Page 62 - South Korea & Japan: Temples, Shrines & Seaside Treasures

DEMOGRAPHICS & HISTORY

South Korea

Facts & Figures

• Area: 38,502 square miles

• Capital: Seoul

• Languages: Korean

• Ethnicity: Homogeneous Korean (except for about 20,000 Chinese)

• Location: The southern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the Sea of Japan, Yellow
Sea, and North Korea by land.

• Geography: South Korea is composed mainly of hills and mountainous terrain, its highest
point being approximately 6,400 feet above sea level, with wide coastal plains in the west
and south.

• Population: 49,115,196 (estimate)

• Religion: Christian 31.6%, Buddhist 24.2%, other or unknown 0.9%, none 43.3%

• Time Zone: South Korea is on Korean Standard Time, 14 hours ahead of U.S. EST. When
it is 6am in Washington D.C., it is 8pm in Seoul.

National Holidays: South Korea

In addition to the holidays listed below, 05/01 Labor Day
South Korea celebrates a number of national
05/05 Children’s Day
holidays that follow a lunar calendar,
^`NS L^ >PZWWLW ?Z ʭYO Z`_ TQ dZ` bTWW MP 06/06 Memorial Day
traveling during these holidays, please visit
www.timeanddate.com/holidays. 08/15 Liberation Day

01/01 New Year’s Day 10/03 National Foundation Day

03/01 Independence Movement Day 10/09 Hangeul Proclamation Day
12/25 Christmas Day

Historical Overview of South Korea
The early history of Korea is shrouded in legend. This is partly because there are very few
written records (and the ones that do survive are almost all by Chinese historians) and
partly because the legend is such a good one—that a mythical, almost heavenly, king named
Dangun established the country in 2333 BC. In reality, there is little evidence that King

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