Seoul

Cultural life

Seoul is the country’s cultural centre. It is the home of the National Academy of Arts, the National Academy of Sciences, and nearly all of the country’s learned societies and libraries. The National Classical Music Institute, engaged in the preservation of the traditional court music of Korea and in the training of musicians, is complemented by two Western-style symphony orchestras. In addition, there are a national theatre, an opera, and a number of public and private museums, including the main branch of the National Museum of Korea on the grounds of the Kyŏngbok (Gyeongbok) Palace. The Sejong Center for Performing Arts, to the south of the palace, has facilities for concerts, plays, and exhibitions and is the location of an arts academy.

Surrounded by hills, Seoul has numerous small and large parks. Places of historical interest—including Ch’anggyŏng (Changgyeong), Kyŏngbok, Tŏksu (Deoksu), and Ch’angdŏk (Changdeok) palaces as well as Chong-myo (Jongmyo), the royal ancestral shrine—annually attract large numbers of citizens and tourists; Chong-myo and Ch’angdŏk were designated UNESCO World Heritage sites in 1995 and 1997, respectively. The city also has excellent sports and recreational facilities, notably the Seoul Sports Complex, on the south bank of the Han, which was built for the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympic Games. Olympic Park, to the east of the Sports Complex, is an expansive green space containing more of the facilities built for the 1988 Olympics as well as a sculpture park, an Olympics museum, the Korean National University of Physical Education, and an earthen fortress from the early Paekche (Baekje) period.