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The name Seoul (서울; IPA: /səˈul/), was originally an old native Korean common noun meaning "capital city."It is believed to have originated from Seorabeol (서라벌; 徐羅伐), [1] which originally referred to Gyeongju, the capital of Silla, which was then called Geumseong (금성; 金城). [2]
Seoul, [b] officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, [c] is the capital and largest city of South Korea.The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, [8] emerged as the world's sixth largest metropolitan economy in 2022, trailing behind Paris, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and New York, and hosts more than half of South Korea's population.
The name "Seoul" does not originate from hanja. The official Chinese translation is written as 首爾 / 首尔 , which is a transcription based on the pronunciation of "Seoul" in Mandarin variant of Chinese language, and thus is not hanja of Korean language.
Aside from newborns being given newly popular names, many adults change their names as well, some in order to cast off birth names they feel are old-fashioned. Between 2000 and 2010, a total of 844,615 people (about 1 in every 60 South Koreans) applied to change their names; 730,277 were approved.
The districts of Seoul are the twenty-five gu (districts; Korean: 구; Hanja: 區) comprising Seoul, South Korea. The gu vary greatly in area (from 10 to 47 km 2) and population (from less than 140,000 to 630,000), fourteen of which are located north of the Han River, and eleven south.
For example, the Seoul Electric Company, Seoul Electric Trolley Company, and Seoul Fresh Spring Water Company were all joint Korean-American owned enterprises. In 1904, an American by the name of Angus Hamilton visited the city and said, "The streets of Seoul are magnificent, spacious, clean, admirably made and well-drained. The narrow, dirty ...
The Seoul Metropolitan Area (Sudogwon; Korean: 수도권, [sʰu.do.k͈wʌ̹n]) or Gyeonggi region (경기 지방), is the metropolitan area of Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province, located in north-western South Korea. [4] Its population of 26 million (as of 2024) is ranked as the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the world.
In South Korean special metropolitan city and metropolitan cities, the mayor is the highest-ranking official in charge. The mayor is directly elected by the people registered in the city for a duration of four years (e.g., the mayor of Seoul).