Korea's Daejeon and Digital Media City
Daejeon, according to its Wikipedia entry, was just a small village at the start of the 20th Century, but the arrival of the railways quickly formed it into a transportation hub. Now the city of 1.5 million people, roughly centrally located in South Korea, is sometimes called Korea's Silicon Valley. It's still a transport hub for road and rail (Seoul is 50 minutes by high-speed train) but it's also where much of South Korea's science and technology development happens.
Everything from biotech firms to green science happens here, and it's home to the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, which develops robots we cover from time to time. These firms and educational research establishments spin off young companies from time to time, and events like the Daejeon Startup Weekendhelp. It's a 54-hour "intense" affair where participants try to build a mobile or web product in one sitting, and which promotes networking and actually new companies.
Recently Bosch invested $100 million in the city to build high-tech diesel cars, and earlier this year a group of 28 prominent companies formed a new 30 billion won ($26 million) fund called Daekdock Investment to spur growth of startups here.
Korea also has Digital Media City, which is billed as the first "high tech complex" for digital tech in the world. Built on a landfill site near Seoul from 2002, and covering over six million square feet, it's home to firms like LG Telecom and facilities like the Korean Film Archive. It's also the site for the Digital Media City Landmark building, currently under construction and due to be the third tallest in the world at completion in 2015.
