Seongnam

Seongnam is the second largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. Seongnam is a satellite city of Seoul. It is largely a residential city located immediately southeast of Seoul and belongs to the Seoul National Capital Area.

Seongnam, the first planned city in Korea's history, was conceived during the era of President Park Chung-Hee for the purpose of industrializing the nation by concentrating electronic, textile, and petrochemical facilities there during the 1970s and 1980s. The city featured a network of roads, to Seoul and other major cities, from the early 1970s on. Today, Seongnam has merged with the metropolitan network of Seoul. Bundang, one of districts in Seongnam, was developed in the 1990s.

To accelerate the dispersion of Seoul's population to its suburbs and relieve the congested Seoul metropolitan area, the Korean government has provided stimulus packages to large public corporations and private companies to be headquartered in the Bundang district. Bundang-gu is now home to prominent companies such as KT (formerly Korea Telecom), Korea Gas Corporation, KEPCO, and Korea Land Corporation.

Culture of Korea

The traditional culture of Korea refers to the shared cultural heritage of the Korean Peninsula. Since the mid-20th century, the peninsula has been split politically between North and South Korea, resulting in a number of cultural differences. Before Joseon Dynasty, the practice of Korean shamanism was deeply rooted in the Korean culture.

Traditional arts

Dance

As with music, there is a distinction between court dance and folk dance. Common court dances are jeongjaemu (정재무) performed at banquets, and ilmu (일무), performed at Korean Confucian rituals. Jeongjaemu is divided into native dances (향악정재, hyangak jeongjae) and forms imported from Central Asia and China (당악정재, dangak jeongjae). Ilmu are divided into civil dance (문무, munmu) and military dance (무무, mumu). Many mask dramas and mask dances are performed in many regional areas of Korea. The traditional clothing is the genja, it is a special kind of dress that women wear on festivals. It is pink with multiple symbols around the neck area.