96 Fun Facts About Seoul

By tradition, Seoul's story begins in 18 BC as the seat of which of Korea's Three Kingdoms?

Baekje's first capital, Wiryeseong, is thought to lie under the earthen walls of Pungnap Toseong in southeastern Seoul; in 475 Goguryeo seized the valley and Baekje's court fled south to Ungjin.

The word 'seoul' is a native Korean common noun meaning what?

'Seoul' is simply the native Korean word for capital city; unlike most Korean place names it has no Chinese characters, so Chinese speakers long called it Hancheng.

Under Japanese colonial rule from 1910, Seoul was renamed what?

Keijō, read Gyeongseong in Korean, was the city's name from 1910 to 1945; Japan also stripped it of its standing as an independent capital and placed it under Gyeonggi Province.

Which founder of the Joseon dynasty chose Hanyang, today's Seoul, as his new capital in 1394?

Yi Seong-gye, enthroned as King Taejo in 1392, moved the court from Gaegyeong to Hanyang; by 1396 the new capital had its main palace and a ring of walls with eight gates.

Which US general's amphibious landing west of Seoul led to the city's recapture in September 1950?

Douglas MacArthur's landing put UN troops behind the North Korean lines and Seoul was retaken within two weeks; the city changed hands four times in all before the front settled in 1951.

Which planned town south of Seoul has been South Korea's de facto administrative centre since 2012?

Sejong, a purpose-built city carved mostly from South Chungcheong, has housed many ministries since 2012; a 2004 Constitutional Court ruling kept Seoul the capital by 'customary constitution'.

The hero of which Korean screen hit comes from Ssangmun-dong, a neighbourhood in northern Seoul?

Squid Game's Seong Gi-hun and his friend Cho Sang-woo both come from Ssangmun-dong, because creator Hwang Dong-hyuk gave them his own childhood district; it is also the setting of the drama Reply 1988.

Which mountain forms Seoul's northern edge?

Bukhansan rises to 836 m on Seoul's northern rim; after the Manchu invasions exposed the capital, King Sukjong ringed its peaks with the Bukhansanseong fortress in 1711 as a royal refuge.

Which colonial landmark stood in Gyeongbokgung's grounds until 1995–96?

The Government-General Building, the colonial headquarters finished in 1926, later housed the national museum; its demolition began on Liberation Day 1995, six centuries after the palace was founded in 1395.

Which king led the creation of the Korean alphabet, Hangul, at Gyeongbokgung during his 1418–1450 reign?

Sejong the Great introduced Hangul because Chinese characters fitted Korean poorly and left most commoners unable to read; the script was published in 1446 in the text Hunminjeongeum.

Which invasion saw Gyeongbokgung and Seoul's other royal palaces burn?

The Imjin War, Japan's 1592–98 invasions under Toyotomi Hideyoshi, left the palace a ruin for some 270 years until Heungseon Daewongun's 1860s rebuilding.

Which Seoul palace, famed for its Secret Garden, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997?

Changdeokgung, begun in 1405 as a secondary palace, follows the hillside instead of a strict axis; most kings preferred to live there, and UNESCO listed it for the way its halls fit the terrain.

The N Seoul Tower stands on the summit of which mountain in central Seoul?

Namsan's tower went up in 1971 as a TV and radio transmitter, but its observation decks stayed shut on security grounds and opened to visitors only in October 1980.

Which 123-floor skyscraper was still South Korea's tallest building as of 2025?

Lotte World Tower rises 555 m; it was cleared only after the government agreed to shift a runway at a nearby air base by three degrees, at Lotte's expense, to keep flight paths away from it.

Which architect designed the curving design plaza at the east gate, opened in 2014?

Zaha Hadid's design plaza opened in 2014 as a flowing, neofuturist landmark; digging on the site exposed buried stretches of the old city wall, which were restored in the park beside it.

The Cheonggyecheon stream in downtown Seoul was restored in 2005 after decades buried beneath what?

An elevated expressway, finished in 1976, covered the stream until the city began tearing it down in 2003; within five years the fish species in the reopened water had risen from 4 to 25.

