Taekwondo Park Slated to Open in 2013
By Kim Jae-won
Staff Reporter
A place that people can enjoy and learn all about taekwondo will be established in Muju, North Jeolla Province in Korea. The ground-breaking ceremony for the Taekwondo Park will take place on Friday, Taekwondo Day.
About 1,500 guests will take part in the event, including many VIPs, such as International Olympic
Committee (IOC) members, and representatives from government and the National Assembly.
The Taekwondo Park, whose first-phase construction work is set for completion in 2013, will consist of three parts - spirit, mind, and body, which the traditional Korean sport aims to train.
The spirit part is a symbolic area. This will be a place where students can realize the original ideas of taekwondo as well as admire a taekwondo grandmaster's spirit and mind. It will be a holy place where people can harmonize their mind with nature.
Facilities, such as memorial park, and water terrace observatory will be set for it.
The second part is mind, the training area. The World Taekwondo Academy will be located in the area. That is in harmony with nature and will become another landmark of Korea, the mother land of taekwondo.
Korean traditional park, operation center, taekwondo research institute, the World Taekwondo Academy, multipurpose playground, out-door training center, training institute, restaurants will help for the purpose.
The last one is body, which will allow people to have experience about the martial sport.
This will be a public place to experience taekwondo. It will have an arena, which will be regarded as the landmark of the Taekwondo Park, symbolizing three Taeguek, which means taekwondo spirit including heaven, earth and mankind, in the traditional Korean pattern.
Taekwondo exhibition/visitor center, out-door experience hall, taekwondo experience hall, taekwondo arena, open plaza, parking lot, poomsae sculpture park, world taekwondo village will be built.
The Taekwondo Promotion Foundation, chaired by Lee Dai-soon, who also serves as a vice president of the WTF, will manage the construction of the Taekwondo Park. The foundation has also promoted many projects to strengthen the position of taekwondo as an Olympic sport as well as develop taekwondo as a global sport. The construction will cost $185 million (230 billion won), and the park will open in 2013.
Taekwondo is one of Korea's native traditional martial arts. It is a global sport, which is enjoyed by about 70 million people in 189 countries.
It is the cultural icon for the nation and has been on the Olympic program since the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.