Hongseong County
Hongseong is a county in South Korea, the capital of South Chungcheong Province. The current governor is Kim Seok-hwan; the original name of this city is Hongju. The flag represents the Joyang Gate along with the west coastal line; the region's flower is the forsythia, which symbolizes the warmth and kindness in the hearts of the people of Hongseong. The region's tree is the zelkova, known for providing a lot of shade; this symbolizes the patriotism of the people of Hongseong. The region's bird is the magpie, the national bird of Korea, it symbolizes good news and hope. Historical figures born in Hongseong: Choe Yeong: General during the Goryeo Dynasty Seong Sammun: Notable scholar during the Joseon Dynasty Han Seong-jun: Master of Korean dance during the Japanese Colonial Era Han Yong-un: Buddhist reformer Kim Jwa-jin: anarcho-communist activist In Hongseong, a large statue of Buddha is engraved on a protruding rock carved into the shape of a shrine. Overall, the headpiece is solid and integrity is shown on the face, but the statue is unbalanced from its loss of volume towards the bottom.
Site attributed to Choe Yeong: Gibongsa: in Noeunli, shrine, reconstructed in 1995. Egg cockles taste not easy to eat in city areas; because of these reasons, the festival became successful. However, an oil spill around Taean made it difficult to host this festival recently. Hongseong did not suffer direct damage from the oil spill; the county took place as the host on Jan 16 of 2008. Naepo Festival: First begun in 2004, this festival honors the Naepo culture throughout Hongseong in the month of October, it represents the loyalty of the culture of Hongseong people. It includes many competitions and performances while commemorating General Choe Yeong and those who sacrificed their lives in the battle at Hongju Castle. Festival of General Kim’s victory: This festival is held every October at General Kim Jwa-jin's birthplace and shrine to commemorate his victory in Cheongsanli; the spectacles include Bongsan Mask dancing, pungmul performance, military school events, makgeolli tasting, more. Geography of South Korea Official local government website
Cheonan
Cheonan spelled Ch'ŏnan, is a city in South Chungcheong, South Korea. Cheonan has a population of 666,417, making it the most-populous city or county in South Chungcheong, the third most-populous city in the Hoseo region after Daejeon and Cheongju. Cheonan borders the Gyeonggi cities of Pyeongtaek and Anseong to the north, the South Chungcheong cities of Asan to the west and Gongju to the southwest, Sejong Special Autonomous City to the south, the North Chungcheong city of Cheongju to the south east and Jincheon County to the east. Cheonan has been called "the core city of nation" due to its location 83.6 km south of the national capital, Seoul, in the northeast corner of South Chungcheong, serving as a transportation hub to the Seoul Capital Area and surrounding regions. Cheonan is connected to various freeways and railways including the National Highways 1 and 21, the Expressways 1-Gyeongbu and 25-Honam, the city's Korail station serves the Gyeongbu Line and the Janghang Line, with services of the KTX.
Cheonan is one of the furthest places from Seoul connected to the Seoul Subway Line 1. Cheonan has always been a major transportation hub of Korea because of its proximity to Seoul and its location near a gap in the eastern mountain range that allows passage through to the major southeast centers of Daegu and Busan. Cheonan’s Samgeori park has been noted as a strategic point of transportation and a place where culture has spread for a long time, it is the place where Samnamdaero, which starts in Seoul, leading one branch of the road through to the south-eastern Yeongnam region, leading the other through Gongju and Nonsan to the Honam region. Due to its strategic location, Cheonan has been an important postal center where early communications from the south converged before heading to Seoul, or where messages from the capital diverged into the southern regions. More formal and structured mail services emerged with the construction of the city’s first postal outlets, the entire history of mail service in Cheonan is now on display in the country’s largest postal museum in Yang-ji-mal in eastern Cheonan.
