“The Charms of Seoul” Global Content Contest Receives 854 Entries From 42 Countries The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) held “The Charms of Seoul” global content contest to discover and promote various aspects of Seoul to the world—from history and culture to tourism and IT technology—drawing worldwide attention. The contest was held under the theme of “Seoul You Want to Revisit,” and over the course of a month, the SMG received a total of 854 submitted works from 42 countries, including the Philippines, Russia, India and Taiwan. Submissions were classified by two categories of video and image content—works capturing various aspects of Seoul, such as history, culture, tourism, safety and IT—and 40 contest awardees were selected through a preliminary screening, citizens’ online poll, and an experts’ screening. The Grand Prize was awarded to ThOKI from Philippines for their “SEOUL for soul” video submission. The video includes images of a couple from Philippines grows their relationship while traveling beautiful and fascinating attractions in Seoul, such as DDP, Mt. Nam, Seoul Station, Han River and Hanyangdoseong (Seoul City Wall). Especially, images of how the couple fully enjoys Seoul including dancing freely to K-pop successfully draw attention from SMG. Introducing Seoul as “a city that will surpass your expectations,” ThOKI received the Mayor of Seoul Award and prize money of KRW 10 million. The Gold Prize for the Video category was awarded to “To. Seoul” under the theme of “Seoul, where various spaces and people come together.” The Gold Prize for the Image category was awarded to “Landscape Painting of Seoul,” which shows Seoul as a modern city in a traditional landscape painting against a snowy winter scenery.Organized with a goal to discover the hidden charms of Seoul in preparation for the post-COVID-19 era, this contest was participated by not only the citizens of Seoul, but also citizens from 42 countries around the world. This indicates that the global community’s interest in Seoul is still high although they cannot visit in person due to the pandemic. The award-winning works are available to view via the SMG’s foreign language website and YouTube for all global citizens to view. An online award ceremony is scheduled to be held in July to introduce the contest awardees.