Korea
Located in East Asia, Korea is bordered by China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and Japan to the east across the East Sea of Korea. Officially known as the Republic of Korea, the nation’s population is approximately 50 million in South.
Once the poorest country in the 1950’s, Korea has achieved unprecedented economic growth, recorded as one of the world’s largest economies. The OECD member nation has developed the world-class competitiveness throughout various industries such as IT, vehicle-manufacturing, shipbuilding, construction, steel, machinery, telecommunication and petro-chemistry. Samsung, LG and Hyundai Motors are the well-known global conglomerate companies of Korea. We can easily find the products of these companies around our life, for example, mobile phones, TVs and cars.

Having emerged as one of leading nations in Asia, Korea has proved its economic growth to the world, hosting numerous international events including the Olympic Game (1988) and the Soccer World Cup (2002). In 2005, APEC summit took place in Busan, where the political leaders of Asia-Pacific nations gathered. In November, 2010, Korea proved its international competence as a global leader through hosting G-20 summit in Seoul.

The beginning of Korea’s origin dates back to 2333 B.C. in history. From the ancient times, Korea was well-known for its high standard culture throughout costume, pottery, jewelry and architecture, not only in the neighboring countries like China and Japan, even to the Arabian world. It also engaged in the trading with those countries. Korea’s traditional costume Hanbok has won the heart of foreign visitors, attributed by its elegant silhouette and splendid mixture of various colors.

As the culinary trend has shifted towards the healthy food, Korean food has begun gaining the attention of the world recently. Characterized with the usage of garlic, fresh vegetables and rice, the world began paying attention on Korea’s culinary culture. A number of scientific researches have proved that Korean foods are effective for obesity, diabetes and even cancer. Kimchi (spicy-taste side dish made of seasoned and fermented cabbage), Bulgogi (well-known Korean meat)
and bibimbob (spicy-taste rice with various vegetable mixtures) are the famous and popular Korean foods to foreigners among other foods.