Which mayor of Seoul, later president, initiated the Cheonggyecheon restoration in July 2003?

Lee Myung-bak, Seoul's mayor from 2002 to 2006, made the stream's restoration his signature project; he was elected president in December 2007.

Which 1988 Seoul Olympics demonstration sport won medal status in 2000?

Taekwondo was shown at Seoul and again at Barcelona in 1992 without counting for medals; the IOC voted in 1994 to make it a full Olympic sport, and it made that debut in Sydney.

What animal was Hodori, the mascot of the Seoul Olympics?

A tiger: 'Ho' comes from horangi, the Korean word for the animal, 'dori' is a pet form used for boys, and the name Hodori was chosen from 2,295 suggestions sent in by the public.

Which country joined North Korea's boycott of the 1988 Seoul Olympics after also skipping Los Angeles in 1984?

Cuba stayed away in support of North Korea's demand to co-host the Games; Ethiopia, Nicaragua and Madagascar also stayed away, yet 159 nations came, the most of any Olympics in the Cold War era.

Which Canadian sprinter won the Seoul 100 metres in 9.79 seconds before a doping disqualification?

Ben Johnson's sample contained the steroid stanozolol and he was disqualified three days after the race; the gold and the title passed to Carl Lewis, the American he had beaten on the track.

Seoul World Cup Stadium hosted what at the 2002 FIFA World Cup?

The opening ceremony and first game came to Seoul on 31 May 2002, when debutants Senegal stunned France 1–0; the stadium later staged South Korea's semi-final loss to Germany.

Whose bronze statue, unveiled in 1968, stands at the southern end of Gwanghwamun Plaza?

Yi Sun-sin's 17-metre monument has stood in central Seoul since 1968; in 2010 a crane lifted the admiral off his column for 40 days of repairs, his first absence in 42 years.

Seoul's Line 1 subway replaced which form of transport along the old Bell Street in the early 1970s?

Streetcars ran through Seoul from 1899, when the Hanseong Electric Company opened a line along the street, until the network closed in November 1968.

Seoul's main international airport, opened in 2001 on Yeongjong island, is called what?

Incheon International was built by filling in the shallow sea between Yeongjong and Yongyu islands; since March 2001 it has been South Korea's main gateway to the world.

Which district on Seoul's south bank is the city's byword for wealth and private academies?

Gangnam, literally 'south of the river', was mostly rice paddies until the state pushed development there in the 1970s; Psy's 2012 hit 'Gangnam Style' carried the name worldwide.

What does Seoul's Seonjeongneung park protect?

Joseon royal tombs: King Seongjong and Queen Jeonghyeon lie here beside their son King Jungjong, whose grave was moved from Goyang; UNESCO lists the site with the dynasty's other tombs.

Which institution has met on Yeouido, an island in the Han River, since 1975?

The National Assembly moved into its hall on Yeouido in 1975; before that it sat in a colonial-era hall downtown, which now houses the Seoul city council.

Which soju brand, founded in 1924, was the world's best-selling spirit by volume in 2021?

Jinro was founded in 1924 in what is now North Korea; uprooted by the Korean War, the company started again in Seoul in 1954 and today belongs to Seoul-based HiteJinro.

What happened in 2008 to Namdaemun, the south gate that had been Seoul's oldest wooden structure?

An arson attack on 10 February 2008 by a 69-year-old man, angry at the price developers paid for his land, destroyed the wooden gatehouse; the restored gate reopened in May 2013.

Which Seoul shopping district, home to the Doota and Migliore malls, is famed for wholesale clothing markets that trade all night?

Dongdaemun's markets long did their trade by night, selling clothes wholesale; the tower malls Migliore and Doota, opened in 1998 and 1999, brought retail shoppers to the same streets.

Which Seoul neighbourhood of tile-roofed hanok lies between Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung?

Bukchon looks ancient, but most of its hanok went up in the 1920s and 30s, when developers such as Chŏng Segwŏn carved the old noble estates into lots for compact Korean-style houses.

