South Chungcheong Province


South Chungcheong Province, also known as Chungnam, is a province of South Korea. South Chungcheong has a population of 2,059,871 and has a geographic area of 8,204 km2 located in the Hoseo region in the southwest of the Korean Peninsula. South Chungcheong borders the provinces of Gyeonggi to the north, North Chungcheong, Sejong Special Autonomous City, and Daejeon Metropolitan City to the east, and North Jeolla to the south.
Hongseong County is the capital and Cheonan is the largest city of South Chungcheong, with other major cities including Asan, Seosan, and Dangjin. Daejeon was the largest city of South Chungcheong until becoming a Metropolitan City in 1989, and the historic capital until the provincial government was relocated to Hongseong in 2012.
South Chungcheong was established in 1896 from the province of Chungcheong, one of the Eight Provinces of Korea, consisting of the southwestern half of the territory. South Chungcheong was known as Chūsei-nan Prefecture during the Japanese Colonial Period from 1910 and became part of South Korea following the division of Korea in 1945.

Overview

Chungcheongnam-do is South Korea's richest province, with a 2012 GDP per capita of $56,133. It is by far South Korea's fastest growing region, with an average GDP growth of 9.7% in 2001-2007 that accelerated to 12.4% in 2010. Such rapid growth transformed it from a mostly agricultural to a highly industrialized economy in the 21st century.
Along with Gangwon, Chungnam is the only province outside the Seoul Capital Area to be served by the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, with Seoul Subway Line 1 passing Cheonan and Asan. Multimillion-dollar projects are being developed, such as New Asan City centered on the newly built Cheonan-Asan Station that connects Chungnam's largest city, Cheonan, to Seoul Station in less than 30 minutes via the KTX bullet train.

Geography

The province is part of the Hoseo region, and is bounded to the west by the Yellow Sea, to the north by Gyeonggi-do province, to the south by Jeollabuk-do province, and to the east by Chungcheongbuk-do province. Its area is as of 2012.

Resources

One third of the province's area is under cultivation. Aside from agriculture, marine products are of importance. There are of exposed beach which is used to produce salt by solar evaporation. There is coal mining, but gold and silver mines are also found in Chungcheongnam-do, as is Monazite and zircon.
In 2018, South Chungcheong province was home to half of South Korea's coal-fired power generation capacity. That year, it became the first Asian member of the Powering Past Coal Alliance, and committed to ending the use of coal power to mitigate global warming and reduce air pollution.

Attractions

At 845 metres, Mount Gyeryong is the most notable elevation. It is located in a national park which is noted for its unique rock features. Apart from the stone formations there are a number of old temples. These include Gwanchok-sa, a temple which is home to the largest stone Buddha in Korea. In 1978 the Taean Marine National Park was opened. It includes some of the country's best bathing beaches, and Cheollipo Arboretum which was created in 1966 by C. Ferris Miller and contains approximately 14,000 different plant species, including some rare and endangered species.

Sejong City

In early 2007, the Republic of Korea government decided to create a special administrative district out of part of the present Chungcheongnam-do Province, near what is now Daejeon. The new district was named Sejong Special Self-Governing City, and was to replace Seoul as the future capital of the Republic of Korea. However, in 2009, it was determined that replacing Seoul as new national capital would violate the South Korean Constitution by Constitution Court. Now Sejong City may only serve as a National Administrative Capital and Secondary capital alongside Seoul, representing about 36 government ministers and agencies, including the Prime Minister's office, as of 2015.

Administrative divisions

Chungcheongnam-do is divided into 8 cities and 7 counties. The city and county names below are given in English, Hangul, and Hanja.
Map#NameHangulHanjaPopulation Subdivisions
------
— Specific City —-----
1Cheonan천안시天安市584,2402 ilban-gu — 4 eup, 8 myeon, 18 haengjeong-dong
— City —-----
2Asan아산시牙山市283,1212 eup, 9 myeon, 6 haengjeong-dong
3Seosan서산시瑞山市163,8001 eup, 9 myeon, 5 haengjeong-dong
4Dangjin당진시唐津市156,0262 eup, 9 myeon, 3 haengjeong-dong
5Gongju공주시公州市116,8381 eup, 9 myeon, 6 haengjeong-dong
6Nonsan논산시論山市126,0862 eup, 11 myeon, 2 haengjeong-dong
7Boryeong보령시保寧市105,3551 eup, 10 myeon, 5 haengjeong-dong
8Gyeryong계룡시雞龍市40,9973 myeon, 1 haengjeong-dong
— County —-----
9Hongseong County홍성군洪城郡89,1742 eup, 9 myeon
10Yesan County예산군禮山郡85,6262 eup, 10 myeon
11Buyeo County부여군扶餘郡72,9591 eup, 15 myeon
12Seocheon County서천군舒川郡58,7402 eup, 11 myeon
13Taean County태안군泰安郡62,5192 eup, 6 myeon
14Geumsan County금산군錦山郡55,4331 eup, 9 myeon
15Cheongyang County청양군靑陽郡32,1051 eup, 9 myeon

Religion

According to the census of 2005, of the people of Chungcheongnam-do 20.5% follow Buddhism and 28.7% follow Christianity. 50.8% of the population is mostly not religious or follow Muism and other indigenous religions.

Education

Chungcheongnam-do is twinned with: