1.
Gwangju, Gyeonggi
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Gwangju is a city in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, a suburb southeast of Seoul. The city is not to be confused with the much larger Gwangju Metropolitan City, former capital of South Jeolla Province, bunwon-ri in Gwangju took an important role of ceramic production during the Kingdom of Joseon. There had official kilns and produced superb quality of white porcelains for use at the royal court, in 1962,4 myuns including 5 ris were incorporated to Seoul. In 1973,6 of ris were separated and these came to parts of Seongnam city, in 1979, gwangju myun promoted eup. In fact, Gwangju was a county but became a city in 2001, kim Yu-bin, part of the Korean girl group Wonder Girls Choi Sooyoung, part of the Korean girl group Girls Generation Lee Hongki, lead singer of F. T
2.
Guangzhou
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Guangzhou, traditionally romanised as Canton, is the capital and most populous city of the province of Guangdong in southern China. Guangzhou is currently, the third city in mainland China, behind Beijing and Shanghai, holds sub-provincial administrative status. In 2015 the citys area was estimated to have a population of 13,501,100. Some estimates place the population of the area of the Pearl River Delta Mega City as high as 44 million without the Hong Kong SAR and 54 million including it. Guangzhou is ranked as a Beta+ Global city, in recent years, there has been a rapidly increasing number of foreign residents and illegal immigrants from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, as well as from Africa. This has led to it being dubbed the Capital of the Third World, the migrant population from other provinces of China in Guangzhou was 40 percent of the citys total population in 2008. Long the only Chinese port accessible to foreign traders, the city fell to the British during the First Opium War. No longer enjoying a monopoly after the war, it lost trade to ports such as Hong Kong and Shanghai. In modern commerce, Guangzhou is best known for its annual Canton Fair, for the three consecutive years 2013–2015, Forbes ranked Guangzhou as the best commercial city on the Chinese mainland. Guǎngzhōu is the pinyin romanisation of the Chinese name 廣州, which was simplified in mainland China to 广州 in the 1950s, before acquiring its current name, the town was known as Panyu, a name still borne by one of Guangzhous districts. The origin of the name is uncertain, with 11 various explanations being offered. The city has sometimes been known as Guangzhou Fu or Guangfu after its status as the capital of a commandery. From this latter name, Guangzhou was known to medieval Persians such as Al-Masudi, under the Southern Han, the city was renamed Xingwang. Under the Qing, it was known to its inhabitants as simply The Provincial Capital. The Chinese abbreviation for Guangzhou is 穗, after its nickname Rice City, the former name City of the Immortals came from the same story. The more recent City of Flowers is usually taken as a reference to the areas greenery. The English name Canton derived from Portuguese Cantão or Cidade de Cantão, although it originally and chiefly applied to the walled city, it was also used in English in reference to Guangdong generally. It was adopted as the Postal Map Romanization of Guangzhou and remained in use until the gradual adoption of pinyin
3.
Hangul
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The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul in South Korea and as Chosŏngŭl/Chosŏn Muntcha in North Korea is the alphabet that has been used to write the Korean language since the 15th century. It was created during the Joseon Dynasty in 1443 by King Sejong the Great, in South Korea, Hangul is used primarily to write the Korean language as using Hanja in typical Korean writing had fallen out of common usage during the late 1990s. In its classical and modern forms, the alphabet has 19 consonant and 21 vowel letters, however, instead of being written sequentially like the letters of the Latin alphabet, Hangul letters are grouped into blocks, such as 한 han, each of which transcribes a syllable. That is, although the syllable 한 han may look like a single character, each syllabic block consists of two to six letters, including at least one consonant and one vowel. These blocks are arranged horizontally from left to right or vertically from top to bottom. Each Korean word consists of one or more syllables, hence one or more blocks, of the 11,172 possible Hangul syllables, the most frequent 256 have a cumulative frequency of 88. 2%, with the top 512, it reaches 99. 