Ulsan

Ulsan is a metropolitan city on the southeastern coast of South Korea, facing the East Sea north of Busan. The Bangudae Petroglyphs, prehistoric carvings of whales and whale hunters on the cliffs of the Bangucheon Stream, joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2025.

Hyundai Motor's Ulsan plant, the company's first car factory, builds models such as the Ioniq 5 electric car and ships them from its own pier. HD Hyundai Heavy Industries builds container ships and LNG carriers at its shipyard on the city's eastern shore. Korea Zinc refines zinc, lead and silver at its smelter in Onsan, beside the southern part of the port.

During the Silla kingdom the harbor was a gateway for trade with Gyeongju, the royal capital inland. Ulsan was designated a special industrial zone in 1962, when the government's first economic development plan chose it for factories and a refinery. In the late 1990s the city was separated from South Gyeongsang Province and given the status of a metropolitan city. Choe Hyeon-bae, the scholar who wrote a standard grammar of the Korean language and worked for the use of the Hangul script, was born in Ulsan.

Whaling from Jangsaengpo ended with the international moratorium in the 1980s, and the old harbor quarter became a whale culture village with a museum and a whale-watching boat. Taehwagang National Garden follows the Taehwa River through the center and became the country's second national garden, known for a bamboo grove on the riverbank. Ganjeolgot Cape, on the southern coast, is one of the first places on the Korean mainland to see the sunrise, and crowds come for it on New Year's Day. Ulsan HD FC plays in the K League 1 and won the title three seasons in a row in the 2020s.