Cheonan was a small town for much of the early half of the 20th century. As a transportation center, it was the site of an early engagement in the Korean War, the Battle of Cheonan. In 1963 three municipal districts in the area that were growing in size were merged and promoted to the category of si, meaning city, by order of Law No 1176, thus the City of Cheonan was born, comprising the populations of Cheonan-gun, Cheonan-eup and Hwanseong-myeon. Over the next two decades, the city grew in size by incorporating neighboring populations, including that of Byeongcheon-myeon in 1973. In 1975 the city renamed 10 branch offices to 10 dongs, representing the major administrative regions of the city; the city continued to expand, absorbing neighboring ri, eup, including Pungse-myeon and Guryong-ri in the early 80s. Throughout this time, new neighborhoods to the southwest that were collectively known as Cheonan-gun, such as Ssangbond-dong grew in population, in 1995 Cheonan-gun and Cheonan-si were merged into one large Cheonan-si.
Larger dong that comprised the city were subsequently separated into smaller factions, such as Ssangbond-dong into Bongmyong-dong and Ssangyong, which itself was separated into Ssangyong 1-dong and Ssangyong 2-dong. In 2002 a city ordinance promoted the northern fringe village of Jiksan-myeon and the southern fringe village of Mokcheon-myeon into Jiksan-eup and Mokcheon-eup; this extended the boundaries of the city to a span of 16 kilometers from north to south, about 12 kilometers from Sunmoon University in the west to Mount Taejo on the eastern fringe. Including all of its administrative regions, the city now covers a total area of 636.25 km2. The city is flanked to the east by the Charyeong Mountains, spills out over plains and rolling hills to the west; some of the mountains in the city's vicinity include Malloesan, Taejosan, Heukseongsan and Manggyeongsan. The city itself is flat, with only a few areas, such as Anseon-dong, that are built up on hilly terrain. To the west is the city of Asan, to the north are the cities of Anseong and Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi-do, to the south is the county of Sejong City and the city of Gongju, to the east of the city are the counties of Jincheon and Cheongwon in Chungcheongbuk-do.
The climate of Cheonan is similar to that of neighboring Seoul, Suwon, or Daejeon, is considered temperate Eastern margin with periods of monsoon. Cheonan experiences a four-season weather cycle, with moderately high summer temperatures and moderately low temperatures and snowfall in winter; the average temperature in the city is 12.5oC, with a recorded high of 34.2oC and a low of -13.4oC. City Tree: Weeping willow City Flower: Golden bell flower City Bird: Dove City Animal: Dragon The city has been designated the high tech headquarters for Korea. A number of colleges and universities are located there, including: Baekseok Culture University Baekseok University Cheonan Yonam College Dankook University Hoseo University Kongju National University's Cheonan campus - College of Engineering Korea Nazarene University Korea Un
Seoul Metropolitan Subway
The Seoul Metropolitan Subway is a metropolitan railway system consisting of 22 rapid transit, light metro, commuter rail and people mover lines located in northwest South Korea. The system serves most of the Seoul Metropolitan Area including the Incheon metropolis and satellite cities in Gyeonggi province; some regional lines in the network stretch out to rural areas in northern Chungnam province and western Gangwon province that lie over 100 km away from the capital as well as Suwon. The network consists of numbered lines 1–9, which serve Seoul City proper and its surroundings and named regional railways that serve the greater metropolitan region and beyond. Most of the system is operated by three companies – Seoul Metro and Metro 9. However, there are several other lines stretching out to regional provinces, its first metro line, Line 1, started construction in 1971 and opened in 1974, with through-operation to Korail suburban railways. Today, the network is one of the largest and most efficient urban railway systems in the world, with 331.5 km of track on lines 1–9 alone.
Under the Japanese ODA loans, the first line of the Seoul Subway network started construction in 1971. The first section of subway was cover construction method. Line 1 opened in 1974 with through services joining surrounding Korail suburban railway lines similar to the Tokyo subway. Today, many of the Seoul Metropolitan Subway's lines are operated by Korail, South Korea's national passenger and freight railway operator; this is similar to Europe and Japan, where the national railroad operates local mainline urban railways, such as the S-Bahns in Germany, operated by subsidiaries of Deutsche Bahn, or JR East in Japan, which operates many other urban rail systems in Japanese cities. It has been described as the world's longest multi-operator metro system by route length; the system was rated as one of the world's best subway systems by CNN, Jalopnik It is notable for its cleanliness and ease of use along with advanced technology such as 4G LTE, WiFi, DMB, WiBro accessible in all stations and trains.