9%. The modern name Hangul was coined by Ju Sigyeong in 1912, han meant great in archaic Korean, and geul is the native Korean word for script. Taken together, then, the meaning is great script, as the word han had also become one way of indicating Korea as a whole the name could also potentially be interpreted as Korean script. Korean 한글 is pronounced, and in English as /ˈhɑːn. ɡʊl/ or /ˈhɑːŋɡʊl/, when used as an English word, it is often rendered without the diacritics, hangul, and it is often capitalized as Hangul, as it appears in many English dictionaries. Hankul in the Yale romanization, a system recommended for technical linguistic studies, North Koreans call it Chosŏngŭl, after Chosŏn, the North Korean name for Korea. Because of objections to the names Hangeul, Chosŏngŭl, and urigeul by Koreans in China, until the early 20th century, Hangul was denigrated as vulgar by the literate elite, who preferred the traditional hanja writing system. They gave it such names as these, Achimgeul, in the original Hanja, it is rendered as 故智者不終朝而會，愚者可浹旬而學。 Gugmun Eonmun Amgeul. Am is a prefix that signifies a noun is feminine Ahaetgeul or Ahaegeul Hangul was promulgated by Sejong the Great, the Hall of Worthies, a group of scholars who worked with Sejong to develop and refine the new alphabet, is often credited for the work. The project was completed in late December 1443 or January 1444, the publication date of the Hunmin Jeong-eum, October 9, became Hangul Day in South Korea. Its North Korean equivalent, Chosongul Day, is on January 15, various speculations about the creation process were put to rest by the discovery in 1940 of the 1446 Hunmin Jeong-eum Haerye. This document explains the design of the consonant letters according to articulatory phonetics, to assuage this problem, King Sejong created the unique alphabet known as Hangul to promote literacy among the common people. However, it entered popular culture as Sejong had intended, being used especially by women, the late 16th century, however, saw a revival of Hangul, with gasa literature and later sijo flourishing. In the 17th century, Hangul novels became a major genre, by this point spelling had become quite irregular
4.
Hanja
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Hanja is the Korean name for Chinese characters. Borrowed from Chinese and incorporated into the Korean language with Korean pronunciation, hanja-mal or hanja-eo refers to words that can be written with hanja, and hanmun refers to Classical Chinese writing, although hanja is sometimes used loosely to encompass these other concepts. Because hanja never underwent major reform, they are almost entirely identical to traditional Chinese, only a small number of hanja characters are modified or unique to Korean. By contrast, many of the Chinese characters currently in use in Japan and Mainland China have been simplified, and contain fewer strokes than the corresponding hanja characters. Today, a working knowledge of Chinese characters is still important for anyone who wishes to study older texts. Learning a certain number of hanja is very helpful for understanding the etymology of Sino-Korean words, hanja are not used to write native Korean words, which are always rendered in hangul, and even words of Chinese origin—hanja-eo —are written with the hangul alphabet most of the time. A major motivation for the introduction of Chinese characters into Korea was the spread of Buddhism, the major Chinese text that introduced hanja to Koreans, however, was not a religious text but the Chinese text, Cheonjamun. One way of adapting hanja to write Korean in such systems was to represent native Korean grammatical particles, for example, Gugyeol uses the characters 爲尼 to transcribe the Korean word hăni, in modern Korean, that means does, and so. However, in Chinese, the characters are read as the expression wéi ní. This is an example of Gugyeol words where the radical is read in Korean for its meaning. Hanja was the means of writing Korean until King Sejong the Great promoted the invention of hangul in the 15th century. However, even after the invention of hangul, most Korean scholars continued to write in hanmun and it was not until the 20th century that hangul truly replaced hanja. Officially, hanja has not been used in North Korea since June 1949, additionally, many words borrowed from Chinese have been replaced in the North with native Korean words. However, there are a number of Chinese-borrowed words in widespread usage in the North. The replacement has been less total in South Korea where, although usage has declined over time, some remains in common usage in some contexts. Each hanja is composed of one of 214 radicals plus in most cases one or more additional elements, the vast majority of hanja use the additional elements to indicate the sound of the character, but a few hanja are purely pictographic, and some were formed in other ways. This dual meaning-sound reading of a character is called eumhun, the word or words used to denote the meaning are often—though hardly always—words of native Korean origin, and are sometimes archaic words no longer commonly used. South Korean primary schools abandoned the teaching of hanja in 1971 and it is taught in separate courses in South Korean high schools, separately from the normal Korean-language curriculum
5.
