Ulsan City Delegation Visits France's Opera Bastille and Canoe Slalom Stadium

Study of World-Class Cultural and Sports Infrastructure
Accelerating the Vision for Ulsan as an Exciting City

Ulsan City has embarked on benchmarking efforts to build world-class cultural, artistic, and sports infrastructure.

On July 11, an overseas delegation led by Ulsan Mayor Kim Doo-gyeom visited Opera Bastille, a renowned performance venue in Paris, France, and the Vaires-sur-Marne Water Sports Stadium, which will host the canoe slalom events for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

This site visit was organized so that Ulsan City could directly examine advanced European examples prior to constructing its own world-class multipurpose performance hall and the nation’s first international-standard canoe slalom stadium. The goal is to refine the design and operational direction for these projects.

The delegation first visited Opera Bastille in the morning. Opera Bastille is a leading French cultural facility, globally renowned for its modern architectural beauty, advanced stage technology, and citizen-centered management system.

The city expects that insights from this visit will serve as an important reference not only for the direction of the venue’s design, but also for establishing practical operational strategies such as ensuring public accessibility and diversifying programming in the future.

Through this tour of Opera Bastille, which is not only a performance venue but also an iconic Parisian landmark and a symbol of the city, Ulsan plans to accelerate construction of a venue that highlights Ulsan’s unique characteristics while also attracting global attention.

In the afternoon, the delegation visited the Vaires-sur-Marne Water Sports Stadium on the outskirts of Paris to examine the overall operation of the canoe slalom stadium. This facility is the largest artificial whitewater complex in Europe and is a comprehensive sports complex equipped with rowing and sprint kayak courses, as well as training, accommodation, and sports medicine infrastructure.

Ulsan City plans to actively incorporate this European-style operational know-how into the slalom stadium it is planning to build within its sports park, and is also considering ways to expand it as an experiential water leisure tourism resource in the future.

Mayor Kim Doo-gyeom stated, "This site visit is a strategic step for Ulsan to become a world-class city of culture and sports," and added, "We will ensure that the performance hall and stadium become key platforms that elevate the regional economy and the value of the city brand, rather than remaining as mere facilities."

Ulsan City Hall.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.