During 13th century it was Khara Khorum (modern Har Horin)

After independence from Qin, the modern Ulaanbaatar was called Ikh Khuree-Da Khuree (aka Urga , more called by Russian), and then its name changed to Ulaanbaatar - Ulan Bator (Red Warrior)

Capital city in my country is Zagreb. It became the capital city after a collosal fire destroyed the former capital of Vara�din. Before that, there was no capital city, unless you count medevil times. And I don't believe that technology will make capitals obsolete.

Luxembourg has always been the capital city of Luxembourg.

state-Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Luxembourg is kind of the other way around.

The city came first, founded as a fortress[1] in 963 by Count Sigefroid of the Ardennes, and taking the title Count of Luxembourg. The country was simply the personal fief of the Count/Duke/Grand Duke (the title grew more imposing over the centuries, just as the territory grew smaller and smaller, nibbled away by France, Belgium and Germany (Germany in various guises of course).

[1] There had been a Roman fort on the same site: "Castellum Lucilinburhuc" ("Little Castle")

Seoul

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Seoul Special City
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Korean Name
Revised Romanization	Seoul Teukbyeolsi
McCune-Reischauer	Sŏul T'ŭkpyŏlsi
Hangul	서울 특별시
Hanja	서울 特別巿 Note: 首爾 is used in Chinese for the 서울 part, but is not the Korean Hanja name
Short Name	Seoul (Sŏul; 서울
Statistics
Population	10,276,968 (2003) (Metro area c. 20,000,000)
Area	614 km�(approximate)
Government	Special City; Capital of South Korea
Administrative Divisions	25 wards ("Gu")
Region	Sudogwon
Dialect	Seoul
Location Map

Seoul is the capital of South Korea and was, until 1945, the capital of all of Korea. It is a designated special city. Since the establishment of South Korea (formally the Republic of Korea) in 1948, it became the capital of the country, except for a short time during the Korean War.

Seoul is located in the northwest of the country south of the DMZ, on the Han River. The city is the political, cultural, social and economical centre of South Korea. It is also an international centre for business, finance, multinational corporations, and global organizations. This, along with its position as the capital of one of the world's largest economies, has boosted it to the status of a global city, playing a special role as the greatest metropolis to ever rise from the ashes of a former colony and a war-torn nation. Even today, it is considered the beacon of the East Asian economy, the symbol of the Korean economic Miracle of the Han River.

According to UN Population Division figures ( http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wup2003/2003Ur banAgglomeration2003_Web.xls), With a population of more than 10.2 million, Seoul, the capital of South Korea, is the world�s largest city in terms of population. Its density has allowed it to become one of the most digitally-wired cities in today's globally connected economy. It also has more than 1 million registered vehicles which cause isolated traffic-jams beyond midnight. The larger Seoul metropolitan area and commuter belt, which includes the major harbor city Incheon and the largely residential city of Seongnam, is one of the world's most heavily populated. In recent years, the metropolitan government has carried out an extensive cleanup of the city's heavy air and water pollution, transforming the previously murky atmosphere into one of outstanding cleanness.

Unlike most place names in Korea, "Seoul" has no corresponding Hanja, which are Chinese characters used in the Korean language. For people who use the Chinese language, the city has been known instead as 漢城 (read as Hancheng in Chinese, Hanseong in Korean), an old name of the city which can be interpreted as meaning "big city" (but Chinese people rarely relate to this meaning, as the character "Han" has a lot of meanings). After months of discussion and debate, the Seoul Metropolitan Government officially announced on January 18, 2005 that the Chinese name of the city shall be Shou'er (首爾, which is a close transliteration of Seoul, where "shou" can also mean "first, capital". The new name will be used for all official government websites and publications in Chinese, instead of Hancheng/Hanseong. The Seoul Metropolitan Government has also asked the Chinese Government to use the new name; however, Chinese organizations from airlines to the official Xinhua News Agency have ignored Seoul's request to use the new Chinese name [1] (http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/main/news/20050124i516.htm), with a Beijing-based newspaper commenting that Chinese speakers have the right to decide what name to use for Seoul.

History

The history of Seoul can be traced back as far as 18 BC. In that year the newly established kingdom of Baekje built its capital Wiryeseong in the Seoul area. There are several city wall remains in the area dating from this time, and Pungnap Toseong, an earthen wall whose remains lie just outside Seoul, is widely believed to be the main Wiryeseong site. During the time when the three kingdoms fought for hegemony in Korea, Seoul was often the site where disputes were carried out.

It was thought that only the kingdom who controls the area around Seoul would be able to control the whole of the peninsula, because it was centre of transportation. This was the reason why in the 11th century the ruler of the Goryeo Dynasty built a palace in Seoul, which was referred to as the Southern Capital.

Classical Korean Architecture

This city was renamed from Hanyang (漢陽 to Hanseong (漢城 when it became the capital of the Joseon Dynasty in 1394. It was renamed Gyeongseong (京城�Keijō in Japanese) during the Japanese Colonial Period, and finally given the name Seoul after the 1945 liberation. The word Seoul has been used since the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D.935). Seoul was originated from the archaic words of 'seobeol' or 'seorabeol'. Both were referred to Gyeongju, then capital of Silla, and meant the capital or capital city. Then it was transliterated into several types reflecting slight changes over time and has finally firmed up to Seoul. The Hanja gyeong (京 also means "capital" and is used to represent Seoul in the names of railway lines and freeways, for example, the Gyeongbu (Seoul-Busan) railway line and the Gyeongin (Seoul-Incheon) freeway.

After independence, some nationalists have insisted that gyeong should be replaced with seo, the first syllable of Seoul. In this case, however, one cannot tell Seobu (서釜, Seoul-Busan) from another Seobu (西部, "western") in Hangul, so the proposal was withdrawn.

Winter in Korea

Gyeongbokgung

Originally entirely surrounded by a massive circular wall (a 20 foot high circular stone fortress) to provide its citizens security from wild animals such as the Korean Tiger (Siberian Tiger, once roaming the wilds of Korea in large numbers; although it vanished from the peninsula long ago, its memory has been preserved in both myth and legend), thieves and attacks. The city has grown to surpass those walls and although the wall no longer stands (except in the mountains north of the downtown area), the gates remain near the downtown district of Seoul, including most notably Sungnyemun (commonly known as Namdaemun) and Honginjimun (commonly known as Dongdaemun). During the Joseon dynasty, each entrance was opened and closed each day, by ringing large bells, to allow traffic.

Seoul was the host city of the 1988 Summer Olympics as well as one of the venues of the Football World Cup 2002.

Relocation of the Capital

On August 11, 2004, the South Korean Government announced that the capital city will be located in the Gongju area as of 2007. The Government estimated that the move will probably not be completed before 2012 [2] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3554296.stm). Although part of the election manifesto, this plan ignited nationwide controversy. On October 21, 2004, the Constitutional Court ruled that the special law for the relocation of the capital is unconstitutional since the relocation is a serious national matter requiring national referendum or revision of the constitution, thus effectively ending the dispute.

Satellite image of Seoul