and the southern
fringe village of Mokcheon-myeon into Jiksan-eup and Mokcheon-eup. This extended the boundaries of the
city to a span of approximately 16 kilometers from north (at Jiksan) to south
(at Mokcheon), and about 12 kilometers from Sunmoon University in the west to
Mount Taejo on the eastern fringe. Including all of its administrative regions
(see below), the city now covers a total area of 636.25 km2
