Economy of Cheju

Economy

The Jeju economy has traditionally been supported by primary industry, agriculture and fishing, but tourism has taken a more and more important role as the island receives upwards of six million visitors per year. These are mostly Korean mainlanders but through the opening of the 2010 decade hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists have been arriving and the number is increasing.
In 2006, the GDP of the province was projected at 8.5 trillion won (about US$8.5 billion), approximately 15 million won per capita. The provincial government's budget for 2006 was projected at 1.1 trillion won, an increase of 10% over 2005.
Jeju is also a home for key functions of Daum Communications,a leading Korean internet site, and sole owner of Lycos until August, 2010.
Jeju is also famous for hosting many conferences and international meetings, including the World Scout Conference in July 2008. Jeju has its own international convention center called ICC Jeju. The ASEAN-KOREA Commemorative Summit 2009 was held at ICC Jeju.

In 2010, the South Korean central government tasked Jeju Island to develop itself as an international Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions destination, and since then, the island has hosted a number of notable events such as the 10,000-pax China Baozhen Group incentive and 8,000-pax Amway (South) Korea incentive. In 2010, the destination welcomed 67 events, enabling it to reach 27th spot globally and seventh in Asia in the UIA ranking of global meetings destinations.

Myths and legends of Cheju

Myths and legends

The myth of Seulmundae Halmang is well known in Jeju. According to this myth, Seulmundae Halmang (Grandmother Seulmundae) could reach from Sung San Ill Chul Bong to Guan Tal island at Aeweol in a single stride, and with two strides to Mount Halla. She was very strong, had 500 children, and built Mount Halla with seven scoops of earth.
One day, Seulmundae Halmang was making soup for her sons while they were out hunting. While they were gone, she fell into the pot and drowned. On their return, they hungrily ate the soup, without knowing that it contained their mother. However, the youngest son knew. He told the truth to the rest of the sons, and the whole family cried, and eventually turned into 500 stones.

Cuisine of Cheju

Cuisine

Jeonbokjuk, abalone porridge

Jeju Island is the southernmost and largest island isolated from the Korean peninsula. Due to its lack of fresh water, paddy farming is only done on a small scale on the island, with the cultivation of cereal crops such as millet, barnyard millet, buckwheat, and barley being the main feature of agriculture. Therefore, the traditional Jeju meal generally consists of japgokbap which is a bowl of steamed multiple grains as a main dish, with various salted dried fish called jaban as banchan (side dishes), and a soup based on doenjang (soybean paste) such as baechuguk made with Napa cabbage, kongnipguk made with soybean leaves, or muguk made with daikon. Jeju dishes are made with simple ingredients, and the taste is generally salty. Raw seafood called hae is commonly consumed as a part of the meal. The warm weather affects Jeju cuisine in that gimjang, preparing kimchi in late autumn for winter consumption, is not necessary to Jeju, as it is in the other provinces. Only a small amount of kimchi is pickled by Jeju locals. Representative main dishes in Jeju cuisine are porridge made with fish, seafood, seaweeds, or mushrooms. Examples include jeonbokjuk made with abalone, okdomjuk made with Red tilefish, gejuk made with crabs, gingijuk made with small crabs called bangge (Helice tridens), maeyeoksae juk made with young wakame, and chogijuk made with shiitake.


Gamgyul is a type of orange similar to the Mandarin orange or tangerine, commonly harvested in Jeju island. Black pig is a delicacy on the island as well. Black pigs are famous for their black hair and their meat for its chewy texture. The meat is nutritious but does not have the unique smell of pork. Black pigs other notable features are their long faces, narrow snouts and small ears that stand up.

Society and culture of Cheju

Society and culture

Dol hareubang.

Because of the relative isolation of the island, the people of Jeju have developed a culture and language that are distinct from those of mainland Korea. Jeju is home to thousands of local legends. Perhaps the most distinct cultural artifact is the ubiquitous dol hareubang ("stone grandfather") carved from a block of basalt.
Another distinct aspect of Jeju is the matriarchal family structure, found especially in Udo and Mara, but also present in the rest of the province. The best-known example of this is found among the haenyeo ("sea women"), who were often the heads of families, because they controlled the income. They earned their living from free diving, often all year round in quite cold water, without scuba gear, in order to harvest abalones, conchs, and a myriad of other marine products. It is thought that women are better at spending all day deep-water diving because they resist cold better. However, because of rapid economic development and modernization, few haenyeo are still actively working today.

