After living in a foreign country for a while, you learn a lot of things about it. You get used to the customs and cultures and the way life runs on a daily basis. You’re aware of the big companies, the big cities, the language, and various other things. But did you know these three things about South Korea?
Seoul is old. Really, really old
19th Century Seoul
While Seoul has not always been called “Seoul,” there has been a settlement on the site of the Han River where Seoul stands since 18 BC. This means that people have been living in Seoul for longer than 2000 years. Compare that with:
- Vienna (Vindobana) 15 BC
- London (Londinium)121 AD
- Constantinople 330 AD
- Baghdad 762 AD
- Madrid 9th Century
- Tokyo (Edo) late 12th century
- Tenochtitlan 1325 AD
- Bangkok early 15th century
Seoul was originally called Wiryeseong (위례성) and was the capital of the Kingdom of Baekje, one of the 3 important kingdoms in the Three Kingdoms Period of Korean history. Later Seoul would be bear the name Hanyang (한양) meaning “Fortress on the Han River.” Surprisingly, the city was not named Seoul until after the end of World War II with the expulsion of the Japanese and the establishment of the Republic of Korea. After the virtual demolition of Seoul during the Korean War, Seoul has rebuilt itself into a spawling metropolis with over 10 million people living in Seoul itself, and if the surrounding regions of Incheon and Gyeonggi-do are included, the Seoul greater metropolan area includes 25 million inhabitants; ranking it the second largest metropolan area in the world.
Korea is basically a subsidiary of Samsung
If South Korea as a country doesn’t have as much international recognition as China or Japan, Samsung certainly does. Samsung is a household name worldwide for producing everything from smartphones to washing machines to cars. It’s net income is more than 18 billion USD and if measured as an indepedent economy, Samsung would have ranked as the 35th largest economy in the world.
Samsung as a conglomerate comprises nearly 20% of South Korea’s total GDP. Let that figure sink in. One conglomerate is responsible nearly 1/5 of all the value of goods and services produced domestically by a soverign country. How is that possible?
Samsung in Korea is known as a chaebol (채벌) which is a collection of companies owned by a single family or a small group of families. They are extremely powerful groups. Oftentimes the leadership of a chaebol is passed down along hereditary lines, making these companies something similar to old style fiefs of the Middle Ages. Although many people around the world associate Samsung with just electronics, that is just one subsidiary of Samsung: Samsung Electronics. Other subsidiaries of Samsung include
- Samsung Heavy Industries (shipbuilding)
- Samsung Engineering (construction)
- Samsung C&T (construction)
- Samsung Techwin (weapons development)
- Samsung Life Insurance
Samsung also owns Everland, the biggest and most popular theme park in South Korea and sponsors several sports teams including the Samsung Lions (baseball) Samsung Bluewings (soccer) and Samsung Thunder (basketball)
Chaebols like Samsung are often closely linked with the government, and sometimes get a little underhanded assistance from the ruling powers when they slip up. For example, in 2009 the current president of South Korea Lee Myung-bak pardoned then-Samsung chairman Lee Kun-hee. Lee was convicted of embezzlement and tax evasion, and was pardoned so he could continue his role on the International Olympic Committee, the body who among other things decides where the Olympics will be held. Korea has earned the priviledge of hosting the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongcheon.
Deokbokki (떡볶이) is the food of Kings
Does it look royal?
Deokbokki is one of the most common snack foods available in South Korea. It is a cyllinder shaped rice cake that is usually covered with a spicy gochujang based sauce. For novice chopstick users, holding a slippery deokbokki with two metal chopsticks might be the most difficult thing you do all day. Especially when it drops, spashes on the sauce on the plate, and gets sauce all over your clothes. It’s very common to find on the street, served in a paper cup with a toothpick, for about 1000 원 and it is one of the most popular snacks with Korean students today, especially children. However, deokbokki has a noble heritage as one of the foods that graced the tables of Korea’s former kings.
Deokbokki was originally made with meat, eggs, vegetables and rice cakes. It comprised a part of the sura (수라) the important daily meals of the day. However, at the time it did not resemble today’s modern deokbokki at all. Today’s deokbokki is served hot and spicy and usually without other ingredients like meat or vegetables. The version served in Korean royal courts was made with a soy sauce based dish. According to Professor Han Bok-ryeo, speaking to the Chosun Ilbo, the reason that it was not spicy then was because: “Spicy food can easily upset people’s composure, so it was always a rule of royal courts to avoid serving spicy food to the king.” Things must have changed a lot since the time of Korea’s kings, since the vast majority of Korean food today has a spicy kick to it that can make Korea rookies sweat for weeks.