South Chungcheong Province

South Chungcheong Province (Template:Korean), informally called Chungnam, is a province of South Korea 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 Self-governing 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,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> that accelerated to 12.4% in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.

The area code of the province is 041.

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 Template:Convert as of 2012.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Resources

One third of the province's area is under cultivation. Aside from agriculture, marine products are of importance. There are Template:Convert 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 (a rare thorium bearing mineral) 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1978 the Taean Marine National Park was opened. It includes some of the country's best bathing beaches, and Cheollipo Arboretum [1] 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

Template:Unreferenced section Template:Main 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 capitalTemplate:Clarify 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

Template:Main Chungcheongnam-do is divided into 8 cities (si) and 7 counties (gun). The city and county names below are given in English, Hangul, and Hanja.

File:韓国忠清南道唐津市 市街地その２.JPG

Dangjin

Map	#	Name	Hangul	Hanja	Population (2024)<ref name="population">Template:Cite web</ref>	Subdivisions
File:South Chungcheong Municipal.svg
	— Specific City —
	1	Cheonan	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	658,831	2 ilban-gu — 4 eup, 8 myeon, 18 haengjeong-dong
	— City —
	2	Asan	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	356,603	2 eup, 9 myeon, 6 haengjeong-dong
	3	Seosan	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	175,144	1 eup, 9 myeon, 5 haengjeong-dong
	4	Dangjin	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	171,213	2 eup, 9 myeon, 3 haengjeong-dong
	5	Gongju	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	101,695	1 eup, 9 myeon, 6 haengjeong-dong
	6	Nonsan	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	108,883	2 eup, 11 myeon, 2 haengjeong-dong
	7	Boryeong	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	94,191	1 eup, 10 myeon, 5 haengjeong-dong
	8	Gyeryong	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	46,687	3 myeon, 1 haengjeong-dong
	— County —
	9	Hongseong County	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	98,886	2 eup, 9 myeon
	10	Yesan County	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	85,626	2 eup, 10 myeon
	11	Buyeo County	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	72,959	1 eup, 15 myeon
	12	Seocheon County	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	58,740	2 eup, 11 myeon
	13	Taean County	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	62,519	2 eup, 6 myeon
	14	Geumsan County	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	55,433	1 eup, 9 myeon
	15	Cheongyang County	Template:Lang	Template:Lang	32,105	1 eup, 9 myeon

Religion

Template:Pie chart According to the 2015 census, 13.8% of the population follows Buddhism and 26.8% follow Christianity (20.7% Protestantism and 6.1% Catholicism). 58.6% of the population is not religious and 0.8% of the population follows other religions.<ref name="2015census"/>

Education

• Kongju National University
• Gongju National University of Education
• Korea National University of Cultural Heritage
• Dankook university in Cheonan
• Baekseok University
• Soonchunhyang University in Asan
• GEONYANG University in Nonsan
• Korea University of Technology and Education in Cheonan
• Hanseo University

Twin towns – sister cities

Chungcheongnam-do is twinned with:

• Template:Flagdeco Balıkesir, Turkey<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Template:Url Template:In lang