Welcome to Kevin's Hometown,
SEOUL
SEOUL'S Pictures
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History
Located on the Han River, Seoul, Korea's capital city has grown into a teeming
metropolis with a population of more than 11 million representing over 24 percent of the
entire county's population. The area of the city took the form of a town about 2,000 years
ago when it was chosen as the capital of the Paekche Kingdom (18 B.C. ~ 660 A.D.), one of
the three ancient states on the Korean peninusla. Upon the founding of the Choson Dynasty
in 1392, Seoul became the capital of Korea. After extensive searches, the founding king,
Yi Song-Gye, decided to build his capital where today's Seoul stands.
After successfully hosting the Asian Games in 1986 and the Olympiad in 1988, Seoul has
made great strides to be ranked among the most advanced capital cities in the world.
By introducing self-government rule in 1991, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has laid
the foundation for the self-administration by the citizens of Seoul. Today's Seoul is home
to roughly 11 million people and encompasses 605.58 square kilometers. While maintaining
and restructuring the city which has greatly expanded in the process of urbanization and
industrialization over the past 30 years, the city of Seoul continues to grow into a
prosperous and thriving city.
Population
Seoul has a population of 10,798,700 individuals and 3,455,665 households as of the end of
1994. This accounts for about a quarter of the total national population. As for the
proportion of male to female, men (5,429,554) slightly outnumber women (5,369,146).
Climate
Seoul belongs to the temperate zone featured by four distinctive seasons of spring,
summer, autumn and winter. The yearly average temperature of Seoul is 11.8 degrees C.
Temperatures in Seoul tend to fluctuate a great deal, reaching as high as 38.4 degrees C
in the summer and dropping as low as -12.6 degrees C in the winter.
The annual precipitation in Seoul averages 1,369.8 mm, which is more than the average
amount of rainfall across the peninsula. Most of the rainfall is concentrated in the rainy
months (monsoon period) of June through September when downpours account for about 70 % of
the total annual precipitation. Except for those rainy spells, however, Seoul boasts fine
weather throughout the year and is especially famous for its azure autumn skies.
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