Which downtown Seoul street holds the Bosingak pavilion, whose bell rings in the New Year?

Jongno, 'Bell Street', takes its name from the Bosingak belfry, whose bell once signalled the opening and closing of the city gates and is struck 33 times each New Year's Eve.

The Seoullo 7017 Skypark, opened in 2017, spans diagonally over what?

Seoullo 7017 reuses the 1970 road overpass beside Seoul Station as a kilometre-long elevated garden; the name pairs the overpass's 1970 birth with its 2017 reopening.

Seoul's Digital Media City stands beside Nanjido, once the city's what?

Landfill: Seoul's rubbish piled up on Nanjido from 1978 to 1993; the mounds were then stabilised and reopened in May 2002 as World Cup Park, beside the new stadium.

Which Seoul fish market, founded in 1927, sells live seafood through the night south of the Han River?

Noryangjin's market began in 1927 as Gyeongseong Susan beside the main railway station north of the river and moved to its present site in 1971; it never closes.

Where did many residents move after Seoul's population peaked in 1992?

New towns such as Bundang and Ilsan, built from the late 1980s to ease Seoul's housing prices and crowding, drew families out of the city, and its population has drifted down since.

Before 2005, Chinese speakers called Seoul Hànchéng, after which old name of the city?

Hanseong, the city's Joseon-era name, is read Hànchéng in Chinese; it bred mix-ups, since Seoul National University could be read as Hansung University, a different school, so in 2005 Seoul asked for the sound-alike Shǒu'ěr.

In 1897, as Korea remade its monarchy, Seoul was also called Hwangseong, a name meaning what?

Hwangseong means 'the imperial city' (hwang = emperor): the name came into use when the king proclaimed himself emperor in 1897.

Which inventor's company installed the electric lights at Gyeongbokgung in 1887?

Edison's company lit the royal residence inside the palace in March 1887, the first electric lights in Korea; the city's streets had to wait more than a decade for theirs.

Which conglomerate, owner of the baseball Twins, saw both its Seoul teams win national titles in 1990?

LG did the double: its football club, newly moved to Seoul and then called Lucky-Goldstar, won the 1990 K League, and the LG Twins won the Korean Series in their first season under the group's name.

Seoul alone holds which official rank among South Korean cities, placing it level with a province?

Special city is a rank only Seoul holds; its mayor is the one local leader treated as cabinet-level and allowed to sit in on State Council meetings.

Which airport opened in 1939 as a Japanese army airfield and later became Seoul's short-haul airport?

Gimpo, built by the Japanese army in 1939 as an airfield, became Seoul's main international gateway from 1958 and lost that role to the new hub in 2001, keeping domestic and short-haul routes.

Which Seoul district, once aimed at foreign tourists and US soldiers, later became popular with Koreans?

Itaewon grew up beside the Yongsan US Army garrison as a bar-and-shopping strip for soldiers and tourists.

Which of these UNESCO World Heritage Sites stands in central Seoul?

Jongmyo Shrine holds the spirit tablets of Joseon's kings and queens; descendants of the royal family still perform the ancestral rite there on the first Sunday of May, to its own court music.

Seoul's 25 self-governing districts go by which Korean term?

Gu have elected their own district heads only since 1995, when South Korea held its first elections for local leaders since the 1961 coup; each gu is divided in turn into neighbourhoods called dong.

Which Seoul women's university began in 1886 as a mission school with a single pupil?

Ewha Womans University grew from the school Methodist missionary Mary F. Scranton opened with one pupil in 1886; the king gave it the name Ewha, 'pear blossom', the following year.

Which of Seoul's four great gates was demolished under Japanese rule and never rebuilt?

Seodaemun, formally Donuimun, the west gate, was pulled down in 1915 to make way for a tram line and has not been rebuilt; its name survives in a city district and in the old colonial prison.

Heunginjimun, Seoul's east gate, stands out among the city's gates for what defensive feature?

An outer wall, the curved ongseong, shields Heunginjimun because the gate stood on a weak point in the city's defences; the present structure dates from an 1869 rebuild.