McCune-Reischauer
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McCune–Reischauer romanization is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems. A modified version of McCune–Reischauer was the official system in South Korea until 2000. A variant of McCune–Reischauer is still used as the system in North Korea. The system was created in 1937 by George M. McCune, with a few exceptions, it attempts not to transliterate Korean hangul but to represent the phonetic pronunciation. McCune–Reischauer is widely used outside Korea, Korean has phonologically no distinction between voiced and voiceless consonants, but it phonetically distinguishes them. Aspirated consonants like p, k, and t are distinguished by apostrophe from unaspirated ones, the apostrophe is also used to mark transcriptions of ㄴㄱ as opposed to ㅇㅇ, 잔금 → changŭm vs. 장음 → changŭm). That can lead to confusion over whether the o being romanized is 오 or 어 or the u being Romanized is 우 or 으, casual users also often omit the apostrophe that differentiates aspirated consonants from their unaspirated counterparts, which can also lead to confusion. Such common omissions were the reason the South Korean government adopted a revised system of romanization in 2000. Critics of the system claim it fails to represent 어 and 으 in a way that is easily recognizable. Also, it misrepresents the unaspirated consonants the way that they are actually pronounced, also, North Korea uses a version of McCune–Reischauer. Even within South Korea, usage of the new system is less than universal and this is a simplified guide for the McCune–Reischauer system. It is often used for the transliteration of names but does not convert every word properly, ㅔ is written as ë after ㅏ and ㅗ. This is to distinguish ㅐ from ㅏ에, and ㅚ and ㅗ에, the combinations ㅏ에 and ㅗ에 very rarely occur except in sentences when a noun is followed by a postposition, as, for example, 회사에서 hoesaësŏ and 차고에 chagoë. In Sino-Korean words, lt and lch respectively, for ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ, and ㅈ, the letters g, b, d, or j are used if voiced, k, p, t, or ch otherwise. Pronunciations such as those take precedence over the rules in the table above, voiceless/voiced consonants 가구 kagu 등대 tŭngdae 반복 panbok 주장 chujang Of course, the initial consonant ㅇ is disregarded in romanization, since it is only used in order to indicate the absence of sound. For example, 평안 is written as Phyŏngan, the original system would have it written as Pyŏngan. A variant of McCune–Reischauer was in use in South Korea from 1984 to 2000. The following are the differences between the original McCune–Reischauer and the South Korean variant, 시 was written as shi instead of the original systems si, when ㅅ is followed by ㅣ, it is realized as the sound instead of the normal sound
6.
South Korea
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South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea, is a sovereign state in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. The earliest Korean pottery dates to 8000 BC, with three kingdoms flourishing in the 1st century BC and its rich and vibrant culture left 19 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritages of Humanity, the third largest in the world, along with 12 World Heritage Sites. Annexed into Imperial Japan in 1910, Korea was divided after its surrender in 1945, peace has since mostly continued with the two agreeing to work peacefully for reunification and the South solidifying peace as a regional power with the worlds 10th largest defence budget. South Koreas tiger economy soared at an average of 10% for over 30 years in a period of rapid transformation called the Miracle on the Han River. A long legacy of openness and focus on innovation made it successful, today, it is the worlds fifth largest exporter with the G20s largest budget surplus and highest credit rating of any country in East Asia. It has free trade agreements with 75% of the economy and is the only G20 nation trading freely with China, the US. Since 1988, its constitution guarantees a liberal democracy with high government transparency, high personal freedoms led to the rise of a globally influential pop culture such as K-pop and K-drama, a phenomenon called the Korean Wave, known for its distinctive fashionable and trendy style. Home of the UN Green Climate Fund and GGGI, South Korea is a leader in low carbon growth, committed to helping developing countries as a major DAC. It is the third least ignorant country in the Index of Ignorance, ranking eighth highest for peaceful tolerance. It is the worlds largest spender on R&D per GDP, leading the OECD in graduates in science, the name Korea derives from the name Goryeo. The name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After Goryeo was replaced by Joseon in 1392, Joseon became the name for the entire territory. The new official name has its origin in the ancient country of Gojoseon, in 1897, the Joseon dynasty changed the official name of the country from Joseon to Daehan Jeguk. The name Daehan, which means great Han literally, derives from Samhan, however, the name Joseon was still widely used by Koreans to refer to their country, though it was no longer the official name. Under Japanese rule, the two names Han and Joseon coexisted, there were several groups who fought for independence, the most notable being the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Following the surrender of Japan, in 1945, the Republic of Korea was adopted as the name for the new country. Since the government only controlled the part of the Korean Peninsula
7.
