With the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics drawing near, there are special exhibitions held to celebrate this great event in South Korea. Apart from the tiger-related special exhibition held in the National Museum of Korea mentioned in my blog post dated 28 January 2018, a special exhibition entitled “Korean Sports, a History Written in Sweat” is currently held in the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History until 4 March 2018.  This special exhibition presents valuable memorabilia, photos and videos about great moments of Korean sports history and outstanding Korean athletes starting from 1910 to the present.  The special exhibition is divided into the following 3 parts:

• The Beginning of Modern Sports in Korea – this part presents the early Korean sports history from 1910 to 1945 (i.e., the colonial period);
• The Transition and Take-off of Korean Sports – this part presents the development of Korean sports from the post-war period to the 1980’s; and
• The Globalization of Korean Sports – this part presents the achievements of Korean athletes and the contribution of Korean sports community to the Olympic Games after the 1980’s until the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.

In this special exhibition, there are many valuable and interesting exhibits including the uniform worn by the Korean athletes and sports-related equipment used by the outstanding Korean athletes, e.g., pistol, ice skates, badminton racket, boxing gloves, etc. There is also a soccer ball used in a Seoul-Pyeongyang soccer event held during the colonial period. You can get more information about this special exhibition by clicking this link.

Apart from the above special exhibition, the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History has permanent exhibitions on the Korean contemporary history from 1876 to the present in 4 exhibition halls entitled “Prelude to the Republic of Korea (1876-1948)”, “Foundation of the Republic of Korea (1948-1961)”, “Development of the Republic of Korea (1961-1987)” and “Korea’s Advancement, a Leap to the World (1987-)”, respectively.  Also worth visiting is the rooftop garden of the Museum which provides a good view of the Gyeongbokgung Palace and the surrounding area. You can get a glimpse of the Museum and its facilities by watching this video.

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