By tradition, the vertical signboard of Sungnyemun was hung to shield the capital from which element?

Fire: by feng shui, Gwanaksan to the south was a mountain of flame threatening the palace, and the gate's name and upright signboard were meant to block it; Prince Yangnyeong is credited with the calligraphy.

Why was Sungnyemun no longer 'National Treasure No. 1' after 2021?

Numbers were dropped from every National Treasure in 2021 because people read them as rankings, though they only recorded the order of listing; Sungnyemun had headed the list since a colonial-era register of the 1930s.

What is said to have prompted the demolition of the walls beside Namdaemun in the early 1900s?

A Japanese crown prince's visit: the future Emperor Taishō was deemed too exalted to pass through the gateway, so the walls beside it came down; easing traffic was the reason given for clearing the rest.

Old Seoul Station, the red-brick terminus of 1925, reopened in 2011 as what?

An arts venue, Culture Station Seoul 284, takes its number from the building's listing as Historic Site 284; trains moved to a new terminal next door when high-speed KTX services began in 2004.

Seokjojeon, the columned stone hall completed at Deoksugung in 1910, now houses a museum of what?

The Korean Empire built the hall as a Western-style residence for its royal family, but Japan annexed the country in 1910, the year the hall was finished; it opened as the Daehan Empire History Museum in 2014.

Under Japanese rule, Changgyeonggung palace was stripped down into a park featuring what?

A zoo and botanical garden turned the palace into a pleasure ground renamed Changgyeongwon, 'won' meaning garden; the animals left for a new park outside the city in 1983 and the palace was restored.

Banpo Bridge entered Guinness World Records in 2008 for the world's longest bridge-mounted what?

Fountain: the Moonlight Rainbow Fountain pumps water up from the Han River and sprays it back off the bridge, the jets swaying in time to music under coloured lights after dark.

When it opened in 1985, the gold-clad 63 Building on Yeouido was the tallest building outside where?

The 63 Building was, on completion in 1985, the tallest building outside North America; despite the name only 60 floors stand above ground, the count including three basement levels.

Seoul's first subway line opened in 1974, a year after which other metro on the peninsula?

Pyongyang's metro opened in September 1973, a year before Seoul's; Seoul's Line 1 was built to run through onto the national railways, which is why its trains keep left while later lines keep right.

Seoul Subway Line 2, the city's busiest, is what kind of line?

A circular loop of 48.8 km, Line 2 has no end station, so its trains are labelled 'inner circle' when running clockwise and 'outer circle' the other way; it is Seoul's most heavily used line.

Lotte World's outdoor section, built out on Seokchon Lake, goes by what name?

Magic Island sits in Seokchon Lake, itself a leftover channel of the Han River, sealed off when the river was re-routed from 1971; the indoor Adventure park beside it opened in July 1989.

What floated on Seokchon Lake in October 2014 to celebrate the opening of Lotte World Mall?

A giant Rubber Duck by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, 16.5 m tall, stayed for a month; on its first day an air fan failed and the duck sagged toward the water until crews pumped it up again.

Which activist died from torture in Seoul's colonial prison after the 1919 March First Movement?

Yu Gwan-sun, a 17-year-old schoolgirl who led protests in her home county of Cheonan, died in the prison in September 1920 after beatings and torture; the prison closed in 1987.

Independence Gate (Dongnimmun), raised in Seoul in the 1890s, was modelled on which landmark?

Arc de Triomphe in Paris was the model for the granite gate, planned by Philip Jaisohn after Korea tore down the arch where it had welcomed Chinese envoys; the gate was moved 70 metres in 1979.

The War Memorial of Korea in Yongsan opened in 1994 on the former site of what?

The army headquarters occupied the site until the army moved to Gyeryongdae in 1989; the War Memorial of Korea opened there in June 1994 with six exhibition halls and an outdoor display of aircraft and tanks.

In 2018 the US forces headquarters left Yongsan Garrison for which base south of Seoul?

Camp Humphreys, the largest US military base overseas, took over as headquarters in 2018; most of the Yongsan land in the heart of Seoul is being handed back to South Korea.

