Pyeongchang County

Pyeongchang County (Pyeongchang-gun) is a county in Gangwon-do province, South Korea and the 3rd largest county in the country. It is located in the Taebaek Mountains region, and is home to a number of Buddhist temples, including Woljeongsa. The altitude of Pyeongchang is 700m above sea level, with some areas over 1,000m high.[1] The county is around 180km to the east of Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

Olympic Games aspirations

PyeongChang 2014 olympic bid logo

Pyeongchang is the candidate city of South Korea for the organization of the XXII Olympic Winter Games, the 2014 Winter Olympics. This is the second attempt of this city (after 2010). On June 22, 2006, the number of candidates was narrowed to three; Pyeongchang will compete against Salzburg, Austria and Sochi, Russia.[2]

Pyeongchang bid to be the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. It won the first round of votes with 51 against Vancouver's 40 and Salzburg's 16, but lost out 53 to 56 in the final ballot to Vancouver.

See also

* Yongpyeong-myeon, a subdivision of Pyeongchang-gun that will host the 2009 Biathlon World Championships
* List of Korea-related topics

External links

General

*Pyeongchang County government English-language home page
*Galbijim wiki page on Pyeongchang

Olympic-related

*2014 PyeongChang -- official site of the city's Olympic bid
*Government website of the Gangwon province (in English)
*GamesBids.com -- information on bids for the hosting of the Olympic Games
*Gangwon Province goes all out to host 2014 Winter Games -- from Korea.net