South Korea, Asia travel resource.

South Korea,Asia.

For most of the 20th century, South Korea was hardly the Land of the Morning Calm, as it calls itself. From the Japanese occupation to the Korean War to 1997's economic crisis, life there was mostly about calamity. But the country seems determined to leave its troubles in the old century. It has entered the new millennium with renewed optimism.
Following a record bailout by the International Monetary Fund at the end of 1997, South Korea's economy is on its way to recovery. Growth rates are climbing, and new office towers are sprouting throughout Seoul, the country's modern capital. Former President Kim Dae Jung, a longtime democratic activist before becoming president in 1998, steered South Korea toward a path of democracy and free trade. In 2000, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts at thawing relations with North Korea. His successor, Roh Moo-hyun, has pledged to continue Kim's "sunshine policy" with regard to the North. Elected as a populist "outsider" from Korea's political establishment, it remains to be seen whether Roh can deliver on his ambitious campaign promises.
In its headlong rush to modernize and get ahead, South Korea has put much of its traditional heritage at risk. Yet despite the ever-widening gap between the modern and traditional aspects in South Korea, the former haven't completely displaced the latter. These days, in any good-sized town, there's a fashionable area where you can find discos, karaoke bars, coffee shops and stores selling everything from designer-label clothing to freshly baked French bread. But in these same towns you can also find the intriguing maze of a market, where vendors sell dried fish, ginseng and kimchi, as they have done for hundreds of years.
The country's age-old search for tranquility lingers in the pockets of traditional culture and unspoiled scenery that remain. Visitors can experience such calm at Haeinsa Temple, on mountain trails in Seoraksan National Park or while gazing at the moon from a coastal pavilion.