Which president opened Seoul's Blue House to the public in May 2022 by moving his office out?

Yoon Suk Yeol moved the presidential office to the Defence Ministry building on taking office in May 2022, and Cheong Wa Dae became a public park; that ended in late 2025, when the presidency moved back in.

Kim Shin-jo, the commando captured alive in the 1968 Blue House raid, was sent to kill whom?

Park Chung Hee was the target of 31 North Korean commandos intercepted near the Blue House in January 1968; Kim Shin-jo stayed in the South and was ordained as a Christian pastor in 1997.

The wave-shaped new Seoul City Hall, opened in 2012, holds a Guinness record for the largest what?

The Green Wall inside Seoul City Hall, seven storeys of plants covering 1,516 m², was certified by Guinness as the world's largest vertical garden; architect Yoo Kerl shaped the roof like traditional eaves.

What did Sampoong Department Store's owner add before its deadly 1995 collapse?

Fifth floor: first meant as a skating rink and then turned into a food court, it sat on a building whose support columns had been cut away to fit escalators; 502 people died when it fell.

What dropped into the Han River on the morning of 21 October 1994, killing 32 people?

A span of Seongsu Bridge, 48 metres long, dropped into the river during the morning rush, killing 32; faulty welding and poor upkeep were blamed, and the rebuilt bridge reopened in July 1997.

The October 2022 Halloween crowd crush in Itaewon was South Korea's deadliest disaster since what?

The Sewol ferry sinking of April 2014, which killed 304, was the last deadlier disaster; 159 people died in the Halloween crush in an alley just 3.2 metres wide beside the Hamilton Hotel.

The first K League match, in May 1983, was played at which Seoul stadium, later razed for a design plaza?

Dongdaemun Stadium, opened in 1925, staged the league's inaugural match on 8 May 1983; its athletics ground ended its days as a flea market before the complex came down in 2008.

Seoul's Olympic Stadium takes its curving profile from what?

Joseon white porcelain gave architect Kim Swoo-geun the stadium's curving outline; he died in 1986, two years before the Olympics it was built to host.

Seoul was due to host the 1970 Asian Games but withdrew, handing them to which city?

Bangkok, which had hosted in 1966, stepped in for 1970 after South Korea pleaded cost and security worries; Seoul finally staged the Asian Games in 1986 as a rehearsal for the Olympics.

Seoul's northern mountain was long called Samgaksan, a name describing what?

Three peaks, Baegundae, Insubong and Mangyeongdae, gave the massif the name Samgaksan, 'three-horned mountain'; in 2003 the state listed the peaks as a national Scenic Site under that old name.

Gwanaksan, the mountain beside Seoul National University, takes its name from what object?

A horsehair hat: Gwanak means 'hat-shaped peak', because the mountain's rocky profile is said to resemble a gat, the traditional Korean hat; it rises 632 m on Seoul's southern edge.

Which ride, Korea's first of its kind, has climbed toward N Seoul Tower since 1962?

Cable car: the ride has climbed the hill since 1962, well before the tower at the top was finished in 1971; a lift opened by the city in 2009 carries riders up to its lower station.

Before becoming Seoul Forest in 2005, the Seongdong site held the city's first what, from 1908?

The city's first water treatment plant began work here in 1908 on what had been a royal hunting ground; a racecourse followed in 1954 before Seoul Forest opened in June 2005.

Before being paved as May 16 Square in the 1970s, the Yeouido Park site was Korea's first what?

The site held Korea's first airport, opened under Japanese rule and used until 1971; it was then paved over as May 16 Square, where Pope John Paul II canonised 103 martyrs in 1984.

The first permanent crossing of the Han River, completed in 1900, was built to carry what?

A railway: the Hangang Railway Bridge opened in July 1900 to carry the Gyeongin Line, the country's first railway, across the river; the concession granted to American James R. Morse in 1896 had passed to a Japanese consortium.

Which park in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, has housed the capital's main zoo since 1984?

Seoul Grand Park opened in May 1984 in Gwacheon, outside the limits of the city it is named for; Line 4 of the Seoul subway has a station named after it.