Bangsatap

Bangsatap are small, round towers made of many stones. There are many Bangsataps and you can see them near the countryside in Jeju. People usually pile up many stones, making a shape like a tower in order to protect themselves from the bad luck in their village. They built Bangsatap according to the theory of divination because they believe that geography is very important in choosing the right place for them. It is also a good example to demonstrate religious belief in Jeju island because it is an object in which people put faith: people put a rice paddle inside the Bangsatap to gather as much money as possible, as well as an iron pot to overcome disaster and fight fire in their village. Nobody knows that when the Bangsatap was built over the year previous.

Geography,Administrative divisions of Cheju

 

Aerial photograph of Jeju Island.

Geograph
Jeju Island is a volcanic island, dominated by Halla-san (Halla Mountain): a volcano 1,950 metres (6,400 ft) high and the highest mountain in South Korea. The island measures approximately 73 kilometres (45 mi) across, east to west, and 41 kilometres (25 mi) from north to south.
The island was created entirely from volcanic eruptions approximately 2 million years ago, during the time period extending from the Tertiary to the beginning of the Quaternary period, and consists chiefly of basalt and lava. The eruptions took place in the Cenozoic era. It has a humid subtropical climate, warmer than that of the rest of Korea, with four distinct weather seasons. Winters are cool and dry while summers are hot, humid, and sometimes rainy.


There is a crater lake which is the only crater lake in South Korea.
An area covering about 12% (224 square kilometres or 86 square miles) of Jeju is known as Gotjawal Forest. This area remained uncultivated until the 21st century, as its base of ʻAʻā lava made it difficult to develop for agriculture. Because this forest remained pristine for so long, it has a unique ecology. The forest is the main source of groundwater and thus the main water source for the half millon people of the island, because rainwater penetrates directly into the aquifer through the cracks of the ʻAʻā lava under the forest. Gotjawal forest is considered an internationally important wetland under the Ramsar Convention by some researchers because it is the habitat of unique species of plants and is the main source of water for the residents, although to date it has not been declared a Ramsar site.

Administrative divisions

Modern

Japan took Korea over forcefully in 1910. In 1915 the gun or county system which had been adopted in 1906 was abolished and Jeju island was designated as part of the 'island' system and called Jeju myeon under South Jeolla province. In 1931, Jeju-myeon was raised to the status of Jeju-eup or 'township' which gave the island one township (today's Jeju-si area) and 12 'myeon'.
On September 1, 1955, Jeju Township was elevated to city status with 40 administrative wards which on January 1, 1962, were reduced to 14 wards. On July 8, 1956, Seogwi, Daejeong and Hallim-myeons were raised to the status of townships while the southwestern portion of Hallim Township was separated and newly designated as the Hankyeong district(myeon) which gave the province one city, two counties, three townships and 10 myeon or districts with 14 wards in Jeju City. May 23, 1979 saw the restructuring of the Jeju-si wards and the addition of three more, giving 17 wards.

Current

Until 2005, Jeju Province was divided into two cities (si), Jeju and Seogwipo, and two counties (gun), Bukjeju (North Jeju) and Namjeju (South Jeju) respectively. The two cities were further divided into thirty-one neighbourhoods (dong), while the two counties were divided into seven towns (eup) and five districts (myeon). The seven towns and five districts were in turn divided into 551 villages (ri).
In 2005, Jeju residents approved, by referendum, a proposal to merge Bukjeju County into Jeju City, and Namjeju County into Seogwipo City. Effective 1 July 2006, the province was also renamed Jeju Special Autonomous Province with two nominal subdivisions, Jeju City and Seogwipo City. In addition to the changes in name, the province was given extensive administrative powers that had previously been reserved for the central government. This is part of plans to turn Jeju into a "Free International City".
Jeju, on 1 July 2006, was made into the first and only special autonomous province of South Korea
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheju-do

Early history

Cheonjiyeon Waterfall on Jeju Island

Waves crashing on Jeju seashore

Halla Mountain in Jeju

Cheonjiyeon Waterfall in Jeju

According to legend, three demi-gods emerged from Samsung-hyeol which is said to have been on the northern slopes of Mt. Halla and became the progenitors of the Jeju people who founded the Kingdom of Tamna.

