Hwaseong City Identified as Optimal Location for National Natural History Museum

Hwaseong City's efforts to attract the National Natural History Museum are expected to gain momentum.

According to a research commissioned by the Gyeonggi Research Institute, Hwaseong City has been evaluated as the optimal location for establishing the National Natural History Museum. According to Hwaseong City on the 26th, the government plans to invest 650 billion won in construction costs and specimen collection by 2020 to build a natural history museum on a 330,060 square-meter site featuring 15 exhibition halls covering topics including space and the solar system, earth geology, minerals, and ecology.

Currently, cities competing to attract the natural history museum include Hwaseong City as well as Yongsan-gu and Nowon-gu in Seoul, Ganghwa County, Namwon City, Buan County, Daegu City, Wonju City, Taebaek City, Jeju, Sejong City, Gyeongju City, and Boeun County.

To attract the natural history museum, Gyeonggi Province commissioned the Gyeonggi Research Institute to conduct a preliminary feasibility study for establishing the National Natural History Museum. In the comprehensive evaluation (out of 5 points), Hwaseong City scored 4.57, outperforming rival competing cities such as Yongsan-gu (3.82), Nowon-gu (3.53), and Ganghwa County (3.30).

In the location feasibility study, Hwaseong City received relatively higher evaluations than Yongsan-gu, Nowon-gu, and Ganghwa County in terms of symbolic significance, project planning, land acquisition conditions, natural ecological value, biodiversity, geological importance, and landscape.

However, Hwaseong City showed a relatively disadvantageous position compared to Seoul metropolitan areas in terms of culture and education, transportation facilities, cultural benefits, and tourism infrastructure.

Kim Haeng-nim, Director of the Education and Welfare Bureau, stated "We plan to deliver the research results to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in June" and added "Based on this, we plan to concentrate all administrative efforts on attracting the natural history museum."