Nearly all stations have platform screen doors installed. By 2017, Korail will install screen doors in every station and platform; the world's first virtual mart for smartphone users opened at Seolleung station in 2011. All directional signs in the system are written in Korean and Hanja. In trains there are in addition many LCD screens giving service announcements, upcoming stop names, YTN news, stock prices and animated shorts. There are prerecorded voice announcements that give the upcoming station, any possible line transfer, the exiting side in Korean, followed by English. At major stations, this is followed by Japanese Mandarin Chinese, as well. Seoul Subway uses full-color LCD screens at all stations to display real-time subway arrival times, which are available on apps for smartphones. Most trains have digital TV screens, all of them have air conditioning and climate controlled seats installed that are automatically heated in the winter. In 2014, it became the world's first metro operator to use transparent displays for ads when it installed 48 transparent displays on major stations of Line 2 in Gangnam District.
All lines use the T-money smart payment system using RFID and NFC technology for automatic payment by T-money smart cards, smartphones, or credit cards and one can transfer to any of the other line within the system for free. Trains on numbered lines run on the right-hand track, while trains on the named lines run on the left-hand track; the exceptions are the trains on Line 1, as well as those on Line 4 south of Namtaeryeong station. These lines run on the left-hand track because these rail lines are operated by Korail, South Korea's national railway operator; the system is organised such that numbered lines, with some exceptions, are considered as urban rapid transit lines located within the Seoul National Capital Area, whereas wide-area commuter lines operated by Korail provide a metro-like commuter rail service that extends far beyond the boundaries of the SNCA, rather similar to the RER in Paris. The AREX is an airport rail link that links Incheon International Airport and Gimpo Airport to central Seoul, offers both express service directly to Incheon International Airport and all-stop commuter service for people living along the vicinity of the line.
While operating hours may vary depending on the line in question, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway operates from 5.30 am until 1 am on weekdays, from 5.30 am until midnight on weekends. Line 1, from Seongbuk station to Incheon station and Suwon station, opened on 15 August 1974. On 9 December 1978, the Yongsan-Cheongnyangni line was added to Line 1. Line 2 opened on 10 October 1980. In 1985, the fare system changed from charging by distance to zone and the Edmondson railway ticket changed to a magnetic paper ticket. Line 4 opened on 20 April 1985, Line 3 on 12 July. On 1 April 1994, the Indeogwon-Namtaeryeong extension of Line 4 opened; the Bundang Line, from Suseo station to Ori station, opened on 1 September. On 15 November 1995, Line 5 opened; the Jichuk-Daehwa extension of Line 3 opened on 30 January 1996. On 20 March, the Kkachisan-Sindorim extension of Line 2 opened. Line 7 opened on 11 October, Line 8 on 23 November. On 6 October 1999, Incheon Subway Line 1 opened. Seoul Subway Line 6 opened on 7 August 2000.
In 2004 the fare system reverted to charging by distance, free bus transfers were introduced. The
Coal mining
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, since the 1880s, has been used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United Kingdom and South Africa, a coal mine and its structures are a colliery, a coal mine a pit, the above-ground structures the pit head. In Australia, "colliery" refers to an underground coal mine. In the United States, "colliery" has been used to describe a coal mine operation but nowadays the word is not used. Coal mining has had many developments over the recent years, from the early days of men tunnelling and manually extracting the coal on carts, to large open cut and long wall mines. Mining at this scale requires the use of draglines, conveyors, hydraulic jacks and shearers. Small-scale mining of surface deposits dates back thousands of years. For example, in Roman Britain, the Romans were exploiting most of the major coalfields by the late 2nd century AD.