It has also been claimed that three brothers—including Ko-hu—who were the 15th descendants of Koulla, one of the Progenitors of the Jeju people, were received by the court of Silla, at which time [when?] the name Tamna was officially recognized, while the official government posts of Commander, Prince and Governor were conferred by the court upon the three. However, there is no concrete evidence of when the "Three Names" (Samseong-Ko, Yang and Pu) appeared nor for the exact date of when Ko-hu and his brothers were received by Silla. It may be supposed that the "Three Names" Founding Period occurred during the Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla) Period on the mainland of Korea.

Taejo, founder of Goryeo, attempted to establish the same relationship between Goryeo and Tamna as Tamna had had with Silla. Tamna refused to accept this position and the Goryeo court dispatched troops to force Tamna to submit. Ko ja-gyeon, chief of Tamna, submitted to Goryeo in 938 and sent his son, Prince Mallo, to Goryeo's court as a de facto hostage. In 1105 (King Sukjong's 10th year), the Goryeo court abolished the name Takna which had been used up to this time and, from that year on, the island was known as "Tamna-gun" (district) and Goryeo officials were sent to handle the affairs of the island.

Tamna-country was changed to Tamna-county in 1153 during the reign of King Uijong and Choi Cheok-kyeong was posted as Tamna-Myeong or Chief of Tamna. In 1121 during Huijong's reign, Tamna was renamed "Jeju" and the posts of Judiciary were established on the island.
In 1271, General Kim Tong-jeong escaped with what remained of his Sambyeolcho force from Jindo and built the Hangpadu Fortress at Kwiil-chon from where they continued their fight against the combined Korean government-Mongolian army but within two years, faced by an enemy army of over 10,000 troops, the Sambyeolcho was annihilated.

Modern history

Jeju Uprising, 1948

Main article: Jeju Uprising

On April 3, 1948, against a background of an ongoing ideological struggle for control of Korea and a variety of grievances held by islanders against the local authorities, the many communist sympathizers on the island attacked police stations and government offices. The brutal and often indiscriminate suppression of the leftist rebellion resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of both villagers and communist radicals and the imprisonment of thousands more in internment camps.

While claims have been made that the US government oversaw and supported "anti-communist" activities administratively if not openly in the field, validation remains to be made. It is a fact the US was heavily involved in counter-insurgence operations across Korea at this time leading up to the Korean War and UN involvement. Similarly, the Northwest Youth League, a Korean government sponsored watchdog group made up of refugees who had fled North Korea, actively repressed any and all "communist sympathizers" with a campaign of shooting on sight anyone entering or leaving the president's "enemy zone" and using open, armed violence and what would be labeled today as terrorist activities. This led to the deaths of hundreds of islanders, with many other islanders being raped and tortured. Intolerance by mainland Korean officials of islanders in general at the time, government- and organization-sponsored isolation of the island and a rumored cover-up of evidence linking the rebellion's suppressors with foreign powers and people who have gone unprosecuted is believed to be the primary cause of public ignorance, hedging on denial, over the April 3, 1948 genocide on Cheju-do. A documentary by the BBC and PBS, Korea: The Unknown War and many activities and publications, including Sun-i Samch'on by Hyun Ki Young, by organizations and persons from within Cheju-do and around the world continue to attempt shedding the light on this event. The Uprising has become a symbol of Jeju's Independence from Korean Peninsula.
The provincial administrative building was burned to the ground in September 1948 and a new building was completed in 1-do, 2-dong in December, 1952.