Democratic Party of Korea
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Democratic Party is a social liberal political party in South Korea. The party was founded on 26 March 2014 as a merger of the Democratic Party, Ahn and Kim became joint leaders of the new party. The party performed poorly in by-elections that July, however, leadership of the party was assumed by an emergency committee. The next year, at a party convention on February 7, Moon, who had previously served as chief of staff for former president Roh Moo-hyun, was the leader of the partys pro-Roh faction, which was opposed to Ahn and Kim. Moon came under fire for imposing a pro-Roh hegemony in the party, as Ahn, the party hemorrhaged support as the factional conflict intensified, falling from around 40 to 30 percent in opinion polls. A survey conducted on November 12–14 showed that supporters of the party wanted Ahn, Moon rejected the demand, and Ahn left the party. Ahn was followed by a number of supportive NPAD assembly members, including his former co-leader Kim Han-gil, meanwhile, Ahn and Kim merged their group with that of another defector from the NPAD, Chun Jung-bae, to form the Peoples Party. Following the defections, the NPAD was renamed the Minjoo Party of Korea, Moon handed power to Kim Chong-in, an academic and former assemblyman who had more recently served as economic advisor to conservative President Park Geun-hye. Kim Chong-in viewed the pro–Roh Moo-hyun faction and what he considered the extremist wing of the party as responsible for the partys troubles, lee left the party in response. Kim offered to resign in March, but decided to stay on as leader after a visit from Moon. Kim affirmed that he would continue to attempt to change the partys image, lee Hae-chan returned to the Assembly as an independent representing Sejong City. Following its election victory, Kim Chong-in announced that the Minjoo Party would change its emphasis from welfare to economic growth, Kim stated that the party would also change its position to support the establishment of for-profit hospitals, in contrast to the partys earlier opposition to the policy
8.
Rhododendron schlippenbachii
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Rhododendron schlippenbachii, the royal azalea, is a species of Rhododendron native to the Korean Peninsula and adjacent regions of Manchuria, Japan, and the Russian Far East. It is the dominant understory shrub in many Korean hillside forests and it is a dense deciduous shrub growing to 4.5 m in height, but more commonly 1-2 m tall. The leaves are obovate,4. 5-7.5 cm long and 2. 5-4.5 cm broad, the flowers are white to pink, often with small red spots on the upper three petals, they are produced in late spring to early summer. The scientific name schlippenbachii is derived from Baron von Schlippenbach, a Russian officer who collected the species in 1854, in Korea, it is called cheoljjuk and if the color of the petals is white, the flower is called huincheoljjuk. The Royal Azalea is commonly chosen as a symbol in South Korea, by provinces, cities and counties such as Gangwon Province. It is widely cultivated in parts of the world, some cultivars bear white flowers. Flora of China, Rhododendron schlippenbachii Royal azalea festival of Mount Yeonin UConn Plant Database entry
9.