The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the 18th century and spread to continental Europe and North America, was based on the availability of coal to power steam engines. International trade expanded when coal-fed steam engines were built for the railways and steamships; until the late nineteenth century coal was mined underground using a pick and shovel, children were employed underground in dangerous conditions. Coal-cutting machines were introduced in the 1880s. By 1912, surface mining was conducted with steam shovels designed for coal mining; the most economical method of coal extraction from coal seams depends on the depth and quality of the seams, the geology and environmental factors. Coal mining processes are differentiated by whether they operate on the underground. Many coals extracted from both surface and underground mines require washing in a coal preparation plant. Technical and economic feasibility are evaluated based on the following: regional geological conditions.
Surface mining and deep underground mining are the two basic methods of mining. The choice of mining method depends on depth, density and thickness of the coal seam. Coal that occurs at depths of 180 to 300 ft are deep mined, but in some cases surface mining techniques can be used. For example, some western U. S. coal that occur at depths in excess of 200 ft are mined by the open pit methods, due to thickness of the seam 60–90 feet. Coals occurring below 300 ft are deep mined. However, there are open pit mining operations working on coal seams up to 1,000–1,500 feet below ground level, for instance Tagebau Hambach in Germany; when coal seams are near the surface, it may be economical to extract the coal using open cut mining methods. Open cast coal mining recovers a greater proportion of the coal deposit than underground methods, as more of the coal seams in the strata may be exploited; this equipment can include the following: Draglines which operate by removing the overburden, power shovels, large trucks in which transport overburden and coal, bucket wheel excavators, conveyors.
In this mining method, explosives are first used in order to break through the surface or overburden, of the mining area. The overburden is removed by draglines or by shovel and truck. Once the coal seam is exposed, it is drilled and mined in strips; the coal is loaded onto large trucks or conveyors for transport to either the coal preparation plant or directly to where it will be used. Most open cast mines in the United States extract bituminous coal. In Canada and South Africa, open cast mining is used for both thermal and metallurgical coals. In New South Wales open casting for steam coal and anthracite is practiced. Surface mining accounts for around 80 percent of production in Australia, while in the US it is used for about 67 percent of production. Globally, about 40 percent of coal production involves surface mining. Strip mining exposes coal by removing earth above each coal seam; this earth is removed in long strips. The overburden from the first strip is deposited in an area outside the planned mining area and referred to as out-of-pit dumping.
Overburden from subsequent strips are deposited in the void left from mining the coal and overburden from the previous strip. This is referred to as in-pit dumping, it is necessary to fragment the overburden by use of explosives. This is accomplished by drilling holes into the overburden, filling the holes with explosives, detonating the explosive; the overburden is removed, using large earth-moving equipment, such as draglines and trucks, excavator and trucks, or bucket-wheels and conveyors. This overburden is put into the mined strip; when all the overburden is removed, the underlying coal seam will be exposed. This block of coal may be drilled and blasted or otherwise loaded onto trucks or conveyors for transport to th
Cheonan–Asan station
Cheonan–Asan Station is a ground-level train station located in Asan, Chungcheongnam-do, although part of it lies in the neighboring city of Cheonan. This station serves high-speed KTX trains that run from Seoul to either Mokpo, it is connected to Asan Station, a railway station on the Janghang Line, served by Line 1 of the Seoul Subway. Asan Station was opened to facilitate access to the KTX station; the location of Cheonan–Asan Station was finalised on June 14, 1993, though construction did not begin until July 22, 1996. The planned name of "Onyang Oncheon Station" was changed to "Cheonan-Asan Station" on November 20, 2003, the station building was completed on March 27 the following year; the station opened for business four days on April 1, 2004. On March 30, 2007, Asan Station was opened as a transfer station on the Janghang Line, soon to be integrated into the latest extension of Line 1 of the Seoul Subway. Cheonan–Asan Station serves select KTX trains on the Gyeongbu and Honam lines. Asan Station, meanwhile, is served by all Mugunghwa services on the Janghang Line.