Construction of a naval base

Further information: Jeju-do Naval Base

In June 2007, the Korean government selected Gangjeong, a village on the southern coast of the island, as the site of a $970 million naval base. The base is to house twenty warships, including submarines.
In January 2010, the South Korean Navy signed two contracts with two construction firms to build pier facilities.;construction began in January 2011. By August, about 14 percent of the contract had been spent on initial construction work, but significant progress had not been made due to local resistance to the base.
Trying to prevent dredging and bulldozing, residents of Gangjeong have been living in tents in and near areas where construction is planned or ongoing. In addition to protests, the villagers have filed lawsuits to try to block construction and have widely publicized their opposition.

Before the Japanese annexation in 1910, the island was usually known as Quelpart to Europeans. The name apparently came from the first European ship to spot the island, the Dutch Quelpaert, which sighted it after being blown off course on its way to the Dutch trading base in Nagasaki, Japan, from Taiwan (then the Dutch colony of Formosa).

When Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, Jeju then became known as Saishū, which is the Japanese reading of the hanja for Jeju.
Before 2000, when the Seoul government changed the official Romanization of Hangul, Jeju-do was spelled Cheju-do. Almost all written references to the island before that use that spelling.

 

Tongdosa Buddist Temple(통도사)

대웅전(Hero Hall)

금강계단(Geumgang Ordinance Alter)

대방광전

구룡지(Nine Dragons Pond)

진신사리탑(Budda`s Saria Stupa)

개산조당

 

용화전



Sunchang Gochujang(chili pepper paste) folk village

Soshoiwon(traditional Garden)



제월당(Jewoldang)

광풍각(Gwangpunggak)

Jewoldan and Gwangpunggak

Jukrokwon(Bamboo Park)

Songgwangsa Buddist Temple



일주문(one columm gate)

우화각(Woowhagak)

대웅전

국사전

국사전

하사당

Nagan Fortress Town

The Green Tea Plantations of Boseong

When Koreans think of Boseong, they think of green tea. Green tea has a long history in Korea. The drink came to Korea in the ninth century AD, when a Korean envoy brought back tea seeds from Tang China. The seeds were planted on the slopes of the Jirisan Mountains near Ssanggyesa Temple, where they took root and prospered.

The plantations in Boseong, however, are of much more recent vintage. In the 1930s, colonialists from green tea-mad Japan took notice of the hillsides of the coastal town, blessed with soil, humidity and day-night temperature differences perfect for tea cultivation. In 1939, the Japanese established the first commercial tea plantation in the area, with their tell-tale attention to landscaping and ascetics. In 1945, with Japan’s defeat in World War II, Korea’s Japanese overlords went home, and Boseong’s lone tea plantation fell into disuse. In 1957, however, a Korean capitalist purchased the old tea fields and established Daehan Tea Plantation. Soon, more tea plantations were established nearby, stretching all the way to the coast. Boseong’s tea industry flourished, and today, the town accounts for some 40% of Korea’s green tea production.


The most-visited plantation is the aforementioned Daehan Tea Plantation. This is the oldest, largest and most beautiful of the area’s tea gardens. The plantation bills itself as a “watercolor-like tea field,” and this is no exaggeration. Spread out over some 561 hectares of hillside, the fields are a pleasant mix of rows of green tea and beautiful forests.
Before you get to the tea fields, however, you must walk along a wooded path lined by a running brook and towering Japanese cedar trees, This walkway, shaded by a canopy of green not unlike the vaulted roofs of the great cathedrals of Europe, is just as famous as the green tea plantation itself. Keep your eyes open — if you’re lucky, you’ll spy the occasional squirrel or chipmunk scurrying about the woods.
The green tea fields are criss-crossed with walking paths and flights of stairs. There are viewing galleries strategically placed throughout — you’ll have no trouble finding them. In spring, the fields release the strong scent of green tea — the aroma is truly enchanting, and when the trees begin flowering, it’s as if you’ve entered paradise.

Entry to Daehan Tea Plantation is 1,600 won. Below the fields, there is a wooded pond where you can enjoy green-tea ice cream or just a cup of tea. The plantation also has restaurants (specializing in green-tea food products), shops and other visitor facilities. If you’re looking to purchase tea by the bulk, this might be a good place to do it.
Besides Daehan Tea Plantation, there are several large plantations that continue all the way to the port village of Yulpo. In fact, just a five-minute walk up the road from the entrance of the Daehan Tea Plantation is the Botjae Tea Plantation, which offers visitors magnificent views of terraced hillsides stretching all the way to the sea. To get to the tea plantations, just take a local bus from Boseong Bus Terminal — the nice people working at the terminal will tell you which bus to board.

