One of the Asian Giants: South Korea

Introduction

South Korea is one the four Asian Tigers with fastest economic growth. Seoul, the capital of it is a megacity with a population of more than 10 million,

Social and Cultural Aspect

As the capital city of South Korea, Seoul is the center of social and cultural activities. Software and hardware element of Seoul shows the unique characteristics of Koreans. The software element includes modern values, local cultures. And the hardware element of the city includes historical architecture, technological advanced infrastructures and airport facilities.

Software of Seoul

Food Culture

Talking about the culture of Seoul, a table of traditional Korean national side dishes, Kimchi (김치), must be the first thing surprise visitors. Kimchi is often made of seasoned vegetables that fermented in jar underground and taste spicy and sour. Regarding the origin of kimchi, it is believed that for the reason of food security in the long cold winter, Korean start to develop methods in pickling vegetables, especially for cabbages that are widely grown throughout the country, as early as in the 7th century. But not until the 18th century, after the Japanese invasion which imported red chili pepper into Korean peninsula, this new spicy ingredient became the soul of kimchi. Besides kimchi, there are still a variety of Korean dish that represent the culture of Korea, for instance, Soju (韓國燒酒) which is cheaper than water, Ginseng (人蔘), Bibimbap (石鍋飯) and Live octopus.

Entertainment

Another cultural element that Seoul amaze the world in the 21st century is her entertainment industry, K-pop, which highly emphasized on audiovisual performance and a bit of mix with western music. People love k-pop even if they cannot understand Korean. From songs to...

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...ycling facilities are setting up by fundings, monitoring equipment is installed and additional manpower is deployed to sue those who do not make use of designated trash bags. Voluntary groups from residents’ organizations and non-governmental green groups are set up to monitor fly tipping. In 2000, reward system was set up. Any reporting on fly-tipping may be rewarded with at most 80% of penalty. Since the policy executed, the figures of fly-tipping in South Korea fell from a million cases in 1995 to less than 140 000 cases now.

Green Spaces

There are 1,953 parks of different sizes, covering 27% of Seoul’s land area. However, two-thirds of them is in the mountains on the edges of the Seoul. The ratio of parkland per-capita falls from 15.95㎡ to 5.19㎡ when counting green spaces that are easily accessible to the public, this shows parks are in short supply in Seoul.