List of Korea-related topics Transportation in South Korea Korail KTX Cheonan-Asan Station on Doas Korea Train eXpress Route Map Cheonan–Asan Station information from Korail Asan Station information from Korail
Thorium
Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide. Thorium is an electropositive actinide. All known thorium isotopes are unstable; the most stable isotope, 232Th, has a half-life of 14.05 billion years, or about the age of the universe. In the universe, thorium and uranium are the only three radioactive elements that still occur in large quantities as primordial elements, it is estimated to be over three times as abundant as uranium in the Earth's crust, is chiefly refined from monazite sands as a by-product of extracting rare-earth metals. Thorium was discovered in 1829 by the Norwegian amateur mineralogist Morten Thrane Esmark and identified by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who named it after Thor, the Norse god of thunder, its first applications were developed in the late 19th century. Thorium's radioactivity was acknowledged during the first decades of the 20th century.
In the second half of the century, thorium was replaced in many uses due to concerns about its radioactivity. Thorium is still being used as an alloying element in TIG welding electrodes but is being replaced in the field with different compositions, it was material in high-end optics and scientific instrumentation, as the light source in gas mantles, but these uses have become marginal. It has been suggested as a replacement for uranium as nuclear fuel in nuclear reactors, several thorium reactors have been built. Thorium is a moderately soft, bright silvery radioactive actinide metal. In the periodic table, it lies to the right of actinium, to the left of protactinium, below cerium. Pure thorium is ductile and, as normal for metals, can be cold-rolled and drawn. At room temperature, thorium metal has a face-centred cubic crystal structure. Thorium metal has a bulk modulus of about the same as tin's. Aluminium's is 75.2 GPa. Thorium is about as hard as soft steel, so when heated it can be rolled into sheets and pulled into wire.
Thorium is harder than either of them. It becomes superconductive below 1.4 K. Thorium's melting point of 1750 °C is above both those of actinium and protactinium. At the start of period 7, from francium to thorium, the melting points of the elements increase, because the number of delocalised electrons each atom contributes increases from one in francium to four in thorium, leading to greater attraction between these electrons and the metal ions as their charge increases from one to four. After thorium, there is a new downward trend in melting points from thorium to plutonium, where the number of f electrons increases from about 0.4 to about 6: this trend is due to the increasing hybridisation of the 5f and 6d orbitals and the formation of directional bonds resulting in more complex crystal structures and weakened metallic bonding. Among the actinides up to californium, which can be studied in at least milligram quantities, thorium has the highest melting and boiling points and second-lowest density.
Thorium's boiling point of 4788 °C is the fifth-highest among all the elements with known boiling points. The properties of thorium vary depending on the degree of impurities in the sample; the major impurity is thorium dioxide. Experimental measurements of its density give values between 11.5 and 11.66 g/cm3: these are lower than the theoretically expected value of 11.7 g/cm3 calculated from thorium's lattice parameters due to microscopic voids forming in the metal when it is cast. These values lie between those of its neighbours actinium and protactinium, part of a trend across the early actinides. Thorium can form alloys with many other metals. Addition of small proportions of thorium improves the mechanical strength of magnesium, thorium-aluminum alloys have been considered as a way to store thorium in proposed future thorium nuclear reactors. Thorium forms eutectic mixtures with chromium and uranium, it is miscible in both solid and liquid states with its lighter congener cerium. All but two elements up to bismuth have an isotope, stable for all purposes, with the exceptions being technetium and promethium.