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_6.jsp?cid=557091

Yŏsu-Sunch’ŏn Rebellion

Yŏsu-Sunch’ŏn Rebellion, also spelled Yeosu-Suncheon Rebellion,  (1948) left-wing military and civilian protest against the nascent South Korean government in southern Korea during the post-World War II period. In mid-October 1948, when the Korean peninsula was still coping with its recent division into the two separate political entities of North Korea and South Korea, the violent protest broke out in Yŏsu—a port city of South Chŏlla (Jeolla) province on the southern coast of the Korean peninsula—against the government headed by the anticommunist president Syngman Rhee.

The Yŏsu-Sunch’ŏn Rebellion (or Incident) began when members of a South Korean military regiment in Yŏsu refused to transfer to Cheju (Jeju) Island to suppress a communist rebellion there; they were sympathetic to the communists and against the Rhee government and the decisive U.S. influence in South Korea. The soldiers were soon joined by thousands of civilian sympathizers in Yŏsu and elsewhere in the region, including the neighbouring town of Sunch’ŏn, as the initial spark of military rebellion grew into a more generally populist, leftist, and anti-imperialist protest. The rebels soon occupied parts of eastern South Chŏlla province and attempted to establish their own “Korean people’s republic.” U.S. Army and South Korean government forces were dispatched to suppress the rebellion, and brutality was reported on both sides of the conflict. The insurgents targeted and executed military commanders, local government authorities and police, and those who had collaborated with the Japanese during Japan’s decades-long occupation of Korea (which concluded with the end of World War II). The uprising was largely contained by early November, but scattered guerrilla activity continued well into the following year.

Estimates of casualties from the incident vary widely, from hundreds to thousands of people. The military conducted a large-scale purge of its members who were suspected of having taken part in or sympathized with the uprisings. Meanwhile, the government’s interest in suppressing communism and leftist activity resulted in the December 1948 passage of a strict national security law, which outlawed “antistate” groups and activities but was worded in a way that legally enabled the suppression of dissent in general. After the incidents in Cheju and the southern part of the peninsula, the government began closely examining and conducting purges of its institutions, including the National Assembly, and it cracked down on many public and political organizations. By 1950 tens of thousands of people had been jailed under the national security law, and many more had been barred from political activity.

Lorraine Murray

Yeosu Expo: South Korea’s Ecological Extravaganza: Year In Review 2012

After four years of construction, Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea (officially, International Exposition Yeosu Korea 2012) opened to the public on May 12, 2012, and ran until August 12, for a total of 93 days. The exposition was one of the biggest events hosted by South Korea since the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. (South Korea’s last major international fair was the Taejon World Expo, held in 1993.) Expo 2012 attracted 8,203,956 visitors, meeting its attendance goal, although the majority of visitors were from South Korea and neighbouring countries. Participating were 104 countries, 10 international marine and environmental organizations, and a number of corporate sponsors.

On Nov. 26, 2007, the governing body of world’s fairs, the Bureau International des Expositions, chose the city as the site of its 2012 exposition. Yeosu (which has a population of about 295,000), situated on South Korea’s southern coast in South Jeolla province, is the southernmost port city on the Korean peninsula. Yeosu’s economy is based on fishing; the city is surrounded on three sides by water and has more than 300 islets—mostly uninhabited—scattered offshore. The harbour was refurbished for the exposition, and new infrastructure was built, including a cruise-ship terminal, new hotels, and a high-speed KTX train line from Seoul that ended just outside the fair’s entrance at the waterfront.

Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea bore the ecologically conscious theme “The Living Ocean and Coast,” bringing attention to the dependence of humankind and ecosystems on the health of the planet’s oceans, the deleterious effects of environmental destruction and pollution, and the critical need for international cooperation in conserving Earth’s marine environments. To that end the organizers took advantage of Yeosu’s coastal location by building on a 25-ha (62-ac) area following the curve of the city’s waterfront, on breakwaters in the harbour, and on the water itself. The conservation theme was carried through in the construction and displays of the exhibitors’ pavilions. Eco-friendly amenities included recycling facilities, stationed throughout the grounds, that accepted visitors’ drink cans and plastic bottles.

An international competition was held in 2009 to design the Thematic Pavilion, which would embody the ideas of “The Living Ocean and Coast.” It attracted 136 entries from 31 countries; the winner was the design “One Ocean,” by the Austrian firm Soma (chief architect, Günther Weber). The pavilion, constructed during 2010–12, was built on a breakwater offshore and faced inward toward Yeosu’s inner harbour. Its curvilinear front had a gill-like kinetic facade that incorporated 108 vertical louvres made of flexible glass-fibre-reinforced polymers. The louvres, controlled by motors, moved in wavelike patterns that adjusted to shade the pavilion’s surface as the Sun moved through the sky and thus helped maintain the building’s temperature. On the ocean side, a series of rounded low towers immersed in the water defined a new “coastline” for the building. The pavilion and its promenade, on the inner harbour’s waterfront, were among the exposition’s permanent structures.

A signature attraction known as the Big-O (for “ocean”) was also built offshore, near the Thematic Pavilion, in the inner harbour. Made up of a cylindrical island capped by a giant vertical ring 35 m (115 ft) in diameter and a floating stage that could be raised and lowered, the Big-O complex was used for nightly multimedia shows featuring water jets, lasers, and holographic images of sea creatures projected on a screen of water in the centre of the ring.

Another memorable display was the Expo Digital Gallery, a 218 × 30-m (715 × 98-ft) LED screen on the ceiling of the International Pavilion’s central passageway. It showed moving images of marine animals and sea-related folktales of Korea, as well as paintings by children that illustrated the exposition’s conservation and marine themes.

The most popular sight was the aquarium built for the expo, the largest (16,500 sq m [177,605 sq ft]) in the country. The four-story structure was composed of three exhibition halls that housed about 34,000 marine animals of approximately 280 species, including Baikal seals and belugas, and some 20,000 sardines in one giant tank. More than two million people visited the aquarium during the fair.

Another landmark structure was the 73-m (240-ft) Sky Tower; its observation deck marked the fair’s highest elevation and provided a vantage point for the entire fair, the city, and the ocean beyond. The tower was made of two repurposed industrial silos, one of them containing a movie theatre and the other a desalination plant, the water of which visitors could sample after touring the building. Built on the outside of the structure was a giant pipe organ dubbed Vox Maris (Latin: “Voice of the Sea”).

The “spiritual legacy” of the exposition was the Yeosu Declaration, signed by organizers and participants on the last day of the fair. It set forth a series of principles relating to stewardship of the oceans and coasts. Among them were the declaration that oceans were “a vital part of our planet and an essential element of human civilization” and resolutions that promoted sustainable growth via the oceans, an increased understanding of climate change and natural disasters, and a halt to illegal practices on the sea such as piracy and hijacking. Finally, it established the Yeosu Project, an initiative to provide less-developed countries with professional training and technology to resolve their ocean-related issues.

Lorraine Murray

Yeosu

Yŏsu,  also spelled Yeosu,  city, South Chŏlla (Jeolla) do (province), on Yŏsu Peninsula, extreme southern South Korea. Such large islands as Namhae, Tolsan (Dolsan), and Kŭmo (Geumo) protect its natural port. The Korean navy headquarters was located there during the Chosŏn (Yi) dynasty (1392–1910) before being moved to T’ongyŏng. With neighbouring Sunch’ŏn, the city was part of the Yŏsu-Sunch’ŏn Rebellion in 1948. In 1949 Yŏsu became an open port with the status of a municipality.

