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Although Korea’s traceable history began considerably earlier that the seventh century, it was the Shilla Unification in 668 that Korea, as a historical entity with a cohesive culture and society, came to occuрy most of the Peninsula as it exists today.
It was almost a decade after the end of the war before the Republic of Korea had recovered sufficiently to establish stability and start the momentum for its now remarkable recovery and development. The three decades since then have been a time of spectacular progress which has seen the creation of a modern, industrialized nation.
People
Korea is homogeneous society, although there have been historic and prehistoric migrations of Chinese, Mongols and Japanese. Koreans are very conscious of the ethnic differences and cultural distinctions which give them their unique identity.
The population of the Republic of Korea was estimated at 44.1 million in 1993. Its population density is among the world’s highest and Seoul, the capital, has more than 10 million inhabitants. The annual population growth in the Republic has dropped from an average of 2.7 percent in the 1960-66 period to only 0.90 percent in 1993. The slowdown is also partly the result of the increasing number of young working women.
The country’s rapid industrialization is responsible for today’s concentration of population in urban centers. The proportion of Koreans living in cities has jumped from only 28 percent in 1960 to 74.4 percent as of 1990 - very similar to the 73 to 76 percent levels in the United States, Japan and France.
Language
The Korean language is spoken by some 60 million people living on the Peninsula and its outlying islands as well as some 1.5 million Koreans living in other parts of the world.
Korean belongs to the Ural-Altaic language group, which is found in an narrow band from Korea and Japan across Mongolia and central Asia to Turkey. Korean is a non-tonal language, with agglutinative and polysynthetic elements.
Religion
Religion in today’s Korea covers a broad spectrum of faiths and beliefs. Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Islam and numerous other indigenous religions exist in Korea. Although none of them dominates, they all influence contemporary culture.
Education
Education has been at the heart of Korea’s growth by training and supplying the manpower needed for rapid industrial and economic expansion.
A multi-tiered educational system is currently in use, encompassing elementary school (six years), middle school (three years), high school (three years), and college (four years), as well as various graduate and professional programs.
The government has eased regulations on overseas study. This new policy also encourages those in the teaching profession to take advantage of opportunities for training abroad.
Transportation
The tremendous pace of domestic economic growth in the past two decades has been reflected in the expansion of transportation facilities and the increases in Korea’s annual passenger and cargo volumes. The annual volume of passenger transportation rose from 1.6 billion persons in 1996 to 14.24 billion in 1993.
Seoul has a well-developed mass transit system of subways, buses, and taxis. Airport shuttles or city buses are conveniently available and operate throughout the city. The subway system is the eighth longest in the world, carrying 1,388 million people in 1993. Its four lines reach most major locations in the city.
Korea has three international airports in Seoul (Kimpo), Pusan (Kimhae) and Cheju (Cheju), all of which are equipped with modern air traffic control facilities and support systems. Korean Air’s worldwide network serves 43 cities in 24 nations, including recently inaugurated flights to Rome. The newly launched Asiana Airlines recently started international flights with regular service to fourteen cities in Japan, the U.S., Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei and Bangkok.
Реферат опубликован: 27/02/2008