Mokpo is a small town in South Korea, but it will become more and more familiar to F1 fans from 2010.  The lenght of the track, now still in construction phase, will be 5.45 km (3.39 mile). It is located in Yeongam County , South Jeolla Province.

The Korean International Circuit is located near an Industrial zone, but not far from Mokpo downtown (20 - 30′ by car).

The tracK layout:

Work in progress:

Some other photos of the track under construction, taken on October 2009.

A korean has two names: the family name is followed by a personal name.

Most of the family names are of one syllabe like Park (박), but a few unusual ones have two syllabes like Hwangbo.

The most diffuses family names are:

Kim, Gim ( 김 )

Lee, Yi, Rhee ( 이 )

Park, Pak ( 박 )

Choi ( 최 )

Jung, Jeong, Chung, Cheong ( 정 )

If the family name has two syllabes, the personal name has only one, so that either way there are three syllables in the full name.

THINGS TO REMEMBER:

It is generally considered rude to address anyone by their given name in Korean culture, especially if you are speaking to elder people, and anyway to adults.

Among adults of similar status you can address the other by the full name, with the suffix ssi (씨) added. 

Whenever the person has an official rank, usaually you address him/her using the name of that rank (such as “Manager”). Several times you will hear the honorific nim (님) added. In such cases, the full name of the person has to be appended, although this can also imply that the speaker is of higher status.

Among children and close friends, person’s birth names are commonly used. 

SUGGESTED LINKS:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_name

The korean national flag, Taegeukgi (태극기) takes its name from the taegeuk circle in the center of the flag. It is divided equally and in perfect balance. The upper red section represents yang and the blue lower section represents yin,  an ancient symbol of the universe.

The powerful cosmic forces that oppose each other, achive perferct harmony and balance: darkness and lightness, heat and cold, day and night, positive and negative…

The trigram bars give you the same ideas of opposition and balance. The three unbroken lines stand for heaven; the opposite three broken lines represent earth. At the lower left the fire is represented and at the top right the water. The white background shows the purity of the Korean people and their peace-loving spirit.

The flag was suggested by Qing Dynasty diplomat Ma Jianzhong in 1882 and the Taegeukgi was officially declared the national flag of Korea by King Gojong on March 6, 1883. The Taegeukgi was both a symbol of the independence movement and of resistance during the Japanese occupation and mere possession of the flag was punishable by death.

A popular variant in Korea is the Sam-Taegeuk (三太極), which adds a yellow lobe, representing man, to the red and blue.

Mokpo is a small town located in the South Western part of South Korea. At least Koreans say this is a small town.

Mokpo logo

  Based on my feelings it is not so little, but I am looking with my european eyes. The citizens are more or less 260.000, however someone continue naming Mokpo “a village”. Korean standard, in terms of city sizes is quite different from the euopean one, anyway even big cities are livable in Korea.

Some data about Mokpo:

Area 47.92 km2 (18.50 sq mi) / many new areas in development
Population (2006) 241,679 / growing fastly
Population density 5,196.5 /km² (13,459 /sq mi) / it will be higher and higher: korean people like very high block of flats.
Administrative divisions: 22 dong

mokpo from satellite

Links:

General information

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokpo

Maps:

http://www.worldmapfinder.com/En/Asia/Korea/Mokpo/