Ginkgo biloba
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Ginkgo biloba, commonly known as ginkgo or gingko, also known as the ginkgo tree or the maidenhair tree, is the only living species in the division Ginkgophyta, all others being extinct. It is found in dating back 270 million years. Native to China, the tree is cultivated and was introduced early to human history. It has various uses in medicine and as a source of food. The genus name Ginkgo is regarded as a misspelling of the Japanese gin kyo, the species was initially described by Carl Linnaeus in 1771, the specific epithet biloba derived from the Latin bis, two and loba, lobed, referring to the shape of the leaves. Two names for the species recognise the botanist Richard Salisbury, a placement by Nelson as Pterophyllus salisburiensis, the epithet of the latter may have been intended to denote a characteristic resembling Adiantum, the genus of maidenhair ferns. The relationship of ginkgo to other plant groups remains uncertain and it has been placed loosely in the divisions Spermatophyta and Pinophyta, but no consensus has been reached. Since its seeds are not protected by a wall, it can morphologically be considered a gymnosperm. The apricot-like structures produced by female ginkgo trees are technically not fruits, but are seeds that have a shell consisting of a soft and fleshy section, and a hard section. It is one of the examples of a living fossil. Chinese scientists published a draft genome of Ginko biloba in 2016, the tree has an exceptionally large genome of 10.6 billion DNA letters and about 41,840 predicted genes which enable a considerable number of antibacterial and chemical defense mechanisms. The spelling pronunciation /ˈɡɪŋkɡoʊ/ is however so widespread that it is recorded in some dictionaries, especially British ones, the older Chinese name for this plant is 銀果, meaning silver fruit, pronounced yínguǒ in Mandarin or Ngan-gwo in Cantonese. The most usual names today are 白果, meaning white fruit, the former name was borrowed directly in Vietnamese as bạch quả. The latter name was borrowed in Japanese ぎんなん and Korean 은행, the scientific name Ginkgo is the result of a spelling error that occurred three centuries ago. Kanji typically have multiple pronunciations in Japanese, and the characters 銀杏 used for ginnan can also be pronounced ginkyō, linné, who relied on Kaempfer when dealing with Japanese plants, adopted the spelling given in Kaempfers Flora Japonica. An extract of Ginkgo biloba leaf is marketed in dietary supplement form with claims it can enhance cognitive function in people without known cognitive problems, studies have failed to find such effects on memory or attention in healthy people. A standardized medicinal extract of Ginkgo biloba leaf originally called EGb 761 has been studied as a treatment for dementia and Alzheimers disease. Some reviews have concluded there is no evidence supporting the use of Ginkgo in dementia
10.
Columbidae
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Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae, which includes about 310 species. Pigeons and doves are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and short slender bills and they primarily feed on seeds, fruits, and plants. This family occurs worldwide, but the greatest variety is in the Indomalaya, in general, the terms dove and pigeon are used somewhat interchangeably. Pigeon is a French word that derives from the Latin pipio, for a peeping chick, the species most commonly referred to as pigeon is the rock dove, one subspecies of which, the domestic pigeon, is common in many cities as the feral pigeon. Pigeons and doves are likely the most common birds in the world, doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests – often using sticks and other debris – which may be placed in trees, on ledges, or on the ground, depending on species. They lay one or two eggs at a time, and both parents care for the young, which leave the nest after seven to 28 days. Unlike most birds, both sexes of doves and pigeons produce crop milk to feed to their young, secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop, young doves and pigeons are called squabs. The adjective columbine refers to pigeons and doves, recent phylogenomic studies support the grouping of these pigeons and sandgrouse together, along with mesites, forming the sister taxon to Mirandornithes. The Columbidae are usually divided into five subfamilies, probably inaccurately, for example, the American ground and quail doves, which are usually placed in the Columbinae, seem to be two distinct subfamilies. The order presented here follows Baptista et al. with some updates, osteology and DNA sequence analyses indicate the dodo and Rodrigues solitaire are better considered as a subfamily Raphinae in the Columbidae pending availability of further information. The dodo and Rodrigues solitaire are in all part of the Indo-Australian radiation that produced the three small subfamilies mentioned above, with the fruit-doves and pigeons. Therefore, they are included as a subfamily Raphinae, pending better material evidence of their exact relationships. Exacerbating these issues, columbids are not well represented in the fossil record, no truly primitive forms have been found to date. The genus Gerandia has been described from Early Miocene deposits of France, apart from that, all other fossils belong to extant genera. For these, and for the number of more recently extinct prehistoric species. Phylogeny based on the work by John H. Boyd III, Pigeons and doves exhibit considerable variations in size. Overall, the Columbidae tend to have short bills and legs, the wings are large and have low wing loadings, pigeons have strong wing muscles and are among the strongest fliers of all birds. They are also highly manoeuvrable in flight, the plumage of the family is variable
11.
United States dollar
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The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
12.