All elements from polonium onward are measurably radioactive. 232Th is one of the three nuclides beyond bismuth that have half-lives measured in billions of years. Four-fifths of the thorium present at Earth's formation has survived to the present. 232Th is the only isotope of thorium occurring in quantity in nature. Its stability is attributed to its closed nuclear shell with 142 neutrons. Thorium has a characteristic terrestrial isotopic composition, with atomic weight 232.0377. I
Korea under Japanese rule
Korea under Japanese rule began with the end of the short-lived Korean Empire in 1910 and ended at the conclusion of World War II in 1945. Japanese rule over Korea was the outcome of a process that began with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, whereby a complex coalition of the Meiji government and business officials sought to integrate Korea both politically and economically into the Empire of Japan. A major stepping-stone towards the Japanese occupation of Korea was the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905, in which the then-Korean Empire was declared a protectorate of Japan; the annexation of Korea by Japan was set up in the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, never signed by the Korean Regent, Gojong. Japanese rule over Korea ended in 1945, when U. S. and Soviet forces captured the peninsula. In 1965 the unequal treaties between Joseon-ruled Korea and Imperial Japan those of 1905 and 1910, were declared "already null and void" at the time of their promulgation by the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea.
The Japanese administration of the Korean Peninsula was directed through the General Government. After the surrender of Japan to the Allied forces at the end of World War II, Korea returned to self-government, albeit under two separate governments and economic systems backed by the Soviet Union and by the United States; the industrialization of the Korean Peninsula began with the Joseon dynasty while Korea was still independent but accelerated under Japanese occupation. The manner of the acceleration of industrialization under Japanese occupation the use of industrialization for the purposes of benefiting Japan, the exploitation of the Korean people in their own country, the marginalization of Korean history and culture, the environmental exploitation of the Korean Peninsula, its long-term negative repercussions for modern-day North and South Korea are among the most provocative aspects of the controversy. In South Korea, the period is described as the "Japanese forced occupation". Other terms include "Japanese Imperial Period", "The dark Japanese Imperial Period", "period of the Japanese imperial colonial administration", "Wae administration".
In Japan, the term "Chōsen of the Japanese-Governed Period" has been used. From the late 18th to late 19th centuries, Western governments sought to intercede in and influence the political and economic fortunes of Asian countries through the use of new approaches described by such terms as "protectorate", "sphere of influence", "concession", which minimized the need for direct military conflict between competing European powers; the newly modernized government of Meiji Japan sought to join these colonizing efforts and the Seikanron began in 1873. This effort was fueled by Saigō Takamori and his supporters, who insisted that Japan confront Korea's refusal to recognize the legitimacy of Emperor Meiji, as it involves the authority of the emperor, military intervention "could not be postponed"; the debate concerned Korea in the sphere of influence of Qing China, which certain elements in the Japanese government sought to separate from Chinese influence and establish as a puppet state. Those in favor saw the issue as an opportunity to find meaningful employment for the thousands of out-of-work samurai, who had lost most of their income and social standing in the new Meiji socioeconomic order.
Further, the acquisition of Korea would provide both a foothold on the Asian continent for Japanese expansion and a rich source of raw materials for Japanese industry. The arguments against such designs were outlined in Ōkubo Toshimichi's "7 Point Document", dated October 1873, in which he argued that the action against Korea was premature, as Japan itself was in the process of modernization and an expedition would be far too costly for Japan to sustain. Okubo's views were supported by the antiwar faction, which consisted of those returning from the Iwakura Mission in 1873. Iwakura Tomomi, the diplomat who had led the mission, persuaded the emperor to reconsider, thus putting an end to the "Korean crisis" debate; the destabilization of the Korean nation may be said to have begun in the period of Sedo Jeongchi whereby, on the death of King Jeongjo of Joseon, the 10-year-old Sunjo of Joseon ascended the Korean throne, with the true power of the administration residing with his regent, Kim Jo-sun, as a representative of the Andong Kim clan.
As a result, the disarray and blatant corruption in the Korean government in the three main areas of revenues – land tax, military service, the state granary system – heaped additional hardship on the peasantry. Of special note is the corruption of the local functionaries, who could purchase an appointment as an administrator and so cloak their predations on the farmers with an aura of officialdom. Yangban families well-respected for their status as a noble class and being powerful both "socially and politically", were seen as little more than commoners unwilling to meet their responsibilities to their communities. Faced with increasing corruption in the government, brigandage of the disenfranchised (such as the mounted fire brigands, or Hwajok, the boat-borne water bri