Seoul is the capital and largest city of South Korea. With a population of over 10 million, It is one of the world's largest cities. The Seoul National Capital Area - which includes the major port city of Incheon and satellite towns in Gyeonggi-do, has 24.5 million inhabitants and is the world's second largest metropolitan area. Almost half of South Korea's population live in the Seoul National Capital Area, and nearly a quarter in Seoul itself, making it the country's chief economic, political and cultural center. As a Special City, Seoul is administered directly by the national government and is divided into 25 major districts.
Seoulis located on the basin of the Han River in the country's northwest. The North Korean border lies about 50 km to the north. Seoul first appears in history in 18 BC, when the Baekje, one of the Three Korean Kingdoms, established its capital Wirye-seong in what is now south-east Seoul. Modern Seoul descends from the Goryeo-era city of Namgyeong, which then became the capital of Korea during the Joseon dynasty. The Seoul National Capital Area includes three World Heritage sites: Changdeokgung, hwaseong Fortress and the Jongmyo Shrine.
Seoul has hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics and the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Seoul's influence as a leading business, technology and cultural center contributes to its status as a major global city, and is one of the world's top ten financial and commercial cities. It is also the fifth most expensive city in the world and the second most expensive city in Asia. In recent years, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has undertaken major environmental projects, including the nearly $1 billion restoration of Cheonggyecheon. At the same time, the city has promoted the Seoul Digital Media City, the world's first complex for high-tech digital technologies in IT, multimedia and entertainment.
Nothing is permanent in this fashion-filled, helter-skelter city that completely rebuilds itself every decade and vibrates with energy night and day. Every evening a tsunami of Seoulites sweeps into entertainment districts, where smoky barbecue restaurants, goblin-sized teashops, plush mugwort saunas, DVD mini- cinemas and more are stacked up 10-storeys high along narrow alleys. Seoul spreads a virtually unknown culture and cuisine at your feet.
Yes, the future has already arrived, but the past has not been completely uprooted - Seoul’s mighty fortress wall and gates still stand, as do World Heritage palaces, royal shrines and tombs. A neighbourhood of hanok (traditional Korean one-storey wooden houses with tiled roofs), built by yangban (aristocrats), has miraculously survived the Korean War and the rush to bulldoze and modernise. Traditional cultural performances, feisty festivals, folk villages and folk museums allow visitors to peep into Seoul’s feudal past when Confucian scholar noblemen in hanbok (traditional Korean clothing) wore black horse-hair hats and lorded it over their wives, concubines, peasants and slaves.