South Jeolla Province
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South Jeolla Province or Jeollanam-do is a province in the southwest of South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the half of the former Jeolla province, remained a province of Korea until the countrys division in 1945. Gwangju was the capital of the province, until the office moved to the southern village of Namak. The province is part of the Honam region, and is bounded on the west by the Yellow Sea, on the north by Jeollabuk-do Province, on the south by Jeju Strait, and on the east by Gyeongsangnam-do. There are almost 2,000 islands along the coastline, about three quarters of which are uninhabited, the coastline is about 6,100 kilometres long. Some of the products, in particular oyster and seaweed cultivation, are leading in South Korea. The province is only partially mountainous, the plains along the rivers Seomjin, Yeongsan and Tamjin create a large granary. There is abundant rainfall in the area, which helps agriculture, the province is also home to the warmest weather on the peninsula. This helps to produce amounts of agricultural produce, mainly rice, wheat, barley. Vegetables, cotton and fruits are grown in the province. A small amount of gold and coal is mined in the province, Jeollanam-do is divided into 5 cities and 17 counties. Listed below is the name of each entity in English, hangul,53. 4% of the population is mostly not religious or follow Muism and other indigenous religions. 31st, Heo Kyung-man - 1st term, 32nd, Heo Kyung-man - 2nd term. 33rd, Park Tae-young - died in office 34th, Park Jun-young - 1st term, 35th, Park Jun-young - 2nd term. 36th, Park Jun-young - 3rd term, 37th, Lee Nak-yon List of Korea-related topics South Jeolla travel guide from Wikivoyage Jeollanam-do provincial government English-language home page
13.
Provinces of Korea
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This article describes the historical development of Koreas provinces. During the Unified Silla Period, Korea was divided into nine Ju, in 1009 the country was again redivided, this time into one royal district, five provinces and two frontier districts. After the Joseon Dynastys rise to power and the formation of Joseon in 1392, the provincial boundaries closely reflected major regional and dialect boundaries, and are still often referred to in Korean today simply as the Eight Provinces. In 1895, as part of the Gabo Reform, the country was redivided into 23 districts, the thirteen provinces of 1896 included three of the original eight provinces, with the five remaining original provinces divided into north and south halves. The thirteen provinces remained unchanged throughout the Colonial Period, as a result, three provinces—Hwanghae, Gyeonggi, and Gangwon —were divided into North Korea and South Korea today. The special cities of Seoul and Pyŏngyang were formed in 1946, between 1946 and 1954, five new provinces were created, Jeju in South Korea, and North and South Hwanghae, Chagang, and Ryanggang in North Korea. Since 1954, provincial boundaries in both the North and South have remained unchanged, new cities and special administrative regions have been created, however, see Special cities of Korea for their history. For a comprehensive description of Koreas provinces and special cities today, please see Administrative divisions of North Korea, in 660, the southeastern kingdom of Silla conquered Baekje in the Southwest, and in 668, Silla conquered Goguryeo in the north with the help of Chinas Tang Dynasty. For the first time, most of the Korean peninsula was ruled by a single power, sillas northern boundary ran through the middle of southern Goguryeo, from the Taedong River in the west to Wŏnsan in modern-day Kangwon Province in the east. In 721, Silla solidified its northern boundary with Balhae by building a wall between Pyŏngyang and Wŏnsan, the countrys capital was Geumseong, and sub-capitals were located at Geumgwan-gyeong, Namwon-gyeong, Seowon-gyeong, Jungwon-gyeong, and Bugwon-gyeong. The country was divided into nine provinces, three in the territory of Silla, and three each in the former kingdoms of Baekje and Goguryeo. The table below lists the three preceding kingdoms, each name in the Roman alphabet, hangul, and hanja, as well as the provincial capital. In 892, Gyeon Hwon founded the kingdom of Later Baekje in southwestern Silla, in 935, Goryeo conquered the remnants of Silla, and in 936, it conquered Later Baekje. Songak was greatly expanded and renamed Gaegyeong, taejo expanded the countrys territory by conquering part of the land formerly belonging to Goguryeo, in the northwest of the Korean peninsula, as far north as the Amnok River. A wall was constructed from the Amnok River in the northwest to the Sea of Japan in the southeast, the country had one capital and three sub-capitals, Donggyeong, Namgyeong, and Seogyeong. Originally, the country had one royal district around Gaegyeong and twelve administrative districts, finally, in 1009, the ten provinces were again redivided, this time into five provinces and two frontier districts. The table below lists the provinces of Silla, the districts of Goryeo that replaced them, then the pre- and post-1009 provinces. ^ In 1413, Korea was divided into eight provinces, Chungcheong, Gangwon, Gyeonggi, Gyeongsang, Jeolla, Hamgyŏng, Hwanghae, notes In 1895, Korea was redivided into 23 districts, each named for the city or county that was its capital
14.
