South Chungcheong Province

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^[2] that accelerated to 12.4% in 2010.^[3] 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.

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 8,204 km² (3,168 sq mi) as of 2012.^[5]

One third of the province's area is under cultivation. Aside from agriculture, marine products are of importance. There are 220 square kilometres (85 sq mi) 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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.

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^{[clarification needed]} 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.

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.

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.^[9]

• 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

Chungcheongnam-do is twinned with:

•   Balıkesir, Turkey^[10]

• Official website (in English)