South Chungcheong Travel Guide

Chungcheongnam-do (South Chungcheong) or Chungnam is a province in the west of South Korea. The province was formed in 1896 from the southwestern half of the former Chungcheong province and remained a province of Korea until the country's division in 1945, thereafter becoming part of South Korea. The provincial capital is Daejeon, which is separately administered as a provincial level metropolitan city. Chungnam is by far South Korea's fastest growing region, with an average GDP growth of 9.7 percent in 2001-2007, a figure comparable to China's accelerated growth in the same period. Such rapid growth transformed it from a mostly agricultural to a highly industrialized economy in the 21st century, which has become the wealthiest province in South Korea today, having a GDP per capita of $39,393 in 2008, a level of living standard comparable to the richest Western European countries such as Norway and Austria.