Yŏsu is connected with Seoul by rail through Kwangju (Gwangju) and Taejŏn (Daejeon), and it has regular sea lines to Pusan (Busan), Mokp’o, and Cheju. The harbour is divided into two parts: the old western port is used mainly for fishing, and the newer eastern port for trade. The city exports fresh fish. Petrochemical, oil-refining, and other industries have been developed in the Yeosu Industrial Complex. The city’s harbour and shoreline were the site of Expo 2012, an ecologically conscious world’s fair whose theme was the importance of the world’s oceans and coastlines. Pop. (2010) 269,937.

Myeongdong Cathedral

The Cathedral Church of the Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception also known as Myeongdong Cathedral, is a prominent Latin-rite Roman Catholic church located in the Myeongdong neighborhood of Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Seoul, Andrew Yeom Soo-jung, the highest Catholic prelate in the country.
Dedicated in honor of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the principal patroness of Korea and the Korean people, the cathedral is a community landmark and a notable symbol of Catholicism in Korea. The cathedral church is one of the earliest and most notable examples of Gothic Revival architecture in Korea.

Structural details

The original church was constructed with twenty types of locally fired red and gray bricks. The main building rises to 23m high, while the steeple, which contains a clock, rises to 45m. It was designated National Historic Site #258 on November 22, 1977.
The interior of the church is ornately decorated with religious artwork. Stained glass windows depict the Nativity of Jesus and Adoration of the Magi, Jesus with the Twelve Apostles, and the Fifteen Mysteries of the Rosary. The windows were restored to their original condition in 1982 by artist Lee Nam-gyu.

The crypt of the cathedral lies directly beneath the main altar. The crypt contains the relics of nine Korean Church martyrs. Two of the martyrs' identities are unknown. The remaining five are Bishop Laurent-Joseph-Marius Imbert (the second Bishop of the Church in Korea), Father Maubant, Father Chastan Kim Sung-woo Antonio, and Choi Gunghwan Francesco. A special pilgrimage Holy Mass takes place every weekday morning in the Crypt Chapel.
On the 50th anniversary of the consecration of the church in 1948, a French statue of Our Lady of Lourdes bearing the title “the Immaculate Conception” was erected behind the church property. On August 27, 1960, Archbishop Paul Roh Ki-nam consecrated the grotto and dedicated it towards Korean national peace.

History

Christianity was heavily persecuted in Joseon-era Korea. Still, interest in it grew as an academic novelty, notably among members of the Silhak (실학; "practical learning") school, attracted to what they saw as its egalitarian values. Catholicism gained ground as a belief in the 19th century through the work of French missionaries, the persecutions of whom led to an 1866 French expedition.

After the Joseon dynasty concluded a commercial treaty with United States in 1882, Jean M. Blanc, Bishop of Korea, sought land to build a mission. Under the name Kim Gamilo, he acquired a vacant lot on Jonghyeon (Chong-Hyen), meaning "Bell Hill"; due to its proximity to a temple, Koreans had declined to build there. An education center was constructed, and plans to build a church placed under the supervision of French priest Eugene Coste at the conclusion of a commercial treaty between Korea and France in 1887.

Emperor Gojong held the ceremony of laying the first stone on August 5, 1892. Construction cost around US$60,000, supported by the Paris Foreign Missions Society. Because of the First Sino-Japanese War, however, and the subsequent death of Fr. Coste, the inauguration of the cathedral was postponed for several years. On May 29, 1898, it was finally dedicated and consecrated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. At its construction, it was the largest building in Seoul.

In 1900, the relics of the Korean Martyrs who died in the 1866 persecution were moved to its crypt from the seminary in Yongsan-gu.
The Roman Catholic clergy were among the leading critics of South Korea's military rule in the 1970s and 1980s, and Myeongdong Cathedral became a center of Minjung political and labor protest as well as a sanctuary for the protesters; indeed, it was nicknamed the "Mecca" of pro-democracy activists. Catholic and future President Kim Dae-jung held a rally at the cathedral in 1976 to demand the resignation of President Park Chung Hee, and some 600 student-led protesters staged a hunger strike inside in 1987 after the torture and death of university student Park Jong-chol.

The cathedral remains a popular spot for protesters, due to the government's previous disinclination to arrest protesters inside church property. In 2000, the cathedral attempted to officially ban protesters who did not have prior approval after a protest of telecommunications labor unions beat female churchgoers and vandalized church property.