Museum of Natural History Seoul
Seodaemun Museum of Natural History is located in Seodaemun-gu (District) in Seoul, Korea. The museum was planned and constructed by the Seodaemun District Office. After 6 years of planning and construction, the museum opened on July 10th, 2003. The museum was established to collect, preserve and exhibit natural history. The museum has 84 fossils, 302 plants, 85 birds, 7 mammals and 1522 insects.
The museum is broken into 3 sections over 3 floors. The best way to enjoy the museum is to start from the 3rd floor and work your way down. The 3rd floor is called the Earth Environment Hall. This hall explores the earth from the time of its creation to present day. The hall covers topics such as the solar system, creation and structure of the earth, geological wonders and the forming of the Korean Peninsula over 3 billion years ago. Each exhibit has lots of pictures, videos and scale models to keep you entertained.
Floor 2 is called the Life Evolution Hall. This floor covers the birth and evolution of life and the diversity of living creatures. In the hall you will learn about the dinosaurs, origin and birth of life, appearance of humans over the years and information about animals, endangered animals and insects. There are fossils of dinosaurs, wax models of the appearance of humans over the years, stuffed animals and insects.
Floor 1 is called Harmony of Human and Nature in Beautiful Seoul. This hall focuses on the importance of environment preservation and the Eco system in Korea. You can see pictures and videos of damage done to the environment in Korea by people nad the past and present of Seoul. It was only a few years ago that all the parks / land around the World Cup Stadium was a huge landfill with over 92 million tons of waste. Also covered in the hall is the Han River, forest ecosystem of Korea and everything you need to know about plants.
The Seodaemun Museum of Natural History is a great spot to learn something about this planet that we live on and have some fun. Most of the explanations are in Korean. This is only a small deterrent as most of the exhibits are visual. This museum is popular for school tours so at times can get a bit crowded or loud. Other points of interest at the museum is the Dinosaur park located outside on the third floor, the small tropical fish aquarium, the museum shop and a Hollys coffee shop.
Opening Hours / Admission:
March ~ October: 09:00 – 18:00
November ~ February: 09:00 – 17:00
Closed on Mondays or Tuesday if Monday is a National Holiday.
Opening hours are extended by 1 hour on weekends and national holidays.
Last entrance is 1 hour before closing.
Admission:
Children 6 – 12: 1,000 won
Youth 13 – 18: 2,000 won
Adults 19 – 64: 3,000 won
Seniors: Free
People living in Seodaemun-gu can get a 50% discount on showing their resident’s card with address.
How to get to Seodaemun Museum of Natural History:
Unfortunately the museum is not located near any train station. There are two stations which you can get the bus to the museum from.
The first is Hongje Station on Line 3. Leave exit 3 and get the 7738 (green) bus and get off at Seodaemun Museum. Announcments are in English.
The second way to get there is from Sinchon station, Line 2. Leave exit 1 and head straight for about 300 metres. The bus stop is in front of GS25 (convenience store). The bus stop was relocated here in June, 2011. You can take bus number 110 (blue) or 7720 (green). Get off at Seodaemun Museum Stop. See the map below for the museum location and bus stop locations. See picture below of the bus stop and Museum stop highlighted in Korean. Announcements are in English on the bus.
If it is your first time taking a bus in Seoul check out our Seoul Bus Guide.
After you get off the bus, the museum will be located up the steep hill in front of the bus stop.
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