In 1986, Seoul was the venue for Asiad, the tenth Asian Games, and in 1988 – for the 24th Summer Olympic Games. Enormous Seoul Olympic Park was built specifically for these large-scale events. Although international competitions have long gone to the past, the city has done a great job to preserve the park and turn it into a new place of rest for citizens and tourists.

Today, Seoul Olympic Park is one of the most expansive and impressive recreation areas in the country and the whole world. Located in the Bangi-dong neighborhood, the park covers 1,45 million square kilometers. It includes a vast territory for walking outdoors, several large sports facilities, educational institutions, museums and other sites like Mongchontoseong Earthen Fortification and the artificial lake of the early Baekje era. It is a cultural heritage of the ancient Korean state dating back to the 18th year BC. The former fortress represents the ruins of some buildings, and in the nearby Mongchon Museum of History, there are rare archaeological findings of the Baekje era.

Guests of the park can visit two more museums, the Olympic Museum and the SOMA Museum of Art. The Olympic Museum was founded two years after the Olympics in Seoul. It is an ideal place to learn about the establishment of the world premiere competition as well as local sports history and its notable figures. The SOMA Museum of Art was opened in 1998 by the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation. It has several halls for holding exhibitions, master classes and training programs. There is an open-air sculpture garden in the courtyard, one of the largest gardens of this kind in the world.

Other famous landmarks of Seoul Olympic Park include Music Fountain, Peace Square, World Peace Gate, Thumb Statue, sculptures called «Dialogue» and «Torch of Peace» with an eternal flame.