Yangchung High School is one of the oldest private secondary schools of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

. Throughout its history, the school has moved three times and is currently situated in Mok-dong,

Yangcheon District The Yangcheon District (Yangcheon-gu) is a ''gu'', or district, of Seoul, South Korea, located on the southwest side of the Han River. At the centre of this district is the Mok-dong area, which is home to numerous shopping outlets, bars and rest ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

History

Yangchung High School originates from an educational institution called yangchunguisuk in 1905, sponsored by Queen Eom, in Jongno. The school was temporarily disbanded at the start of the Japanese occupation of Korea, but was reopened after 9 years. During this period the school produced many fighters against the Japanese, as well as national heroes, including the marathon runner Sohn Kee-Chung. After the Japanese withdrew from the Korean Peninsula and with the onset of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

, the school continued to operate until the outbreak of the

Korean Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

, at the start of which

- where the school was and still is situated - was overrun by communist forces. The school set up temporary facilities in the South of the country, but relocated to Seoul once the war ended. In 1988, the school moved to Mok-dong. from the original building that was located in Man-li dong.

Sport

As the history of the school is very old, it started many traditions in high school.

Rugby

Yangchung school is known for its annual rugby match with Pai chai high school(an institution that started from the Pai chai Hakdang founded by american missionary

Henry Appenzeller Rev. Henry Gerhard Appenzeller (February 6, 1858 – June 11, 1902) was a Methodist missionary. He and four other missionaries, including Horace N. Allen, Horace G. Underwood, William B. Scranton, and Mary F. Scranton introduced Protestant Chr ...

in 1885, which also started Pai Chai University) that has been going on since 1946, nicknamed the "Baeyangjeon" or "Yangbae Jeon".

Hiking

Yangchung has the oldest school hiking organizations in Korea. Although private mountaineering clubs existed such as the 1926 group "Muresane", the official mountaineering club for the school was founded in 1937.In 2005 the members of the club went on a expedition to Mount Everest commemorating the 100th anniversary of the school.

Notable alumni

The school has over 50,000 former students and graduates. *

Jo O-ryeon Jo O-ryeon (, 5 October 1952 – 4 August 2009) was a South Korean freestyle swimmer. He competed in two events at the 1972 Summer Olympics. He later practiced long-distance open-water swimming, swimming the Korea Strait in 1980, and at the ...

* Sohn Kee-chung

References

External link

Official site for Yangchung Middle School

Official site for Yangchung High School
{{coord missing, South Korea Schools in Seoul High schools in South Korea Yangcheon District