Tapgol Park in central Seoul is remembered as the place where what was read out to a crowd in 1919?

The Proclamation of Independence was read in the park on 1 March 1919, launching nationwide protests; the park, laid out in 1897 on the site of Wongaksa temple, keeps that temple's ten-storey stone pagoda.

Which downtown temple near Insadong is the head temple of Korea's largest Buddhist order?

Jogyesa took its present name in 1954 to mark its role as chief temple of the Jogye Order; under Japanese rule it was called Taegosa, and an ancient white pine in its yard is a Natural Monument.

Seoul National University's Gwanak campus, opened in 1975, rose on the site of a former what?

A golf course: the Gwanak campus rose on the former Gwanak Country Club below the mountain, consolidating colleges scattered across the city when it opened in 1975.

Yonsei University traces its roots to Gwanghyewon, founded in 1885 as Korea's first what?

Korea's first modern hospital opened in 1885 after missionary doctor Horace Allen treated a queen's nephew wounded in a coup, which won him royal backing; it became Severance Hospital and joined Yonsei in 1957.

Which smart card, part-owned by the city government, pays for Seoul's buses, subways and many taxis?

T-money came in during 2004, when Seoul overhauled its buses and fares: the new system charged by distance and let riders change between bus and subway without paying again.

Seoul's bike-share scheme, launched in 2015, is named Ddareungi after what sound?

A bicycle bell: the name imitates its ring in Korean. The scheme goes back to 2009, when Seoul's mayor saw Montreal's Bixi bikes on a trip and pledged the city a system like it.

Which Seoul market, opened in 1905 as Korea's first permanent market, is famed for bindaetteok?

Gwangjang Market was founded in 1905 by Korean merchants after Japanese interests took control of the older market by the south gate; its food alley is known for bindaetteok, mung-bean pancakes.

The Seoul–Busan Gyeongbu Expressway, pledged in 1967, was modelled on which foreign roads?

The German Autobahn inspired the project after the president travelled on it during a state visit; the expressway opened in full in July 1970 and carries route number 1.

Which Seoul boulevard, lined with office towers south of the river, is nicknamed a 'Valley' for its internet companies?

Teheran-ro got its name in 1977, when Tehran's mayor visited and the two cities agreed to name a street after each other; its internet firms later made it 'Teheran Valley', after Silicon Valley.

Which Seoul megachurch did pastor David Yonggi Cho found in 1958?

Yoido Full Gospel Church started as a tent church with a handful of worshippers, among them Choi Ja-shil, later Cho's mother-in-law, and moved to Yeouido in 1973.

The phrase 'Miracle on the Han River' was adapted from a nickname for which country's postwar boom?

West Germany's postwar recovery, dubbed the 'Miracle on the Rhine', gave Korea the model phrase; Prime Minister Chang Myon used 'Miracle on the Han' in his 1961 New Year address, months before the May coup.

Which temple, founded in 794, stands across the road from the COEX complex in Samseong-dong?

Bongeunsa, founded in 794, took its name when Queen Jeonghyeon had it rebuilt in 1498; under Queen Munjeong it became the chief temple of Korean Seon Buddhism in 1551, in an age when the faith was suppressed.

Gwanghwamun's 1968 reconstruction, since replaced by a faithful rebuild, was made almost entirely of what?

Concrete and steel made up the 1968 gate, apart from its wooden nameplate, and it stood away from the original spot; a restoration finished in August 2010 rebuilt it in wood where it first stood.

Unhyeongung in central Seoul was the childhood home of which future monarch, who lived there until age 12?

Gojong was born at Unhyeongung in 1852, the home of his father Heungseon Daewongun, and left it when he was chosen as king; his 1866 wedding to the future Empress Myeongseong was held in its Norakdang hall.

Leeum Museum of Art was designed by Mario Botta, Jean Nouvel and which third architect?

Rem Koolhaas completed the trio; the museum's name joins 'Lee', the family name of the Samsung founder whose art collection it grew from, to the '-um' of museum.