Muan County
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Muan County is a county in South Jeolla Province, South Korea. In 2005, Muan County became the capital of Jeollanam-do following the transfer of the office from its previous location. Muan International Airport was opened here, and will replace the airports in Gwangju. On January 1 of 1963, several villages were incorporated into Mokpo city, in 1979, Muan township was promoted to a township. In 1980, Illo was also promoted into a township, flower, The Chrysanthemum Tree, The Zelkova tree Bird, The white Heron Muan County is located on the western tip of the South Western part of the Korean peninsula. It acts as the link between Sinan county with the rest of the Korean mainland. Numerous beaches are found on Muans coast. Muan borders Yeongsan river with Naju and Hampyeong to the north, Yeongam to the east and these surroundings have influenced the industrial and cultural structure of Muan County. Muan was designated a city by the South Korean government for the Honam region. The South Korean government and China have agreed to develop a complex in a joint venture. Muan includes an area of mudlands. The western area of the Korean peninsula has an amount of mud thanks to the Rias coast. However, many mudlands have been destroyed or reclaimed for expanding city areas or industrial complexes, the mudlands of Muan were designated one of the wetlands of the Ramsar Convention. Muan is widely known for its White Lotus Festival located in Illo-eup, the festival occurs in mid August when the white lotus flowers bloom fully onsite at the Hoesan White Lotus Pond. Tourists can walk into the huge lotuslands via the bridges that crisscross the water. Visitors may also ride the duck boats, Muan is known for several famous products characteristic of the area. They are largely farming goods from onions to lotus products, Muan puts out 16% of the national onion production making its production volume is the largest in Korea. Muan county officially reported to host farming cluster of sweet potato, onion, the powder of lotus plants is used for making noodles
15.
Silla
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Silla was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and one of the worlds longest sustained dynasties. Although it was founded by King Park Hyeokgeose, the dynasty was ruled by the Gyeongju Kim clan for most of its 992-year history. It began as a chiefdom in the Samhan confederacies, once allied with China, thereafter, Unified Silla or Later Silla, as it is often referred to, occupied most of the Korean Peninsula, while the northern part re-emerged as Balhae, a successor-state of Goguryeo. After nearly 1000 years of rule, Silla fragmented into the brief Later Three Kingdoms, Silla, Hubaekje, and Taebong, handing over power to its successor dynasty Goryeo in 935. From its founding until its growth into a kingdom, Silla was recorded with various hanja phonetically approximating its native Korean name, 斯盧, 斯羅, 徐那, 徐耶, 徐羅. In 503, King Jijeung standardized on the characters 新羅, which in Modern Korean is pronounced Shilla, in the modern Mongolian language, Korea and Koreans are still known as Солонгос Solongos, which seems to be an alteration of Silla influenced by the Mongolian word for rainbow. Scholars have traditionally divided Silla history into three periods, Early, Middle, and Late. The Park clan held power for three generations before a coup by the Seok clan. During the reign of the first Seok ruler, Talhae of Silla, the Park and Seok clans constantly fought each other for power and both were eventually overthrown by the Kim clan. The Kim clan then ruled over Silla for many generations with the Park, the final ruler of Later Silla, King Gyeongsun, was a member of the Kim clan. During the Proto–Three Kingdoms period, the city-states of central and southern Korea were grouped into three confederacies called Samhan, Silla began as Saro-guk, a statelet within the 12-member confederacy called Jinhan. Saro-guk consisted of six villages and six clans, according to Korean records, Silla was founded by King Park Hyeokgeose in 57 BC, around present-day Gyeongju. Hyeokgeose is said to have hatched from an egg laid from a white horse. He is also the progenitor of the Park clan, now one of the most common names in Korea. The Samguk Sagi and Bei Shi say that the originally Lelang Commandery area which became the Jinhan confederacy was the origin of Silla. By the 2nd century, Silla existed as a state in the southeastern area of the Korean peninsula. It expanded its influence over neighboring Jinhan chiefdoms, but through the 3rd century was no more than the strongest city-state in a loose federation. To the west, Baekje had centralized into a kingdom by about 250, to the southwest, Byeonhan was being replaced by the Gaya confederacy
South Korea
Gwangju-Kia Champions Field, home field of Kia Tigers.
